Best Guppy Tank Mates

What makes a good tank mate for guppies?

A good guppy tank mate is a peaceful fish that leaves long fins alone, cannot swallow a guppy and is happy in hard, alkaline water. The guppy (Poecilia reticulata) is a small livebearer from north-eastern South America and the southern Caribbean, and domestic males carry long, trailing fins. Four criteria follow from the published data.

1. No fin-nippers. Seriously Fish warns against fin-nippers such as tiger barbs and serpae tetras, and Aquarium Co-Op says to avoid aggressive fish that nip fins. Long-finned males are the targets.
2. Too small to eat a guppy. Guppies reach only 2.4 in (6.1 cm), so any fish that eats small fish and is a few times longer is a threat. Aquarium Co-Op calls guppies a risky angelfish tank mate for exactly this reason.
3. Hard, alkaline water. Guppies need 68–82 °F (20–28 °C), pH 7.0–8.0 and 8–30 dGH; the hardness figure comes from Seriously Fish alone. Soft-water fish such as neon tetras and kuhli loaches share only the lower edge of that pH range.
4. No territorial bullies. Seriously Fish says male dwarf gouramis can be very aggressive towards gaudy species, and a brightly coloured male guppy fits that description.

Swim level is rarely a problem. Aquarium Co-Op notes that livebearers such as guppies swim all over the tank, so bottom dwellers and mid-water schools both fit around them. The pH and hardness criteria are explained in more depth in the guides to aquarium pH by species and general and carbonate hardness. Other species in our tank mates by species series follow the same four-part logic.

Which fish can live with guppies?

Other livebearers, small peaceful schooling fish and calm bottom dwellers can all live with guppies, and they appear in roughly that order in the table above.

Platies and mollies

Platies are the closest match, at 10/10. They share pH 7.0–8.0 and 68–77 °F (20–25 °C) with guppies, and Seriously Fish describes them as very peaceful, lacking the aggression of some swordtails and mollies. Mollies score 9/10. They also want hard, alkaline water, but Seriously Fish notes that larger adults, especially sailfin males, may pick on smaller fish, and Aquarium Co-Op says mollies nibble at things and that slow, long-finned fish may be poor tank mates. A fancy male guppy is that kind of fish, so watch a molly tank closely.

Harlequin rasboras and tetras

Harlequin rasboras score 9/10, and our harlequin data lists livebearers among the groups it suits. Neon tetras and cardinal tetras both score 8/10 and 8/10. All three are peaceful, but they come from softer water, so the shared pH with guppies narrows to pH 7.0–7.5. The search query “can guppies live with neon tetras” has a qualified yes for an answer: the temperament fits, and the water works only at the neutral point of both ranges.

Corydoras, kuhli loaches and bristlenose plecos

Corydoras score 9/10 with guppies and share 70–81 °F (21–27 °C); PlanetCatfish calls the bronze cory a perfect community citizen, and the corydoras tank mates guide ranks guppies among its good companions. Kuhli loaches score 8/10 and bristlenose plecos 8/10, but both prefer softer water, sharing only pH 7.0–7.0 and pH 7.0–7.2 respectively.

Which fish should never live with guppies?

Oscars, goldfish and angelfish fail outright with guppies in our data: two because they eat fish the size of a guppy, and one because it needs much colder water.

Oscar and angelfish

Oscars score 3/10. Seriously Fish and Aquarium Co-Op both describe the oscar as a predator that eats any fish small enough to swallow, and at 14 in (35.6 cm) it is many times longer than a guppy. Angelfish score 3/10 for a similar reason on a smaller scale: Seriously Fish says angelfish may eat neon-sized fish, and Aquarium Co-Op names guppies as risky angelfish tank mates because of their size and fin vulnerability. The angelfish tank mates guide lists larger companions that suit it.

Goldfish

Goldfish score 3/10. They are coldwater fish kept at 59–70 °F (15–21 °C), so the shared temperature is only 68–70 °F (20–21 °C). Fishkeeping.co.uk adds that goldfish eat anything that fits in their mouth, and the Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association reports fin-nipping among goldfish. The goldfish tank mates page covers coldwater companions instead.

Fin-nippers and territorial fish to approach with caution

Four more species are not outright failures but carry a specific risk to guppies. Zebra danios score 7/10: Aquarium Co-Op says they may nip fins if their school is too small. GloFish tetras score 7/10 because the black tetra they are bred from has a fin-nipping reputation that Seriously Fish says a shoal of 12 or more largely curbs. Dwarf gouramis score 7/10 because males can turn on brightly coloured fish. Bettas score 7/10, since Seriously Fish says a male betta may attack fish with trailing fins as rivals; the full reasoning is in can betta fish and guppies live together, and the compatible tank mates for bettas page shows safer betta companions.

How do guppy fry and breeding change the choice of tank mates?

Guppies breed so readily that any guppy tank becomes a tank of guppy fry, and that changes what the tank mates are doing. The sources agree on the pace, though not on the exact numbers. Aquarium Co-Op says females give birth roughly every 30 days; FishBase gives 20–40 young about every four weeks; Seriously Fish gives a gestation of four to six weeks with 5–100 fry. Seriously Fish adds that a female can keep producing broods for six months or more after a single mating, and FishBase says males mature at about two months.

Fry are prey for almost everything

Aquarium Co-Op says adult guppies eat their own fry unless dense cover is provided, and most of the community fish on this page eat fry too. Our data records fry or egg predation for platies, mollies, Endler’s livebearers, kuhli loaches and dwarf gouramis, and Aquarium Co-Op says the dwarf gourami snacks on anything that fits in its mouth, including baby fish. None of the sources measures how many fry survive with a given tank mate, so we do not rank species on that.

Breeding pressure and stocking

Aquarium Co-Op warns that guppy numbers can outgrow small tanks, and it advises one male to two or three females so that males do not harass any one female. Plan the tank mates around the adult group you intend to keep, then use the stocking calculator to see how much room the fish that survive will take. A tank that can only just hold guppies and their companions on day one may be overstocked within a few months.

That breeding rate is why farms supply livebearers in such numbers: the USDA 2023 Census of Aquaculture counted 23.4 million freshwater livebearers sold by 84 US farms in 2023. Surplus guppies should go to a shop or another keeper, because USGS lists guppies as locally established at warm-water sites in 6 states, mostly after fish farm or aquarium releases.

Can guppies live with shrimp and snails?

Guppies live well with snails, and with adult dwarf shrimp, but they eat baby shrimp.

Snails

Nerite snails and mystery snails both score 10/10 and 10/10. They want the same hard, alkaline water as guppies, sharing pH 7.2–8.0, and no source in our data says guppies eat or harass snails. Aquarium Co-Op says mystery snails also need calcium-rich water to keep their shells sound, which suits a guppy tank.

Shrimp

Cherry shrimp score 7/10 with guppies. Shrimp and Snail Breeder says guppies are a problem for small shrimp and make shrimp breeding almost impossible, so adult cherry shrimp may survive while the colony fails to grow. The two share 8–10 dGH of hardness. Amano shrimp score 7/10 on the same baby-shrimp rule, but Aquarium Co-Op states that amanos cannot reproduce in freshwater, so there are no amano shrimplets in the tank for guppies to eat. The fish that can live with cherry shrimp page explains how shrimp predation is scored for every species.

Which guppy tank mates fit a 10 or 20-gallon tank?

A 10-gallon tank fits guppies with snails or shrimp, while most fish companions need 20 US gal (76 L). Our guppy minimum is 10 US gal (38 L), based on Seriously Fish’s 45 × 30 cm base; Aquarium Co-Op accepts 5 gallons for a trio but prefers 10 to 20 gallons because of breeding.

10-gallon tank

Nerite snails, mystery snails, cherry shrimp, amano shrimp and Endler’s livebearers all calculate at 10 US gal (38 L) with guppies. Of these, the snails are the simplest; shrimp lose their young and Endler’s crossbreed with guppies. The guide to the best fish for a 10-gallon community tank shows how guppies fit into a small community.

20-gallon tank

At 20 gallons the fish options open up. Platies, mollies, harlequin rasboras, neon and cardinal tetras, corydoras, kuhli loaches and bristlenose plecos all calculate at 20 US gal (76 L), largely because their own minimums are higher than the guppy’s.

29 gallons and larger

Dwarf gouramis calculate at 29 US gal (110 L) with guppies, because the method adds a margin for a semi-aggressive species. To test a planned mix at any size, use the species compatibility checker.

Are Endler’s livebearers good guppy tank mates?

Not if you want to keep either line pure. Endler’s livebearers score 10/10 with guppies because they share water, size and temperament almost perfectly. Seriously Fish and Aquarium Co-Op both warn that the two species crossbreed and produce fertile hybrids. Practical Fishkeeping reports Prof. John Endler’s view that most Endler’s in the hobby are already guppy hybrids, and FishBase lists the Endler’s livebearer as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

The score is not wrong; it answers a narrower question. Our method measures whether two species can share a tank without harming each other, and hybridisation is not one of its factors. If you value a pure Endler’s strain, or a pure guppy line, keep the two species in separate tanks.