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[KPhilly]

What helps with their molting?

 

[KPhilly]

Just wanted to post a picture of how the tank looked and ask a few questions! To begin with, I wanted to check some stocking levels and give you an idea of what I wanted to add.

Current levels:
1 Giant Blue Wood shrimp
3 Clown Plecos
5 Oto cats
1 Raphael cat

Things I wanted to add:
3 Bamboo Shrimp
6 Silver dollars
12 Neon Tetras
6 Hatchet fish

I still have space in the back for more plants. I also have room for more bottom feeders! I was thinking maybe 10 Dwarf Mud Crabs! I also wanted to add like 5 white spotted snails. Tell me what you think!

 

[KPhilly]

Also, can I bump the lighting hours from 8 to like 10?

 

[Rivercats]

You don't want silver dollars unless you want all your plants eaten, they are vegetarians.

As for light hours if you not showing signs of algae now you can bump it up 30 minutes. Wait 2 or 3 weeks and if no algae, then bump it up another 30 minutes. If you start showing algae at a certain amount of time, bump lighting back down 30 minutes and that should give you the amount of time you can run lights without getting algae. If you rush the process and go straight to 10 hours and have algae issues you won't know how many hours you would have been safe at.

 

[KPhilly]

Well, as far as the silver dollars go, is everything else fine? I'll wait and see what the algae will do but I gotta say that my Oto's Tummy's are full! Haha!

 

[Rivercats]

The rest looks fine but you need to concentrate on fish for the middle and upper levels.

 

[KPhilly]

I was defiantly thinking a school of Neon Tetras.

 

[KPhilly]

Think I could get a shoal of Rosy Barbs?

 

[Rivercats]

Yes they would be fine and will actually pick at any algae that might grow.

 

[KPhilly]

I think I'm going to get 10 tetras and 10 barbs.

 

[Fishfur]

If you decide to get some Bamboo shrimp, the Vampire shrimp may hang out with them. Mine get along quite well with each other, and at least one Vampire is usually out in plain sight with the Bamboos, though the others tend to be shyer.

 

[KPhilly]

Where do you buy your shrimp from?

 

[Fishfur]

I get mine from a few different lfs that are near where I live. I am fortunate, I kind of live in fish central, five stores within a few miles, and I go to another city twice a month that has several other fish stores I can get to as well.

As for moulting, I keep a mineral supplement stone in their tank, such as is used for crystal shrimp, as well as a calcium supplement lump for the snails. I have quite hard water, alkaline, which seems to suit them pretty well. No moulting issues so far.