# And so it begins. First shrimp tank in the making!.



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Hey guys!, So I had some credit between two stores and thought it would be perfect to start a little 10 gallon shrimp tank.

It is going to me low-med light, planted, no Co2, and few ferts if I even decide to do any.

For shrimp I am going to start with cherries so I can stock my other 20 gallon planted, and just to get the hang of things. Then I will probably look into CRS from there.

For substrate I have Fluval stratum, and for lighting two (screw in) 13w CF's.
Filtration wise I am going to use a sponge filter. From what I have been told you dont need a heater?.

For plants I was thinking of putting a nice big sword in the middle and some crypts off to each side along with two small wooden caves I will make in time.

Here it is as bare as it will ever be. lol.


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## Canadiancray (Apr 27, 2006)

Can't wait to see the rest.


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## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

An excellent start I'd say.
That's a fairly expensive setup for cherry shrimp 
try scaping with mostly mosses as your tank has a shallow substrate. The Fluval stuff is horrible for planting. I suspect the Crypts, which have huge root systems, are gonna be a pain to keep down.


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## archgop (Sep 19, 2010)

Beijing08 said:


> An excellent start I'd say.
> That's a fairly expensive setup for cherry shrimp
> try scaping with mostly mosses as your tank has a shallow substrate. The Fluval stuff is horrible for planting. I suspect the Crypts, which have huge root systems, are gonna be a pain to keep down.


Fluval stuff is horrible for planting?? Oh no! I was about to buy the Fluval Shrimp stratum for my 1st shrimp tank. I also want it to be medium-planted...

So what substrate is good both for the shrimps and plants? I just know that the Fluval shrimp stratum is good for the water chemistry for the shrimps. Thanks for any advice!


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

The shrimp stratum works good for my plants, the only thing i find is because its so light that plants want to float up out of the substrate, i just used a clay ring on my ambulia to keep it down, so you could easily do that or use rocks or plant weights, tie to driftwood etc to keep your plants in place if u have any trouble...I have maybe an inch or more depth of substrate so its not too hard to plant
Very nice start to your tank tropicana!!!


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## Byronicle (Apr 18, 2009)

everybody doing the shrimps! If school gave me more time maybe I'll start my own. Looking forward to watching the progress


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Thanks guys!, Well Ill give planting a shot first and see how it goes I will keep the clay ring idea in mind too , but if it doesn't work out then I will do some mosses on wood and what not. I also have a bunch of smaller Anubis rhizome pieces to put on wood for the Shrimp tank too. So I will need to find some wood soon.

Today I just put in the sponge filter and heater because its freaking 18C in my Basement! O.O. So ill have to heat it until the summer lol.

As for cycling, the sponge is slightly new but has been in an established tank for a while so it will help, I want to use a couple guppies to make sure all is well and keep the bacteria happy for a while. I also planted a few small plant clippings to help cycle it faster, I probably wont keep that species in there though.

Any thoughts on Coconut bought from the store?, I mean if I cleaned/boiled the wood etc, I thought moss would grow pretty well on it since the fibers on the shells are scruffy. Maybe ill try something like that too... lol

Heres the shrimp tank as of today, from here I will let it finish semi cycling and then start to add the Main plants and wood etc. I also need to find some moss in Orillia lol.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Found a couple shrimps in my frog tank so I took a pic or 2 after I put them in the Shrimp tank. One looks almost wild!.


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## Kerohime (Jan 10, 2011)

Wow that looks like a fire red! Really nice, especially with the contrast on the substrate. 

The plants around the sponge filter is a pretty cute arrangement. lol

I hope you will eventually add some mosses, the shrimps love it! =)


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

Your cherry is great!

Fluval stratum is quite lightweight, but plants are Ok in it.
I even have a carpet made from Pygmy Chain Sword (_Echinodorus tenellus_) in one of my Fluval tanks. It's hard to plant, but then plants grow well.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Thanks guys!, Yeah she is really red eh?. Lol I had to do something cool with the plants ;p. I do plan to buy some java moss and put some on these mini log caves im making(I hope they turn out).

Yeah i found it to be pretty light weight too but its stable enough to plant in i find. Just dont swoosh the water and your good lol.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

So I found a couple more shrimps yesterday and they are settling nicely in the shrimp tank. I fed them a small piece of algae wafer and they got right to it. One already shed and is barried, Woo!

Heres a pic of the group.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Well it looks like one of the first females i put in there that was holding dropped her young. I found about 15-20 of these little guys!. Wtb macro lens lol.


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

are those fire reds?


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Uhh I dont think so. Me and my brother bought 100 off a member from here about 2 years ago. These are a few gens later. So I doubt they are fire reds but they sure are red!.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Update! Well I have a couple videos for you guys to check out. Found two interesting things in the aquarium. One is a shrimp. And the other is a hydra! Yeah i know. but i noticed a huge copepod boom so i suspect they are feeding the hydra etc. I am not worried there arent many and the copepods are reducing in population now. (less feeding etc)

the population with visible shrimp fry plus adults is now 18 from 7. I wonder how many more baby shrimps are out there. I also have 4 females berried now.

Anyways here are the videos. Enjoy and sorry for the shakiness.






Forgot to add a nice picture .


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Well I put up a video of a cherry shrimp fry that just hatched and one of the oldest cherry shrimp fry in the tank so far. Lots of algae and i dont really mind it lol enjoy the video.


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## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Very nice red color!!


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