Can Guppies Live With Angelfish – Are They Compatible Tank Mates?

Both Guppies and Angelfish are popular among aquarium enthusiasts; Guppies are beautiful, colorful, and peaceful fish, and Angelfish are equally attractive and bright color fish; now, the question is can Guppies live with Angelfish?

My answer is no; Guppies cannot live with Angelfish. Guppies are friendly and cheerful fish; they enliven any tank they live in with their beauty, colors, movements, and pursuits. They are naturally a fair inhabitant in any peaceful community aquarium tank; however, an adult Angelfish is by far bigger than an adult Guppy. They are a territorial, attention seeker, and aggressive fish species.

Guppies won’t feel safe in the same tank as Angelfish with their predatorial and aggressive nature. There are several factors to consider keeping both Guppies and Angelfish in the same tank.

Factors to consider while keeping Guppies and Angelfish in the same habitat:

Traits of Guppies:

Guppies are beautiful and vibrant by nature and are a delight in any aquarium tank. They are hardy and peaceful community fish species; they blossom with minimum care and remain cheerful and lift the traits of any aquarium they live in. Guppies are easy to care for and are beginner-friendly fish; to breed, they don’t need any extra assistance.

The female Guppy grows to a maximum of 2.5 inches (6.5cms) while males reach a maximum of 1.5 inches (4 cms). Due to their small size, they become the target for other significantly bigger and aggressive fish. Guppies do not attack any other species in their habitat.

Traits of Angelfish:

The stress level of Guppies living with Angelfish:

Even though Guppies can survive in the same tank as Angelfish, they will not thrive with the stress and anxiety. A Guppy sharing a habitat with Angelfish undergoes continuous pressure and anxiety. Angelfish will hassle guppies, picking on them, etc. All the energy of Guppies would go in from escaping and avoiding the harassments from Angelfish.

Stress is no good for any living being, including any fish. A stressed specimen will attract all the possible diseases and eventually die well before its usual time. 

Reduce the lifespan of Guppies that are living with Angelfish:

Generally, Guppies live up to 3 years; at times, we can find Guppies that live over five years in an optimal condition; good water qualities, stable water parameters, good food combined with good genetics, and a peaceful habitat Guppies can live over five years.

However, we cannot expect Guppies to live with Angelfish even a year. Colorful and playful Guppies will soon take the attention of Angelfish; when the Guppies are menaced continuously, they will incarcerate themselves in small and safer hide-outs; without getting a chance to explore their habitat with their playful and lively nature.

Guppies and Angelfish living the same habitat – Angelfish can eat Guppies:

There are good chances with a maximum size of guppies being 2.5 (6.5 cms) inches and Angelfish growing up to 6 inches (15 cms) that Angelfish could eat your Guppy.

Angelfish are predators by nature, and not to forget, they are a species of the Cichlid family. It is known even the young angelfish can hunt down your young Guppies; it will not give them any chance to survive in a small habitat.

Undoubtedly, in the wild, several species share the same habitat, including peaceful and aggressive species. However, the habitat they share is huge waterways with plenty of hiding places such as bushes, rocks, plants, etc. 

Even when the small and peaceful species fall prey to the more prominent, bigger, and aggressive species, they still have chances for procreation and proliferation. However, it is not the same in a small habitat, like a home aquarium. 

Home aquariums are confined and limited space. The aquarium’s limited space gives a little room for the small and peaceful breeds while living with bigger and aggressive types.

If you are looking to have a harmonious and peaceful aquarium tank, you would want to choose species that will live together carefully after studying each species’ nature and requirements.

If you are looking to add some tank mates to the existing community tank, choose the right tank mates to live within your aquarium tank.

Guppies and Angelfish – Conditions for keeping them in the same tank:

I won’t say it is impossible to keep the Guppies and Angelfish in the same. Can Guppies live with Angelfish? Yes, Guppies can live with Angelfish under certain conditions. Some aquarists have kept both Guppies and Angelfish in the same tank, and the Guppies lived peacefully despite co-existing in the same tank with Angelfish.

When introducing a young Angelfish into the established Guppies tank, Angelfish learns to accept Guppies without harassing them while becoming an adult. If you do it the other way, then Angelfish will think Guppies are their snack; within minutes, there won’t be any trace of Guppies.

Introducing grown-up Guppies with young Angelfish can help them to leave alone Guppies as they will treat Guppies as other tank mates than their prey. Guppies can swim everywhere, whereas Angelfish is a middle-level dweller; hence Guppies can find their areas to swim around without being bothered by Angelfish, particularly if you have a bigger tank with plenty of plants, Java moss, Java fern, Hortworts, and other decors.

Guppies best tank mates:

Guppies are hardy, friendly, peaceful fish species. Unlike ember tetra or neon tetra or harlequin rasboras or White cloud minnows, they are not schooling or shoaling fish. However, they thrive best in groups. Guppies swim in every direction here and there, actively. Other Guppies are their best tank mates.

Nevertheless, they can get along very well with different community peaceful fish species.

• Mollies: Just like Guppies, Mollies are peaceful community fish. Their water parameters and habitat requirements are similar to Guppies. Hence, Mollies come as one of the tops in the list as Tank mates to Guppies.
• Tetras: Most Tetras types like Cardinal tetra, Neon tetra, Ember tetra are peaceful schooling and shoaling fish. Most tetras don’t grow over 2 inches (5.5 cms), making them ideal tank mates for Guppies. However, tetras might harass the Guppy fry that can be avoided using the breeding net or moving the fry to a separate tank using the breeding net or  Java Moss Ball.
• Harlequin rasboras: Harlequin Rasboras are peaceful schooling and shoaling fish, just like Tetras. Share the same space as Guppies without creating any friction. Their size and nature make them great tank mates to Guppies.
• Platies: Both Platies and guppies are livebearers and require similar water parameters and food. Platies are also a peaceful species making them a great choice as tank mates for Guppies. Like Guppies, Platies breed readily.
• Honey Gourami: can be another excellent tank mate for Guppies if you are a little experienced aquarist. Honey Gourami calls for a little bit of expertise in taking care of them as they have specific needs. They are of good temperament and are fun to watch.
• Swordtail: is another excellent freshwater community tank fish species. They add character to any community tank with their unique look: another livebearer, hardy, and peaceful freshwater species. 

 

Other Tankmates for Guppies:

You can also keep Shrimps such as Ghost Shrimp, Red Cherry Shrimp, Bamboo Shrimp, Amano Shrimp, etc., with Guppies. They love shrimplets; it’s one of their favorite food like most fish species, of course even for human beings; only human beings eat even giant shrimps like Lobsters. Jokes apart, if you want to breed shrimps, I would suggest you get a small breeding tank. Shrimps are great bottom feeders, especially Amano shrimp, Bamboo shrimp, Cherry shrimp, etc.

Most bottom feeders such as Kuhli loach, Cory catfish, etc., are docile community tank cleaner species and great tank mates for Guppies.

You would want to keep your tank well planted with java moss, java fern, Anachari, Hornworts, etc., when you are keeping shrimps, kuhli loach, snails, etc., with Guppies. 

Species to avoid with Guppies:

Angelfish: This is our topic; can Guppies live with Angelfish? The answer is no, with exceptions discussed earlier; introducing young Angelfish into an established Guppies tank, keeping them in a bigger tank with plenty of plants, driftwoods, and decors.

Cichlids:  with Guppies, you would want to avoid all Cichlids without exceptions. It is understood as all Cichlids are aggressive and territorial for most Cichlids such as Jack Dempsey, Jaguar, Wolf, etc. Guppies are a meal than anything as a cohabitant.

Endler’s Livebearers: Guppies and Endler’s Livebearers great tank mates; they both are so friendly that they start to crossbreed. If you want to produce a new species, yes, of course, you can keep them both in the same tank; they make great tank mates; however, if you do not want to handle the complication of looking after an entirely new species, avoid to keep them in the same habitat.

Avoid any large and Aggressive fish Species with Guppies:

With their excellent temperament and friendly attitude, guppies make wonderful tankmates to most of the peaceful freshwater species.

However, avoid having any large species that has a mouth big enough to fit Guppies. Also, you would want to avoid all the aggressive nature fish species such as Pufferfish, Cichlids, Red Tail sharks, etc., with Guppies. 

Even Tiger Barb has a reputation for exhibiting mild aggressivity and is also known for its fondness for flowing fins and bullying docile nature fish species.