# How do you clean a shrimp tank/planted tank?



## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

I'm concerned about sucking out the shrimp and also small plants. I've not built my landscape yet but would like something similar to this.

http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2009.cgi?&op=showcase&category=0&vol=0&id=124 But with some leafy plants in as well.

I plan on making a small dwarf puffer tank as well in a small tank which is also a concern of mine as I plan on putting plants in it as well.


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## Rmwbrown (Jan 22, 2009)

The shrimp hold on pretty good as long as the plants are rooted well - very rarely will the python suck them out of the tank. If it does the shrimp will fight the current long enough for you to pull the the python and flush her back into the tank. With any planted tank, you don't really need to do a deep substrate clean. 

That said, I don't know how the other shrimp keepers on here feel, but I wouldn't suggest an iwagumi set up for a shrimp tank - or at least not for RCS. You always see amano shrimp in the iwagumi/AGA contest setups, however, their primary role is to clean up algae and maintain the aesthetics of the tank. A healthy stress free shrimp population is secondary. I was running a 20 gallon iwagumi with RCS for about 2-3 months and then started adding stems because the shrimp seemed stressed and many of the fertile females where no longer bringing the eggs to term. Stems or moss seem pretty key. More over, dosing a heavily planted/hi-tech shrimp tank also comes with a series of special considerations. 

I'm not condemning the show tank/contest tank practice but I think you need to figure out where your priorities are.


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

i am thinking of snails.. i just don't know which type of snail would look good and not reproduce so fast, but also clean the detritus.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

BettaBeats said:


> i am thinking of snails.. i just don't know which type of snail would look good and not reproduce so fast, but also clean the detritus.


Assassins in fairly large volume.
if you have tonnes of plants that'll help with detrus. Corydoras would also be a good thing to have. They're fun as heck to watch anyways. If you had amano shrimp, corys, and some random snails, you're going to be pretty free of uneaten food and stuff like that but you'll still have some 'mulm' or whatever you want to call it .


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

BettaBeats said:


> i am thinking of snails.. i just don't know which type of snail would look good and not reproduce so fast, but also clean the detritus.


Snails will most likely eat your plants. You should look into getting otocinclus, they don't bother shrimp at all. They don't reproduce often either.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

I never bother "cleaning" my planted heavily planted tank. There are never any detritus or left over food in the tank (due to the shrimp and snails in there). Any fallen leaves, dead plant matter or even the occasional shrimp carcass just gets picks on and scavenged by the inhabitants. The only maintenance I do for that tank is regular water change by syphoning water from the top as to not disturb the sand/plant root/snail/shrimps.


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## Rmwbrown (Jan 22, 2009)

Joeee said:


> Snails will most likely eat your plants. You should look into getting otocinclus, they don't bother shrimp at all. They don't reproduce often either.


I think your missing the spirit of my argument here. There are many fish and inverts that don't do well in an traditional iwagumi set up. I would include Oto Cats in this category. If you look at the photos of Amano's early iwagumi tanks you will see 20-30 Oto Cats huddled in one corner of the tank. The tank depicted above is a pretty good example of this: Galaxy Rasboras don't do very well in an open tank and up being pretty stressed out. In my opinion this is why you often see Amano using a small shoaling fish in very large numbers in many of his early iwagumis - safety in numbers where hardscape/plants aren't available to clam the fish and keep them content.

What I would suggest is something in the style or spirit of an iwagumi tank. Here is an article about "iwagumi style" from Aqauscaping World Magazine. 
http://www.aquascapingworld.com/magazine/Magazine/Iwagumi-Style.html
Instead of using straight up carpeting plants like HC the scape has been modified with other small stem plants - in this case it looks like Blyxa. Actually, if you do a search on shrimp tanks on this forum I believe is was "KevDawg" that posted his shrimp tank which is an excellent example of somthing in the style of an iwagumi which avoids the pitfalls of the traditional version.

It hasn't become rampant here, but my concern is that much of Amano's aesthetic styling and the products he makes are intended to sell a lifestyle that does not necessarily coincide with ethical/humaine practices. As much as possible the hobby has to be about the ecology and care of fish and not particular variations of commodity fetishism.


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