Hi I am new and have a question about a 3 gallon Eclipse tank.

[Briggsy]

Hi I am new first post even.

My question is I want to start a small tank a 3 gallon Eclipse. I want kinda a Asian theme to it and the inhabitants would be (or I hope will be)....

1 Spade Tail Betta
1 Bamboo Shrimp
1 or 2 Ghost Shrimp

I want to have 1 or 2 pieces of small driftwood and Bamboo planted through out the tank. I forgot the name of this type of grass but it is a Asian grass. Looks great in a tank and I wanted to plant that as well. Oh and a sand substrate would be cool, any ideas on that would be appreciated. And what type of sand would be best to use or look for.

This won't be my first tank I had a 100g tank with a very large long finned Tiger Oscar. I gave him to a buddy with a 300g tank he is still growing....ate me outta house and home.

But I hope I am not potentially over crowding this tank. I haven't started or even purchased anything as of yet I just wanted an outside opinion before I started.

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

Pool filter sand is widely used and cheap for a 50/lb bag($7). The color of it depends on your location/supply. But for a small tank virtually any substrate would be cheap so there are some "specialty" sand substrates that would look nicer also.

Shrimp add hardly any bioload so you could have prob more of them. The bamboo shrimp are filter feeders so I would add that later on after the tank has been established for awhile. The ghost shrimp sometimes dont last long as they are sold mostly as a feeder shrimp, YRMV.

Also the Betta may eat or mess with the shrimp, seems that it can vary depending on the Betta.

Overall sounds like a good plan!

Would love to see pics when you get it setup!

Oh yeah welcome to AA!!!

 

[Briggsy]

Thanks Speed,

Great thanks for the advice, I had a betta in a 10 gallon more or less by himself years ago he had plenty of plants, rocks and driftwood to explore and I had ghost shrimp in there he would pick one off here and there but they had plenty of spaces to hide in.

My idea here is about the same I don't really mind if ghost shrimp get pick off here and there, but the bamboo is my question. I know betta have a wide range of personalities and I hope he won't view the bamboo is a food source and if he does I hope I can build a suitable habitat for him to escape into.

Another question would be the types of betta be it spade tail, crown, half moon, delta or whatever it may be. Which type has the best lifespan and if I am not mistaken don't the spade tails get the largest?

 

[Purrbox]

Personally I wouldn't keep the Betta and Bamboo Shrimp together. Bamboo Shrimp need good water flow in order to feed, and since most Bettas don't enjoy lots of current they probably won't thrive in the same environment. Further the Bamboo Shrimp get large enough that they really should have more space than the smaller detris and algae eating shrimp. Perhaps if it was a little larger aquarium and you could setup both high flow and sheltered areas with little flow it would work, but a 3 gallon just doesn't seem large enough for this.

 

[Briggsy]

Right on, I had heard that and was hoping that there was a way to make it work but no worries. I don't want to put a bamboo in there if it won't do well.

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

Yeah since bamboo are more expensive I would deff try the ghost shrimp 1st.
The bamboo are much larger but are filter feeders. I gues later on down the line you could try 1 and see what happens. But plan for the worst

 

[Briggsy]

Awesome, well I will try 2 or so ghost to start with give them plenty of cover so the betta doesn't out right eat them from the get go.

Any advice on the type of betta that would be best suited for this?

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

I'm not sure on the Betta, I would try 4 ghost shrimp to start. I can tell you that they are one of the best scavengers, they will find food fast, they must have a great sense of smell and as soon as something hits the bottom, they will be on the move.

Just watch out as "Ghost shrimp" can be sold and they may not really be "ghost shrimp" there are ones that get larger and will eat small fish(search google about it). I doubt the Betta will have anything to worry about though.

 

[Briggsy]

Ya I am glad you said that for the reason that years ago I had this huge shrimp that I had got with my other ghost. It was pretty aggressive toward everything, but it did not last particularly long. I am willing to bet the betta got it.

I find that going from my huge tank down to a small 3 gallon is somewhat difficult. I do miss Tiny. He was a monster but he sure was fun.

 

[reefman]

Yep, those shrimps are very good, but they wont last long, I had like 20 of those and they last for about 3 weeks. They could cleanup your substrate they eat anything they found but like I said they won't last for long. Any question just post it. We are here to help you.

 

[JohnPaul]

If you still want to go for the Asian look, consider Amano (japonica) shrimp. They are a bit larger than ghost shrimp (so less likely to become betta food), they are more interesting in terms of coloration, and they are much better algae eaters than ghost shrimp so they can help keep algae under control in your tank. They are also more authentically Asian, whereas most of the ghost shrimp that we see in pet stores are from north or central america.

Edit: Some useful info about Amano Shrimp. I've found that pet stores (even chain pet stores) sometimes have them in stock, and certainly they are readily available through online sources.

 

[Briggsy]

Oh nice, thanks for the advice. I was checking things over I am going to go with a 6 gallon instead of a 3 gallon. That way I think I should have enough room for a bamboo and these other shrimp look great I'll look for them.

Thanks for the help.