Feeder tank:Snails, guppies & shrimp possible?

[Vyache]

I'm thinking about getting a small tank going with guppies, snails and ghost shrimp all in one to feed to my clown loaches and pictus cats as treats. Will they all get along in one tank or will they wipe each other out? Who will eat who? What size tank would be optimal for this type of set up? Should I put in plastic plants or leave it bare?

 

[Goldfish Freak]

Are you planning on breeding these ,or are you just going to use the tank as a holding area? If you are planning on breeding them then you might run into the problem of the guppies eating the ghost shrimp babies or the ghost shrimp eating the guppy eggs. I have also read that it is possible that the ghost shrimp will eat newly hatched snails. If you are going to merely keep them together then you will be fine. I have been keeping several ghost shrimp in my snail breeding tank for almost three weeks, and am yet to have problems with them eating my baby snails.

 

[Vyache]

I definiately want these beasts to multiply in the tank. I'm not worried about the shrimp eating the guppy eggs, as guppies are livebearers. : heh heh. But seriously, thats kind of what I'm wondering, will the shrimp eat baby guppies or snail eggs, will guppies eat baby shrimp or snails, etc. Is it like a paper, rock scissors thing: snail beats guppy, guppy beats shrimp, shrimp beats snail...

 

[Goldfish Freak]

Oops! Sorry I was not sure if the guppies were livebearer or not :-/. My mistake. From what I have researched ghost shrimp are not very easy to breed. Guppy and snails on the other hand are easy, especially certain type of snails. I believe the guppies and snails will be fine together, but I am not sure if the ghost shrimp would work in there. I know that ghost shrimp need fairly hard and alkaline water to breed and snails do best in that enviroment too. I have no knowledge as to the requirements for guppies. Heck I didn't even know they were livebearers.

 

[Vyache]

I don't know much about snails and shrimp but I know Guppies like neutral to slightly alkaline water. Some salt would be good for guppies but not completely necesarry. I'm not sure how the snail would react to salt. Hopefully not like garden snails do! I bought some ghost shrimp from my LFS and they are carying around little green eggs. I guess I'll see what happens soon enough!

Anyone else have advice or know more about breeding snails or ghost shrimp?

 

[aznpanther98]

i had that idea too i got four ghost shrimps with eggs and well i couldn't find much on how to breed them but guppies are pretty easy i breed them in my 10 gal planted tank to give as a treat to my baby convicts and baby jack dempsy evry now and then i got bunch of pond snails and they don't need much to breed but i haven't noticed as much baby snails since i put theguppys in so they might be eating the baby snails i don't relaly care since i still have tons of trumpet snails and i don't have clown loaches no more last one died some time ago and still dunno what caused it to die  :'( but anyways if ur concered about one eating another always a good reason to get another tannk lol

 

[Vyache]

I'm always sad when a clown loach dies.  :'( They seem to have much more personality than most fish. For example the same one always perches on the same spot on a piece of driftwood in the morning looking out the glass at me until I put food in the tank.
I need to get some trumpet snails. I'm sure they don't sell them in any local stores but I'm going to look closely at the plant tanks and see if I can get some of the hitch hikers.