Hello all,
This is very much still in the planning stages, but it's something I'm looking forward to! Currently, I have a 10 gallon tank that is being used as a qt, but after I'm done adding fish to my display tank, I want to convert it into a planted shrimp tank.
Potential Stock:
x1 bamboo shrimp
x6 red cherry shrimp (hopefully they'll breed)
x7-8 emerald dwarf rasboras
I have a single t8 light I can use, so I'll look into growing some low light plants, and I do want to have a piece of driftwood to let the bamboo shrimp filter feed. However, I don't plan on using diy co2, but can use excel.
For substrate, I was thinking of adding a layer of laterite
like this, then capping it off with sand and smooth river-rock type gravel.
Should that be enough?? If anyone has experience with these species (or products) let me know!!
I LOVE what you're planning. It's definitely doable, but it might be a little hard to pull off completely. I have been thinking to do something like this myself and have put some thought into this. My emphasis would be to make sure that your water parameters are livable for your RCS. Water that's good enough for them will be fine for any fish. I'm not experienced about how to keep filter feeding shrimp though, so I can't help you there.
1) In a 10g, the main issue I see is where you'll have enough rasboras (8 or so?) around to eat pretty much all the shrimplets before they grow up. Your RCS can and will breed, but the shrimplets don't know the first thing about hiding from predators. It's pretty sad to see them dart out into the mouths of even the most peaceful fish. 10g is fine for bioload, but unless your tank is EXTREMELY heavily planted, I wouldn't expect shrimplets to grow up.
2) You can get more than 6 RCS if you're limiting the number due to overstock. I think they almost have no bioload. You could certainly get 10-20 in there if you wanted to.
3) As for the substrate, I think I would try something that can grow plants on the bottom and black sand on the top. Black helps bring out shrimp color. I haven't heard of the brand that you use, but most people who keep RCS and CRS with plants use Fluval Stratum or EcoComplete. Yours might be just fine but please check if there's any copper in the substrate. Copper is instantly lethal to RCS. Other than that, RCS appreciate movable substrate. If you ever wanted to switch to pygmy cories, soft substrate on the top (like sand) is preferred. That way you have more options in the future.
4) Filtration: What can I say. Keeping RCS I strongly recommend using air pump driven sponge filters, but almost anything is fine as long as you cover the intake valve with a pre-sponge or DIY equivalent like pantyhose. I think if I started a tank like this I would install a Hamburg Matten Filter in the corner, but that takes more effort and isn't required.
5) Plants: I would get a lot of high surface area mosses for the shrimp to hide in and graze on. Flame moss / Java moss / Willow moss, etc.
6) If this was a QT tank, make sure you've NEVER used copper containing meds in there. It's nearly impossible to get of traces of copper and that may kill your shrimp.
7) Cycle cycle cycle cycle! There are a lot of products that you can use to help start the cycle in your tank for RCS. I recommend looking into something like GlasGarten Bacter AE to put underneath the substrate when you're first setting up the tank. RCS frequently succumb to "new tank syndrome" because while the tank may be somewhat cycled, it can take six months to
fully get bacteria colonies in all parts of the substrate. BacterAE can speed that up dramatically.
I would do the fish in first with the plants and introduce the shrimp one month afterwards at the earliest. Shrimp can be really sensitive to water swings, especially in smaller tanks like 10g where a small ammonia spike somewhere can have a big impact on the tank. After a month of growing, the plants will have a lot of little algae / biofilm for RCS to nibble on.
9) Food: Feed the rasboras and let the shrimp get the leftovers. If you must feed the shrimp, I'd feed no more than once a week with a small amount of sinking wafer like Shirakura Ebi Dama. That's my hands down favorite food for shrimp.
Sorry to give you a lot of stuff to worry about but I think you can pull it off really easily if you pay attention to your shrimps' needs the most. That's my honest advice and I hope it helps. Post some pics when it's up!