Peaceful fish for a guppy pond

[Sgooosh]

Hello! I have a decently sized wild-guppy pond, half of a large wine barrel. Half of the tank is a dense rotala, hornwort, and random roots forest for the fry to hide in.

Is there any larger or just centerpiece fish that could live with the guppies and not attack the fry?

 

[Colin_T]

Not really. Most fish will eat baby guppies if they see them.

 

[emeraldking]

That's gonna be a quest...

 

[Sgooosh]

Not really. Most fish will eat baby guppies if they see them.

That's gonna be a quest...

Would there be anything that might eat the babies but will not chase the adults too much since they are too slow or just more peaceful?

 

[Colin_T]

I can't think of anything small and peaceful that likes medium hard water and won't pick on the adults or babies. Small species of rainbowfish would be fine in the water but will eat the babies and might pick on the adults, depending on what you get. Bigger rainbows will stress the adults and eat the babies. Most barbs will do the same as the rainbows.

Maybe sailfin mollies if the water is hard enough. They can get big and are relatively peaceful but you want a GH around 250ppm (or higher) for them.

 

[Sgooosh]

I can't think of anything small and peaceful that likes medium hard water and won't pick on the adults or babies. Small species of rainbowfish would be fine in the water but will eat the babies and might pick on the adults, depending on what you get. Bigger rainbows will stress the adults and eat the babies. Most barbs will do the same as the rainbows.

Maybe sailfin mollies if the water is hard enough. They can get big and are relatively peaceful but you want a GH around 250ppm (or higher) for them.

the guppies I have were raised in neutral water, as they were planted in my ponds for mosquito control and were bred locally. I imagine the GH is pretty high though since our tap GH is pretty high, and I also have sand as a substrate.

I will look into sailfin mollies! I recently found some males, but they were all albino, and no females.
Would it be okay to raise a colony of mollies with a sailfin male and non-sailfin females?

Also wondering if any gouramis would work in the tank?

 

[Colin_T]

Gouramis like softer water than guppies and mollies.
Sailfin mollies will breed with normal mollies and it's best to keep them separate because they are different species. Sailfins come in a range of colours with silver, gold, green and dalmation (white with black dots). There might be other colours too. Most shops can get them in but they aren't big sellers so you might need to ask the shops if they can order you some in.

 

[Sgooosh]

Gouramis like softer water than guppies and mollies.
Sailfin mollies will breed with normal mollies and it's best to keep them separate because they are different species. Sailfins come in a range of colours with silver, gold, green and dalmation (white with black dots). There might be other colours too. Most shops can get them in but they aren't big sellers so you might need to ask the shops if they can order you some in.

okay, makes sense. I’ll try to ask for sailfin females. I really like the wild-type sailfin