Nano Tank Advice

[Crossfire]

My dad has always wanted a shrimp tank for his office, and for either Father's Day or his birthday in July I'm going to buy him a 5 gallon shrimp tank! It's going to be filled with different types of neocardinia, and we don't mind if they interbreed, since they are only going to live in the 5 gallon or if they overpopulate transfer some to the main 20 gallon, and we don't plan on selling them so they can't genetically pollute purebred strains. But, my dad wants it nicely planted and I've never done nano before so I'll need some help planning this out. It'll be a regular 5 gallon rectangle or the Fluval Ebi Shrimp tank I really want to try, but it's expensive but it has everything included. I'm also thinking of putting a betta in there since he likes them, I know its a matter of the betta's personality if it eats shrimp or not, but hey we don't want to end up with 60 bajillion shrimp, we need some sort of predator to keep 'em in check! So if I could get any advice or tips on plants and other interesting nano fish that are shrimp compatible, that would be awesome!

 

[Noahs ark6]

Carpet plants? HC (cuba) is awesome).

 

[Crossfire]

Carpet plants? HC (cuba) is awesome).

I don't think I can find a light that powerful for such a small plant....and whats HC ???

 

[Noahs ark6]

HC is it's scientific name abbreviated, Hemianthus callitrichoides. A light like this would be fine for it

 

[Cazgar]

I have a 5 gal cube with shrimp & a few Cpd's, they don't bother the shrimp at all.
I have a small piece of wood with moss on it & a carpet of hair grass which seems to be doing well so far with no special lighting

 

[Crossfire]

I have a 5 gal cube with shrimp & a few Cpd's, they don't bother the shrimp at all.
I have a small piece of wood with moss on it & a carpet of hair grass which seems to be doing well so far with no special lighting

I've never seen CPD in any of my LFS, even the not so local fish stores. I was thinking moss and low lights like anubias, crypts, and java ferns, but I've tried dwarf hairgrass with T8s and it died within days

I'm sure the betta will be fine, his co-worker has a betta with shrimp and the betta bothered them for a few seconds when it was first introduced but it never bothered them again

HC is it's scientific name abbreviated, Hemianthus callitrichoides. A light like this would be fine for it

ahhh....you mean dwarf baby tears....they died in T8s too

 

[Man of fish]

How about some subwassertang? (can't keep it with moss though) or stargrass? This is a good idea. It's what I'm giving myself for fathers day lol. Maybe I'll say it's my dads present.......

 

[Noahs ark6]

I have a 5 gal cube with shrimp & a few Cpd's, they don't bother the shrimp at all.
I have a small piece of wood with moss on it & a carpet of hair grass which seems to be doing well so far with no special lighting

I've never seen CPD in any of my LFS, even the not so local fish stores. I was thinking moss and low lights like anubias, crypts, and java ferns, but I've tried dwarf hairgrass with T8s and it died within days

I'm sure the betta will be fine, his co-worker has a betta with shrimp and the betta bothered them for a few seconds when it was first introduced but it never bothered them again

HC is it's scientific name abbreviated, Hemianthus callitrichoides. A light like this would be fine for it

ahhh....you mean dwarf baby tears....they died in T8s too

Dawrf baby tears? i've never heard them called that before.

You keep saying they died under t8 lighting, if it was t8 lighting on a larger tank it's different to a smaller tank, thats why the light in the link which is only 11w would let HC grow well in a tank the size you're saying you are going to get, but not in a tank say 40 litres, because the light to water volume ratio is bigger.

 

[Crossfire]

How about some subwassertang? (can't keep it with moss though) or stargrass? This is a good idea. It's what I'm giving myself for fathers day lol. Maybe I'll say it's my dads present.......

what do you mean, you can't keep susswassertang with moss?! I have weeping moss on one side of my 20gal and susswassertang on the other side on the loach PVC cave

I don't want to get him plants we've already kept....its gotta be fresh for him!

 

[Man of fish]

You can try it, but they might get mixed together. If they mix, they're not coming apart lol.

Oh ok. Maybe pennywort? Another type of moss?

 

[Crossfire]

Dawrf baby tears? i've never heard them called that before.

You keep saying they died under t8 lighting, if it was t8 lighting on a larger tank it's different to a smaller tank, thats why the light in the link which is only 11w would let HC grow well in a tank the size you're saying you are going to get, but not in a tank say 40 litres, because the light to water volume ratio is bigger.

Oh okay...I was referring to that I had these plants in my 20 gallon with T8s and they died...in that case its fine!

You can try it, but they might get mixed together. If they mix, they're not coming apart lol.

Oh ok. Maybe pennywort? Another type of moss?

Yeah I was thinking flame moss or christmass moss and nano moss balls

 

[Noahs ark6]

I also kept dwarf hairgrass in a 125 litre with two 20 w t8's and they died, i then kept dwarf hairgrass in a 20 litre with an 11w light (the same one as in the link) and it flourished

 

[Crossfire]

I also get dwarf hairgrass in a 25 litre with two 20 w t8's and they died, i then kept dwarf hairgrass in a 20 litre with an 11 light (the same one as in the link) and it flourished

Sounds good, I think its working out...

So it will be
1x male betta
10x Cherry Shrimp
???x amount of yellow shrimp
???x amount of crystal red shrimp
???x maybe snowball shrimp or blue pearl

Moss, crypts, anubias, hairgrass and dwarf baby tears
T8s, liquid fert and CO2, and substrae fertilizer


Sound good?

 

[Cazgar]

One of my Bettas lives quite happily with shrimp, the others think they're tasty snacks, so it depends on the individual Betta.
How about some boraras brigittae stunning little fish, you could have half a dozen of those

 

[Crossfire]

One of my Bettas lives quite happily with shrimp, the others think they're tasty snacks, so it depends on the individual Betta.
How about some boraras brigittae stunning little fish, you could have half a dozen of those

I know it depends on the betta, I guess I can see if I get lucky...Y'know, like CPD i've never seen those anywhere..

Wait!!! Just remember, I did see CPDs at my LFS once......But still, he does like betta...or it could just be shrimp...we'll see
I'm also going to get nano marimo moss balls...

Has anyone had expieriance with this tank? Filter wise? It has good reviews

http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=23682