Good, Harmless Invertebrae (crab/cray/yabby Etc)

[dredgy]

Hi all,

I'm setting up my first tropical aquarium, and am theming it after a creek I grew up around.

It will be heavily planted and I'm looking for interesting species to place in it, the tank is 220 litres, probably down to about 207-210 with substrate and rocks.

These are the fish species I'd like to have:

• Spiny Eel
• 5x Melon Barbs
• 2x Bristlenose Plecos
• Some freshwater mussels

I would also very much like a crayfish or crab to go with them, though I understand this will be extremely difficult, if possible. I'd settle for some cherry shrimps I guess, but they don't seem to be particularly exciting species. A mid-size cray or Yabby would be ideal for me, but I doubt he'd get along with the barbs, plecos or mussels.

Any suggestions?

 

[SombreroBanana]

You could look at mexican orange dwarf crays. They're very colorful, they all have quite a personality, and only grow to about 2 inches. However, they're very hard to come buy. You can only buy them online in bulk that I've seen, so you'd have to find some other way to get them.

 

[dredgy]

They look awesome, but I'm pretty sure they're illegal to import here (Australia) unfortunately.

 

[SombreroBanana]

They look awesome, but I'm pretty sure they're illegal to import here (Australia) unfortunately.

Why do you think they're illegal to import?

 

[Baccus]

Yes Any invert is illigal to import into Australia (live that is no issues with cooked prawns coming over tho

).
With a spiny eel almost all of the smaller shrimp will be out but from somewhere like LiveFish.com at Childers you can buy Macrobrachium (long armed shrimp), or if you have a creek nearby they are probably already in it. Macrobrachium are a fairly large and brave shrimp that wont have any issues with taking on most fish.
Mussels are really not a good idea, they tend to starve in tanks and when they die they pollute the water like a bomb.
I am guessing that you want the tank to have an eel like creature, because the creek you knew had eels, mussels as well. The barbs could just represent a fish while Brisltenoses we have equivelent, apart from some amazing snails.
So if I can could I make a suggestion?
I would try to get some Pacific Blue Eyes, a beautiful fish that has strains/ variesties found up and down the east coast of Australia to I think about Sydney. A group of Khuli loaches would fill in the eel look alike fish and be peaceful with native glass shrimp or if you wanted cherry shrimp. For algea cleaning we have native nerite snails (I recently got some from North QLD) as well as some other nice snails like Waterhouse snails which are available from Aquagreen. Aquagreen also sells quite a few naitve shrimp fish and plants. I also know that Livefish sells native freshwater crabs but I suspect they may be for a species tank only. I know in my area of Australia I can find native freshwater crabs in almost any nearby creek.
If you should decide to go and collect any shrimp, crabs, yabbies from our waterways please remember that some species are strictly no take, so it would pay to find out what is completely protected and what can be taken in number.

 

[dredgy]

Hi Baccus, thanks for your suggestions and advice.

I couldn't name the species of fish in the creek I grew up with - just fish, rays, eels, yabbies, crabs and a lot of cattle skulls. It would've been brackish water, as it joined to a beach, so species authenticity isn't a big deal. Just a lot of life - plant and otherwise. I'll be honest, looks are more important than authenticity (though we have so many great native species).

So yeah, the barbs are a representation of fish, and the plecos are because they look awesome and hopefully will be useful cleaners.

And muscles just appealed to me when I saw them on LiveFish, so I thought why not, but I'll definitely hold off. I'm looking at Blue-Eyes now and I wouldn't mind having a couple in the tank, there is a good variety and they're kinda cute.
Khuli loach is right up my alley, I'll definitely see if I can get those.

Invertebrates may not be a good idea, I might just start off with a shrimp or two and see how well they do. I'll play around with the rest of the stock,

Thanks very much

 

[Baccus]

No worries, glad to help

, that is what we are here for

Pacific blue eyes are an amazing little fish, their eyes are just stunning when you see them in the light for the first time. We have a few other types of blue eye as well some of which are really wonderful, especially the males when they have their full breeding finnage to show off.

Dont get me wrong bristle noses are a great fish (heck I breed enough of them

) but you rarely get to see them once mature males are generally worse then females for being stubborn about staying in their prefered hidey hole. Believe it or not I have found nerite snails to be better algea eaters on glass than bristlenoses and nerite snails would work if you wanted to try brackish, although they can also adapt to fresh water but are unable to successfuly raise offspring in full fresh. Another brackish fish that springs to mind are certain types of goby, great little fish with plenty of character.
below is one of my native nerites from North QLD as well as a couple of other special snails also from up that part of Oz.

If you can get Khuli loaches (my local shop doesn't always have them), try to get a nice group of them. They are social fish and even in the collection I have, there is at least 3 types/ breed of stripy Khuli and hopefully only one type of black. But khuli loaches are strictly a fresh water type fish.

Some other great shrimp options available to use here in Australia are shrimp like Blackmore river shrimp, Australian Chameleon shrimp, Red Nosed shrimp, Typhus shrimp and Riffle shrimp. Harder to track down are North QLD Zebra shrimp and Caridina confusa. I must admit I am a little shrimp mad

, but they are great creatures and do a great job in a tank.

Once you do decide on your stocking and setting up the tank, please post some pictures I will be interested in seeing the set up

.

 

[dredgy]

Thank you again, my tank just gets delivered tomorrow so I'll start cycling and planting over the next week and then I'll look around and see what I can find. Those "special" snails are certainly interesting, I've seen plenty of these up where I'm from, though I'm not entirely sure if I'd find them wild here.

 

[Baccus]

Good luck with the cycling of the tank, and keep us posted.
Where you going with a sand or gravel substrate or even a mix of the two? Khuli loaches and almost any catfish species (aside from the suckermouth types) will prefer sand.
I just used Bunnings prebaged sand in my tanks, which is mainly for small paving jobs. Once clean this sand goes very white

 

[dredgy]

I have a river sand substrate, though the tank did come with two bags of gravel, so I *may* mix the two. I'm just about to clean the sand now.

 

[Baccus]

Remember with the sand rinse, rinse and rinse some more

, I find a smooth gravel and sand blend works well for my plants.
I don't know exactly where the special snails where collected from, just some where in the far north. I am in fairly regular contact with the guy who supplied them to me, and every so often he lets me know of any more little gems he has come across.