River Pea Gravel

[sangusjr]

Hi all, I have the small river pea gravel I got at HD. Did wash it super clean as is suggested and it's my aquarium base.

Thing is I wanted to add a few Cory cats and some ghost shrimps to do a clean up job on the base strata. Trouble is I think in all my reading, I saw it suggested that all gravel can cause problems for ghost shrimps and Cory cats, too rough on their feelers/tentacles ??

Can anyone provide some guidance. Any suggestions on bottom feeders.
Thanks.

Art.

 

[TMaier]

Pull it out? The other problem with pea gravel is that you do now know the minerals in there and some are not fish/invert friendly in addition to the sharp edges. Quartz Pool filter sand is cheap and everyone on the bottom will be happy.

 

[sangusjr]

Hi TMaier, sorry took couple days to respond. Like you suggest, i did think about removing the river pea, got 'em in 2 tanks. thing is i am probably going to do the aquaponics thing, and i do have a lot of the pea.

actually they're surprisingly smooth, especially with the bacteria build up in a cycled tank. i also have red lava rocks in both tanks, those too smoothed out......both these substrates are to be used to seed the aquaponics system.

I have decided to forego the corycats, expensive and too delicate, and the ghost shrimps, a meal for the fishes...both aren't practical for me as a beginner.

I added 4 danios and 2 sunburst platies to the 20 gal about 4 hours ago. Was pleasantly surprised to see the platies scavenging thru the gravel for the food that fell. all 6 settled in real well, as if they were always there. Ii's a real joy to have them...they're all so busy...

Thanks for your comments. Art.

 

[TMaier]

Great to hear it! There has got to be some sort of bottom feeder/dweller that prefers a rocky bottom. I haven't read about any but there must be. I have Khuli's and again, they like soft sand.