Shrimp in a livebearer tank?

[wendamus]

I don't have trouble with the adults. When I get a berried shrimp I'll move her to a fry tank with a covered filter and nothing in it, same as I do my guppies. I've got two isolated fry tanks, I don't think a partitioned tank would work because the babies are so small they'd go through the holes in the partitions.

Here's some pics of my shrimp quite happy in my 40 gallon tank with guppies of all different ages as well as a common pleco. The only problem is that the pleco and the shrimp compete for food, so I have to break algae wafers into bits and scatter them throughout the tank so the pleco can't guard them all. He won't leave enough live algae for them, and the guppies are good scavengers so there's rarely any wasted food.

http://www.wendamus.com/guppies/fish/100_3343.jpg

http://www.wendamus.com/guppies/fish/100_3328.jpg

 

[inkyjenn]

seriously, hon the stress from moving the berried mom can cause her to drop her eggs (or not, ive moved mine twice in the last few weeks with no casualties) but it is a whole lot easier to just have a place for the shrimp. then no fish and constantly swapping them back and forth. a sponge filter will keep them happy.

 

[pam916]

I have my cherry shrimp with endlers, bristlenose plecos and cory cats and I have no problems. I have floating hornwort, but the cherry shrimp come right out in the open and compete for food with the fish. I would probably get a lot more baby cherry shrimp if I had them in a tank by themselves, but they still reproduce. I also have honey bee shrimp in the same tank.

 

[wendamus]

seriously, hon the stress from moving the berried mom can cause her to drop her eggs (or not, ive moved mine twice in the last few weeks with no casualties) but it is a whole lot easier to just have a place for the shrimp. then no fish and constantly swapping them back and forth. a sponge filter will keep them happy.

That's really good to know. I've been swapping everyone around a lot, getting some 10 gallon tanks turned into fry nursery with partitions, getting new tanks set up while waiting for some orders to show up with sponge filters, etc. Plus, one of my guppies dropped fry before I was ready so I somehow ended up with a whole batch of fry alone in a 10 gallon while my grow-out batch of guppies is sequestered in a 5 gallon while I set up other tanks.

Hopefully, everything will arrive in the next few days and I'll have some permanent fry setups that the shrimpies can hang out in. Then the only risk is if there are shrimp fry and a birthing Mommy guppy in the same tank for a short while. I guess I can use a modified guppy breeder in that case, and hope the baby shrimp are smart enough to stay away from her.