Community tank - will shrimps live?

[Strix]

Hello, I have a 90L aquarium which I am looking to make a tropical community tank with live plants. I have done a lot of research, but thought it would be best to consult more people. My species lineup idea is:
- corydoras species (preferably Sterba’s)
- cherry barb
- cherry shrimp
Followed by a gourami or something along those lines in a few months. My main concern is the shrimp being eaten, I’ve read different accounts on this. One said that adding the shrimp first would help, do shrimp affect the cycling or do they not produce much waste? I’d happily replace the shrimps with snails or otos (would they work?) if they wouldn’t survive.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Maingano]

Hello, I have a 90L aquarium which I am looking to make a tropical community tank with live plants. I have done a lot of research, but thought it would be best to consult more people. My species lineup idea is:
- corydoras species (preferably Sterba’s)
- cherry barb
- cherry shrimp
Followed by a gourami or something along those lines in a few months. My main concern is the shrimp being eaten, I’ve read different accounts on this. One said that adding the shrimp first would help, do shrimp affect the cycling or do they not produce much waste? I’d happily replace the shrimps with snails or otos (would they work?) if they wouldn’t survive.

Thanks in advance!

If the tank is planted, yes they will survive just fine. Just nake sure to add a lot of plants and hideouts and they'll be fine, considering Gouramis swim closer to the surface where they can take gulps of air every once in a while. In terms of recycling, yeah shrimp arent going to do much (if at all) to recycle. You can probably recycle with some otos or barbs and they'll be fine. Or you could add all the fish you wsnt to add and use API quick start.

 

[kiko]

fire reds look nice...--> otos+hillstream loaches
sterbai / venezuelan or gold corys...my favorite 3 xD
and you can add some type of dwarf pleco like zebra or pitbull plecos
now when you start adding traditional fish even small nano fish..forget breeding as they'll keep each other in check hence the heavily planted to allow for some hiding/breeding
if you do want them to breed keep only species that are somewhat friendly
myself I want to do a tank with just otos/hillstream loaches/corys and plecos
these should be somewhat peaceful towards each other and still allow each other to breed

 

[Naughts]

Please can you tell us the hardness and pH of your water. If you go to your water suppliers webpage you should find a water quality report with this information on it. We need the number and units. If you can't see the data, post the link on here and someone can have a look.

At first glance the stocking sounds reasonable but you need to know which species will thrive in your water. It would also be useful to know the dimensions of the tank.

Shrimp need an established tank so would be best added after about 6 months to be successful. They do not add a lot of bioload.

A good site for researching fish requirements is seriouslyfish.com.

 

[GaryE]

The bigger gouramis are very opportunistic feeders. They experiment. I imagine they could be hard on young shrimp.

I try to stick with one bottom dweller per tank. I really like Corys, so I'm prejudiced. You can keep them with an Ancistrus, but the bigger fish will shoo them off sometimes. I wouldn't keep hillstream loaches with them because a hill stream is a pretty extreme habitat and those sucker mouthed loaches like their water in serious movement. They didn't evolve their ability to clamp onto things because they come from calm waters. They like a well oxygenated, moving water habitat shrimp would have trouble with.

 

[Strix]

The dimensions are 60x40x40cm. I was under the impression that I could change the pH and hardness to suit the fish I wanted, is this the case? A small bit of research indicates that the corys, shrimps and barbs can thrive in the same water parameters.

To be more specific with the stocking, I was thinking about adding the shrimp first so they would settle, followed by the barbs, then corys, then a small gourami like a dwarf or honey later on.

 

[kiko]

huh? shrimp will live in anything specially cherry...
now crystal blacks/reds are more finicky...now these would require a stable tank or an RO/tap water mixture ph of 7.05 or lower
I have crystal blacks in my main tank at 7.05ph under 400 tds (as my water changes are done at 400)
and my house is kept at 26-28celsius so thats the temp of my tanks..
amano shrimp are somewhat resistant too

 

[Essjay]

I was under the impression that I could change the pH and hardness to suit the fish I wanted, is this the case?

It is possible, but it would mean preparing water for every water change before it is added to the tank, and many people find this to be time consuming and inconvenient. The easiest way is to keep fish which originate in water with hardness and pH similar to our tap water.

As Naughts said, look on your water company's website for hardness. The water quality report usually contains pH as well.

 

[Naughts]

The dimensions are 60x40x40cm. I was under the impression that I could change the pH and hardness to suit the fish I wanted, is this the case? A small bit of research indicates that the corys, shrimps and barbs can thrive in the same water parameters.

To be more specific with the stocking, I was thinking about adding the shrimp first so they would settle, followed by the barbs, then corys, then a small gourami like a dwarf or honey later on.

That size tank is decent. In general shrimps and barbs need a bit harder water than corys but there is overlap so it can work, again depending on your source water.

Shrimp need stable water parameters and quality water conditions. They also need biofilm as they graze all day. These are achieved in an established tank so you risk losing some or even all of them if you add them sooner. Which shrimp do you have in mind?

 

[Strix]

Hardness - 333ppm
pH - 7.15
Looks like my water is too hard for any of the inhabitants, so I’ll have to prepare the water.
I noticed that ‘nitrate as NO3’ is at 28.1 and ‘nitrate/nitrite calculation’ is at 0.51, and I know nitrate and nitrite are toxic to fish, will that have an effect?

I’d prefer to have cherry shrimp, but I’d be happy with any caridina or neocaridina. A source said that adding the shrimp first would allow them to get established and the fish would be less likely to eat them, but if they won’t get eaten anyway then I’ll definitely add them later.

 

[Essjay]

If you want to keep soft water fish you need a source of pure water such as reverse osmosis (RO). This can be bought from a fish shop (make sure it is not remineralised, just plain RO), or equipment can be bought to make your own. The equipment does waste a lot of water so if you are on a meter you need to take that into account when comparing costs of your own equipment vs buying the water.
You can mix your tap water with RO to get the hardness needed by the fish you want. This must be done outside the tank before it is added to the tank. Mixing tap and RO 50:50 would give you 166 ppm hardness. 25:75 would give you around 80 ppm.

The nitrate level in your tap water is too high for fish health, it needs to be kept below 20 ppm, and the lower the better. As you are in the UK, the nitrate level in the water quality report is in the same unit as our test kits which makes it easier to work from. Using RO water will also dilute that nitrate to a safer level in the tank.


Of course you could always use 100% RO water and add remineralisation salts to soft water levels, but that would be more expensive than mixing it with your tap water.

 

[Strix]

Little update, the tank has finally been set up and is currently home to Cryptocoryne wendtii and undulata, Microsorum pteropus and Anubias heterophylla.

 

[Strix]

Another update, I got a couple of Cryptocoryne beckettii and some dwarf vallisneria to finish off the planting as well as 6 black neon tetras.

 

[seangee]

If you are serious about keeping soft water fish I would go RO from day 1.
I have 3 tanks of softwater fish and 1 tank of very soft water fish. I also live in an area where the water is very hard and the nitrates are right at the legal limit 50ppm. I struggled for years with various filters to try to control the nitrates and using bought RO to mix with the tap water - I had already discovered that although the fish appeared healthy they lived very short lives in hard water. When I finally switched to RO my fish were all much brighter, very healthy and now live way longer than average.

As a Christmas pressie to myself I upgraded to a direct flow tankless system, At 200 litres per week my weekends were spent filling jerry cans, often running into Monday or Tuesday if I had other things to do. Now I can fill 10 litres in 14 minutes or 25 litres in 35 so I have my life back.