Starting a couple of new tanks ideas ??

[msmonih]

Hello Everyone. I am setting up a few new tanks today and am looking for ideas. I am thinking of doing invert. tank...

Variety of colored mystery snails - pink, purple, blue, ivory, black
Ghost Shrimp
Algae Shrimp
Cherry Shrimp
Blue Crayfish or Lobster
Long Arm Prawn
Well Planted

I have a 12 g & 20 g that are empty.

I am also thinking of adding a brine shrimp only tank because I have a 10 g that is empty. We have 8 active aquariums that we are dealing with now so raising my own Brine Shrimp would be ideal if we can do it. It would save money on food.

I am excited that I am going to set up a 5 g with a single Drawf Puffer, Ghost Shrimp, and all the pond snails he can eat.

We are finally setting up our QT tank its going to be a 20 g long. It will have a few plastic plants, a clay pot, and the bare minimum of gravel. So no ideas with this one as it is being used for new/sick fish.

I also have a 6 g long that I will work on setting up. I'm thinking of....
This will not be a community tank it will be a species only tank. Probably a group of 6. And again, I will throw in some Ghost & Algae Shrimp.

Lemon Tetras
Long Finned Danios
Glo Lite Tetras

Any ideas would be welcome....

 

[Lance M.]

Invert tanks are nice. You need to know that crayfish and prawns need to be kept by themselves or they will fight each other (they'll have missing limbs) or possibly kill each other. Also don't keep ghost shrimp with crayfish or prawns, unless you are just using the ghost shrimp as food (they will be attacked and killed, just like amano shrimp would be). Crayfish will also try to and be successful at cathing any small fish u may have in the tank, especially at night.

If u want a peaceful invert tank with shrimp I would suggest for a 20g. maybe 3-4 bamboo shrimp or vampire shrimp (or other filter feeding shrimp like that, like waterfall shrimp) maybe 10 ghost shrimp and 4-5 amanos. Instead of amano shrimp u could get cherry shrimp, they are smaller but related to amano shrimp and will also eat algae. Cherry shrimp will also breed in FW so u can breed them and sell them if u wanted. Amano shrimp need BW for the eggs to hatch, but live in FW otherwise (they migrate to brackish waters to breed and then go back to FW in wild).

Anything else?

Also crayfish will destroy plants and prawns can get very large (1 foot+).

Edit: That brine shrimp tank idea would be good in a 5 gal. to feed ur other fish.

Anywhere near Annapolis?

 

[msmonih]

Actually I am in Baltimore about 30 minutes from Annapolis. You are welcome to harvest from us once we get a good tank going.

The invert. tank will have no fish in it. Thanks for the info on the crayfish etc I really appreciate it.

The 5 g is a definite Dwarf Puffer aquarium. Getting the plants, gravel, and such tonight for all the tanks I want to set up. The 6 g long is definitely going to be a school of fish ... may have to go tiny like the Ember Tetra or something similiar was looking at a tank at the LFS and saw a whole tank of tiny fish that would honestly work well in the 6 g long. I am definitely going with the invert. aquarium tossing it still back and forth about which tank the 12 g or 20 g - any views?

One question, do the crayfish eat the plants or do they just destroy them?

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[virus]

they eat them, cuz i have one and it looks like he nibbles off them, but as so much it will be destroyed

 

[Lance M.]

I've never kept crayfish before- I'm just using info I've read off many articles on this forum and what the owner of my lfs has told me. I'm pretty good friends with him and the freshwater manager since I go there often and sell stuff to them (plants, etc.).

I really like keeping filter feeding shrimp. I just enjoy how cool they look and how they behave.

I live down here in South Carolina, but I have been to the USNA many times at Annapolis as my brother graduated from there, my godfather is the "Distinguished Military Professor of Ethics" there, and I am applying there. Thanks for the offer though.

 

[TomK2]

Wow, what timing. I have a 10 gal tank that I am going to put some low light plants in, for a low light no co2 set up. I was thinking of putting some neon tetras in it, but I like the idea of shrimp. I know very little about plants or shrimp. I am attracted to the idea of breeding the shrimp. Which ones can breed in FW, and do you know of any info links?

 

[TomK2]

Oh, and what kind of filtration would you use for a low light, planted, no c02 shrimp tank?

 

[Lance M.]

I have a ten gallon low light planted tank. It has my shrimp in it.
Plants in there- Cryptycorne willisi and wendtii, lace java fern, some green cabomba, compact amazon sword, baby amazon sword (budded off one I sold), a couple vallisnera plants (not low light but are doing fine), floating duckweed, and a lily plant that blocks out enough light (currently trimming lily pads so I can get some more underwater leaves).

The neons sound good in the tank, any small tetras like that are good. I like cardinal tetras better then neons just because they get a little bigger. Rummy-nose tetras are also very pretty. Glow-light tetras like low light acidic tanks and are a neon orange color. Any tetras like that are good.

I know for a fact red cherry shrimp will reproduce in a FW aquarium. That shouldn't be hard. You could breed amano shrimp, but you need some experience and the eggs have to be transfered to brackish water in order to hatch. So the cherry shrimp sound like a better idea if you want to breed shrimp. As far as I know, you can't breed bamboo, wood, waterfall, or vampire shrimp (I'm sure you could but I've never seen any info on it and I have posted in this forum several times about it and received no confirmations on the subject).

When I bought my ten gallon it was a package deal (came with lights, filter, etc.) from Walmart. I didn't really like the filter it came with so I bought a Whisper 10-20 Power filter and still use it today (2 years later) and I like it very much. The hood it came with was for bulbs only so instead of buying another hood I just bought flourescent bulbs that seem to work fine (I just replace them around every 6-7 months). They give me about 2 watts per gallon.

I'll be glad to help you with anything else. Like if you would venture to ask me what fish I keep in that tank :? . Planted tanks, in my opinion, are the best for that natural environment of most tropical freshwater fish. Never go with those cheap plastic plants... Good luck.

 

[TomK2]

Lance,
It sounds like you already have the tank I am planning to make! Got any pics?

I am so glad I bought the 10 gal tanks because I feel free to experiment with them, and i am sure the experience I gain can be later transfered to my larger tanks. This might just be the early stage of a real bad case of MTS, too.

 

[virus]

i think everyone is born with MTS its just a matter of time......... lol and the treatement you say? its going broke so you have to sell your tanks for money and then you buy more later when your not broke!!!

 

[Lance M.]

Ya Tom- I'm all about the experimentation! 10 gallons are great to try new things/ideas. I think 5 gallons are too small....

And the Aquarium hobby is insanely addicting