Laura's 6 Gal Micro Paludarium

[LauraFrog]

Got a 6 gal, tall, thinnish tank lying around empty. The filtration system in it is bummed, haven't done anything with it for ages. So I figured it was micro paludarium time. It's a panoramic and in pretty good condition apart from the dead filtration.
The tank is the same as the attached photo of my ember tetra tank, which I was keeping cycled with some half grown platys when that photo was taken because it took me months to track down some embers. (Got a few of those tanks - they were walking for $30 a couple months ago so I pounced.)

The filtration system is driven by a powerhead pump that sits just below the waterline on the top right. It pumps water into an overhead box where it falls back to the ground. I think I could use some of the original filter parts and use another powerhead dropped to the bottom of the tank. I'm not sure.

Because there will only be about 2.5-3 gallons of water in the tank when it's set up I won't be using a heater. I'm going to white-cloud it I think, because shrimp are trops.

 

[loraxchick]

i love it...beautiful and natural looking

 

[three-fingers]

Shrimp like cherries will thrive in there without a heater . Sounds all good!

 

[LauraFrog]

lorax - thanks! I love that tank too, apart from a serious BBA problem it still looks good about ten months after I set it up. It's still got embers and shrimp and pygmy corys in it. I like my tanks to be natural so I'm going for natural-look on the paludarium as well, but I might use more rock than wood because pretty much everything will need to be siliconed in place.

Cherry shrimp are really - REALLY - hard to find in Australia. Saw some today, $12 each... might be a bit outside my price range but I can get other small shrimp, like glass shrimp and amanos, pretty cheaply. (The whole really-high-fish-prices thing isn't new... somebody's flogging a motoro ray for three grand. They'll get it too.) So could I keep those other shrimp without a heater? It's not going to get really, really cold, but probably 12C on a freezing night. We'd get probably ten of those a year, 16C most nights in winter but up to 27 no heater in summer.

 

[bagu]

looks nice and natural!

 

[three-fingers]

Glass shrimp - it would depend on the species, dozens are called 'glass shrimp' depending on where you live. Some need a heater, some dont need a heater and some can be negatively affected by warmer water.

Amano shrimp are fine without a heater at those temperatures . I had them survive 10*C for a couple of weeks. Permanently I'd assume that low is bad, but with your other high temps they will be fine .

 

[lljdma06]

Any updates on this?

 

[Truck]

most shrimps available in the aquarium trade are mainly coldwater anyway...cherryshrimp and amano shrimp live in cooler habitats in the wild...as a pose to a tropical 23-26 in the average aquarium...however they will be happy from 10-26ish degrees...even lower sometimes...but once you go below 16 degrees they may not be as prolific at breeding