Low matinence nano aquarium

[Hotshotdevil]

So I already have a 72 saltwater aquarium and I am in the process of setting up two planted tanks, one for my brother and one for my girlfriend. Now I have been captivated by the simple beauty of freshwater tanks. Unfortunately I don't have much time to maintain yet another system. I was hoping you guys could give me some advice on how to set up a tank so it could be relatively low matinence and it would have to be small (under 10 gallons). I would definantly like to do plants and a shrimp tank maybe an area of particular interest to me.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

The bigger the better so I wouldn't go any smaller than a 10g. Stick with low light plants that don't require much care such as anubias, java fern, crypts and moss. That way you could get away with just root tabs in the substrate every couple of months. Every tank will still need a weekly water change but if your only stocking with shrimp it could be as little as 25%.

 

[Hotshotdevil]

The bigger the better so I wouldn't go any smaller than a 10g. Stick with low light plants that don't require much care such as anubias, java fern, crypts and moss. That way you could get away with just root tabs in the substrate every couple of months. Every tank will still need a weekly water change but if your only stocking with shrimp it could be as little as 25%.

Well with a small tank frequent water changes should be no problem. What If I did an african biotope on this one? Got some large river stones as a substrate, did some African plants and a species of crawfish native to Africa (I think anuibas are African) Do you know of any one having any experience doing a set-up similar to this?

 

[herp_mommy]

I have a 2.5 gal planted tank with crystal red shrimp and a small unnamed goby who's a half inch long. It's very easy to take care of.

 

[Hotshotdevil]

I have a 2.5 gal planted tank with crystal red shrimp and a small unnamed goby who's a half inch long. It's very easy to take care of.

Wow! What an extremely pretty tank! any chance you could get a close up of the goby. I would love to see him. I don't think I want to do any fish in this aquarium though. Inverts have always fascinated me so a crawfish is very appealing to me. You would happen to know anything about setting up African biotopes would you?

 

[herp_mommy]

Wow! What an extremely pretty tank! any chance you could get a close up of the goby. I would love to see him. I don't think I want to do any fish in this aquarium though. Inverts have always fascinated me so a crawfish is very appealing to me. You would happen to know anything about setting up African biotopes would you?

Thanks. The goby moves too fast to get a good pic, but i found him in a feeder guppy tank. You could try Mexican dwarf crayfish. They stay fairly small. A pair would look good in a 4gal. And yes I have a couple African tanks.

 

[Hotshotdevil]

But no crawfish from Africa that could stay in a ten gallon tank of smaller huh? my brother and girlfriend are both doing central American tanks right now so if I did do Mexican crawfish I could steal plants from both of their tanks lol!

 

[BlaseMrNiceguy]

The dwarf orange cray is beautiful I have 2 in my 29 galling nano-fish aquarium they are really cool I love watching them crawl all over everything and they are actually pretty easy to care for IMO.

 

[Hotshotdevil]

Well it's good to hear they are easy to care for. Do you know I'd they a pair would be alright in a 8 gallon aquarium. I know they are social animals but part of me wonders if they would start getting aggressive if the tank got smaller.