Your red tiger lotus may not stay very red because if you dose additional iron you could kill your shrimp. If you use a regular all-inclusive type of fertilizer which contains some iron, your shrimp should be OK. The red colored plants generally need more iron to maintain their color though and I donāt think that (tank full of red plants) is a good combination for a shrimp tank, personally. Shrimp are sensitive to metals in their water.
If you allow the red tiger lotus to reach the surface, you wonāt have much to see inside the tank except for several thin leaf stalks reaching the surface. It wonāt be a great centerpiece plant, unless you keep it small and bushy.
The roots of the lotus can easily take over a tiny tank also and smother out anything else that youāre trying to grow in the substrate too (all those other red stem plants). I keep my red tiger lotus in a 4ā pot filled with aquarium gravel (and one root tab) and when I clean the tank I pick up the pot and trim any roots coming out of the pot. I also keep trimming the leaves because I want the leaves to stay shorter and bushy. When they grow as tall as I would like them to be, I trim then. I donāt want the leaves to reach the surface of my 30 gallon tank even though it is an open top tank and I certainly could allow plants to reach the surface and flower. I like the red look too but I also like all the green I have in that tank and I want to keep it that way. I also have no shrimp in this particular tank.
Go ahead and try it, but it is probably best āon paperā than āin practiceā.
