A few questions

[Nook]

Hi,
I just bought a 75 litre tank and am thinking about keeping guppies together with amano shrimp. I read that they like the same water parameters and both want a heavy planted tank.
I was thinking to get around 7 shrimp and after a few weeks 10 guppies. Is this overcrowded or can this work?
Also, should i be worried about the guppies eating the shrimp?

This is my current layout of the tank, i am aware that i’ll need a lot more plants and/or grass. Suggestions or improvements are always welcome

Cheers

 

[BettaFishGirl]

Your tank is lovely! Your stocking idea sounds good. Just make sure to get all male or all female guppies, or they will breed like crazy and you will have hundreds. Males are also prettier, and females can retain sperm for a long time so if they have breed with males in the past they will most likely keep producing babies for a while.

Guppies shouldn't eat the shrimp, if anything they might nibble on the babies but if you add something like java moss they will hide and the guppies won't find them.

Maybe add some java fern in the back, anubias petite and java moss on the wood and rocks, pearlweed in the mid-back round, and stem plants like rotala in the back as well. Is your tank substrate nutrient rich? Did you add root tabs and are you using liquid fertilizer?

With shrimp, I'm sure people will disagree with me but I don't like amano shrimp. They are expensive and overated in my opinion. I would much rather get 10 ghost shrimp for 1 dollar (yes they are that inexpensive) than one amano shrimp for 7 dollars. Of course, if you love Amanos and still want to get them that is great, but I would get either ghost shrimp or Neocaridina shrimp if I were you, but it's totally your choice.

Good luck!

 

[Nook]

Your tank is lovely! Your stocking idea sounds good. Just make sure to get all male or all female guppies, or they will breed like crazy and you will have hundreds. Males are also prettier, and females can retain sperm for a long time so if they have breed with males in the past they will most likely keep producing babies for a while.

Guppies shouldn't eat the shrimp, if anything they might nibble on the babies but if you add something like java moss they will hide and the guppies won't find them.

Maybe add some java fern in the back, anubias petite and java moss on the wood and rocks, pearlweed in the mid-back round, and stem plants like rotala in the back as well. Is your tank substrate nutrient rich? Did you add root tabs and are you using liquid fertilizer?

With shrimp, I'm sure people will disagree with me but I don't like amano shrimp. They are expensive and overated in my opinion. I would much rather get 10 ghost shrimp for 1 dollar (yes they are that inexpensive) than one amano shrimp for 7 dollars. Of course, if you love Amanos and still want to get them that is great, but I would get either ghost shrimp or Neocaridina shrimp if I were you, but it's totally your choice.

Good luck!

Thank you!
Now, I only use a substrate layer under my gravel (mid to back area). Do you recommend using liquid fertilizer?

I will also add moss on the wood and rocks around it so the shrimp have a central area to hide. I will try to add the pearlweed in sort of lines going outward. For the back area, I will look for some beautiful plants to fit the whole picture together.
Thanks for the reply!

 

[Colin_T]

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website (Water Analysis Report) or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep. Guppies do best with a GH between about 150-250ppm.

--------------------

Did you want male or female guppies?
If you just want males for colour, then 10 male guppies should be fine assuming the water chemistry and tank are suitable.

If you want females and babies, then get 4-6 females and no males. The females will be gravid (pregnant) when you get them, and they will produce heaps of babies that will quickly fill the tank.

I would also get the guppies before the shrimp and treat them for intestinal worms and gill flukes. And monitor them for external bacterial and protozoan infections. Guppies from shops regularly carry all or some of these diseases. The medications used to treat the fish can be toxic to invertebrates like shrimp and snails.

Section 3 of the following link tells you about treating fish for intestinal worms.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

 

[BettaFishGirl]

Thank you!
Now, I only use a substrate layer under my gravel (mid to back area). Do you recommend using liquid fertilizer?

I will also add moss on the wood and rocks around it so the shrimp have a central area to hide. I will try to add the pearlweed in sort of lines going outward. For the back area, I will look for some beautiful plants to fit the whole picture together.
Thanks for the reply!

You should probably get a liquid fertilizer to really help the plants. I use the Aqueon liquid fertilizer, it has all the micro and macro nutrients and it's really cheap.

If you are looking for some really nice plants that don't cost 10 bucks per plant, try BucePlant.com. They have really good prices and amazing plants, they always give me extra too.

 

[Essjay]

I don't know which plant fertilisers are available in Belgium, but the highly recommended ones are Seachem Flourish Comprehensive Supplement (just that one, they make several products with Flourish in the name) and in the UK, TNC Lite (not TNC Complete). If neither of those are available, can you list what is available and we can look at the ingredients to suggest the best one.