Stocking ideas

[Lauren Olivia]

Hi everyone! You all seem to have really cool tanks and I can’t make a decision so I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on what to do with my tanks I currently have a 100L with a cool planted scape with 14 ish neon tetras, a small bn pleco and some cherry shrimp, half of which are brown. I also have a 30l betta tank that I’m not looking to change. In the next week or so I will be getting a 20l for which my original plan was to put my cherry shrimp in so I can have a centrepiece fish that would otherwise eat shrimp in my 100l but now I can’t find anything I’m particularly in love with, I’m tempted to use the 20L for something else. I was planning on scaping it with a moss covered bonsai tree. Any ideas? Would it be more fun to keep the shrimp in the big tank and keep it chill with neon tetras then get something new in the 20L? Or should I put them in the small one so I can get a centrepiece fish? The new one is actually a shrimp setup but from what I can see the only difference is a shrimp safe filter. I’ve attached a picture of my 100L in case it helps

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Actually we need to know your water GH and pH before we can suggest to you.

If you have soft water, you can consider Apistogramma Cacatuoides Triple Red as your centerpiece.
You can add bottom level fish such as the Panda Corydoras (minimum 6).

20(5 gallons) liter is more suitable for a single Betta. It might be too small for other fish.

You can use your 30 liters(7-8 gallons) for your shrimps.

But if you want to keep the shrimps in the 100 liter tank, you can consider other bigger shrimps like Bamboo Shrimps (2-3) and Whiptail Red lizard (1-2).
You can add more shrimps and a group of Pygmy Corydoras(10 or more).

 

[Lauren Olivia]

Actually we need to know your water GH and pH before we can suggest to you.

If you have soft water, you can consider Apistogramma Cacatuoides Triple Red as your centerpiece.
You can add bottom level fish such as the Panda Corydoras (minimum 6).

20(5 gallons) liter is more suitable for a single Betta. It might be too small for other fish.

You can use your 30 liters(7-8 gallons) for your shrimps.

But if you want to keep the shrimps in the 100 liter tank, you can consider other bigger shrimps like Bamboo Shrimps (2-3) and Whiptail Red lizard (1-2).
You can add more shrimps and a group of Pygmy Corydoras(10 or more).

My water is naturally very hard, just had a discussion on here about lowering it. I now have RO water to lower it to 143ppm in my 100L for the neons. It was double that before. Is a 20L too small for shrimp then?
i love Corydoras but my only worry with them was that I’m attempting to grow a bit of Monte Carlo and thought they might dig it up. My substrate is fluval stratum.
My shrimp are already breeding so I have lots. Do you know anything about why half of them are brown?

 

[Essjay]

What type of shrimps do you have?
Cherry shrimps, for example, come in many colours and if they are mixed in a tank the offspring usually revert to wild colour which is brownish.

 

[Lajos_Detari]

I guess you can keep shrimps in 20 liter but if your shrimps numbers increased, it will become overcrowded.

I agree with Essjay that your Cherry shrimps may have reverted back to their wild colour which is brown. The selective breeding created the red colour.

With your GH of 143ppm, you can keep some soft water fish.
But if I were you, I would have just kept hardwater fish.
It can be a lot of work to keep checking the GH and mixing the tap water with RO water. Any big change of GH may kill your fish and shrimps.

 

[Lauren Olivia]

What type of shrimps do you have?
Cherry shrimps, for example, come in many colours and if they are mixed in a tank the offspring usually revert to wild colour which is brownish.

They are all cherry shrimp. I did once end up with a brown shrimp so yeah that’s probably it. I don’t mind though, they’re still cute.

 

[Lauren Olivia]

I guess you can keep shrimps in 20 liter but if your shrimps numbers increased, it will become overcrowded.

I agree with Essjay that your Cherry shrimps may have reverted back to their wild colour which is brown. The selective breeding created the red colour.

With your GH of 143ppm, you can keep some soft water fish.
But if I were you, I would have just kept hardwater fish.
It can be a lot of work to keep checking the GH and mixing the tap water with RO water. Any big change of GH may kill your fish and shrimps.

The issue with that was I already had neon tetras in the tank. They were what I was changing it for as a couple started to struggle. Do you have any suggestions of hard water fish apart from livebearers?

 

[Lauren Olivia]

Ah it was Essjay that helped me last time with my hardness issues! Turns out we had gotten confused over the units and my hardness is 287ppm

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Usually the Shell dwellers are good or some smaller species of Lake Tanganyikan fish probably like Neolamprologus Caudopunctatus.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I guess you can keep shrimps in 20 liter but if your shrimps numbers increased, it will become overcrowded.

I agree with Essjay that your Cherry shrimps may have reverted back to their wild colour which is brown. The selective breeding created the red colour.

With your GH of 143ppm, you can keep some soft water fish.
But if I were you, I would have just kept hardwater fish.
It can be a lot of work to keep checking the GH and mixing the tap water with RO water. Any big change of GH may kill your fish and shrimps.

Actually, shrimp won't keep breeding if they run out of space or don't have enough food @seangee helpfully filled me about that, since I'm used to guppies who would keep breeding even if they were packed into a tank like sardines. Apparently red cherry shrimp will naturally control their own population numbers, and stop breeding when they feel they've maxed out, which is a wonderful quality that makes them perfect for nano tanks

 

[Lauren Olivia]

Actually, shrimp won't keep breeding if they run out of space or don't have enough food @seangee helpfully filled me about that, since I'm used to guppies who would keep breeding even if they were packed into a tank like sardines. Apparently red cherry shrimp will naturally control their own population numbers, and stop breeding when they feel they've maxed out, which is a wonderful quality that makes them perfect for nano tanks

Ah that’s awesome! That’s the reason I don’t keep guppies and platies any more, had a little too much success with breeding and just kept having to give loads away.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Ah that’s awesome! That’s the reason I don’t keep guppies and platies any more, had a little too much success with breeding and just kept having to give loads away.

Haha, that's exactly how I ended up with four tanks instead of the two I started with... lol.
The big community tank had just enough molly and platy fry survive that they only needed bagging and taking to the store maybe once every six months or so, and it went that way for years. So I set up a little guppy/shrimp colony tank, hoping it would be the same kind of thing there. But I kept adding more and more live plants because I loved the live plants, and more and more guppy/platy/molly fry were surviving, so more tanks needed...

I knew what livebearers are like, I just didn't account for all the extra plants leading to so many more survivors, haha. So winding down the livebearer populations now. It's fun for a while, but it can quickly get to be way too much sorting and moving and bagging to go to the store. Time to try something that doesn't churn out fry quite as fast!

 

[Lauren Olivia]

Haha, that's exactly how I ended up with four tanks instead of the two I started with... lol.
The big community tank had just enough molly and platy fry survive that they only needed bagging and taking to the store maybe once every six months or so, and it went that way for years. So I set up a little guppy/shrimp colony tank, hoping it would be the same kind of thing there. But I kept adding more and more live plants because I loved the live plants, and more and more guppy/platy/molly fry were surviving, so more tanks needed...

I knew what livebearers are like, I just didn't account for all the extra plants leading to so many more survivors, haha. So winding down the livebearer populations now. It's fun for a while, but it can quickly get to be way too much sorting and moving and bagging to go to the store. Time to try something that doesn't churn out fry quite as fast!

Yep, it’s so easy to end up with more tanks, our house now has a 180L, 135L, 100L, 45L, 30L, big pond, and I’m gaining a 20L soon. Oh and we set up my grandma a 120l tank to keep her company fish obsessed family here. I’m loving shrimp breeding but staying away from anything else with neon tetras and bettas in my tanks now. My first ever tank had 1 female platy who I later discovered can actually wait and decide to get pregnant a while after being with males. It was so exciting to me though

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Actually, shrimp won't keep breeding if they run out of space or don't have enough food @seangee helpfully filled me about that, since I'm used to guppies who would keep breeding even if they were packed into a tank like sardines. Apparently red cherry shrimp will naturally control their own population numbers, and stop breeding when they feel they've maxed out, which is a wonderful quality that makes them perfect for nano tanks

I am not sure how accurate is your information.
From the internets, there are people who claimed that they have 500 shrimps in a 5 gallons tank.
Do you consider this as overcrowded?

But it's definitely true that they can't breed more when they run out of food cos they need a lot of food and protein in order to keep breeding.
Or they may die off when they are over populated due to overcrowding or disease or other reasons which will control and reduce their numbers down.

Anyway, I think all these don't really matter...
Just enjoy this hobby...

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I am not sure how accurate is your information.
From the internets, there are people who claimed that they have 500 shrimps in a 5 gallons tank.
Do you consider this as overcrowded?

But it's definitely true that they can't breed more when they run out of food cos they need a lot of food and protein in order to keep breeding.
Or they may die off when they are over populated due to overcrowding or disease or other reasons which will control and reduce their numbers down.

Anyway, I think all these don't really matter...
Just enjoy this hobby...

@seangee care to weigh in?

I trust Sean's advice, he knows what he's talking about.