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Endler guppies are really popular at the moment. They are small, colorful, and a super peaceful species of fish. These qualities have helped boost Endler’s popularity. At the same time, small, planted aquariums with shrimp have grown in popularity. It is therefore only natural people wonder ’Can Endlers live with shrimp?’.
Endler Guppies can live with shrimp. I currently keep a 10 gallon planted aquarium which has dozens of shrimp and a small group of Tiger Endlers. Endler Guppies and shrimp are a great combination.
Will Endler Guppies Eat Shrimp?
Endler guppies are small fish with small mouths. A full-grown adult shrimp will be too big for an Endler guppy to eat. Endlers will however eat baby shrimp. Rather than letting the fact that Endlers will eat baby shrimp stop us from keeping the two species together, we can set up the aquarium to give the shrimp the best chance of surviving.
My 10 gallon Endler and shrimp aquarium is set up with gravel as a substrate, with a couple of small pieces of wood. Around the wood are a number of plants including Java moss and Anubias sp. ‘Petite’. The Anubias stays really small and has created a ‘carpet’ across the substrate.
This carpet of plants provides excellent hiding places for the shrimp where they can live, feed, and breed.
How To Set Up A Tank For Endlers And Shrimp?
If you want to keep Endelrs and shrimp together, you will need to set your aquarium up with lots of hiding places for the shrimp. Although an Endler won’t be able to eat an adult shrimp, they will eat the babies.
A good set-up aquarium will allow the shrimp to breed faster than the Endlers eat any babies, meaning you will end up with a good population of Endlers and a good population of shrimp.
I set my Endler and shrimp aquarium up with lots of hiding places created using wood. A couple of good piles of rocks with lots of small spaces between the rocks can also work. I have also added lots of live plants to my aquarium. Almost the entire floor of the aquarium is covered in Anubias sp. ‘Petite’ which basically provides a blanket the shrimp can happily live under out of sight of the Endlers. Finally, I have a clump of Java moss.
The shrimp love to get into the middle of the moss where the Endlers can’t reach them.
What Shrimp Can Live With Endler Guppies?
Personally, I have found Red Cherry Shrimp works best with Endlers. Red Cherry Shrimp are hardy and breed quickly, meaning it doesn’t matter as much if the Endlers eat a few babies. The Red Cherry Shrimp will multiply quickly enough to replace any losses.
Amano shrimp also work well as they are larger than the Endlers and there is no chance the Endlers will eat them Amano shrimp will not breed in your aquarium as the babies need to pass through a brackish water stage (slightly salty water) which most of us won’t go to the bother to provide them.
In Conclusion
Providing you set your aquarium up correctly, there is no reason you can’t keep Endlers with shrimp. Yes, the Endlers will eat some of the shrimp babies, but the shrimp should reproduce quickly enough that the Endlers don’t really have an impact on the number of shrimp in your aquarium.
