Newbie would like equipment, stocking advice (shrimp)

[Rocco Moretti]

Hello All,

First off, I'd like to say that I'm virtually new to the hobby. About
twelve years ago or so, I had one of those 2 gallon "deco" hex tanks
with an air-pump driven UGF and primary-colored gravel, which at various
times held bettas, white cloud minnows and cories. I was hopelessly
naive - knew nothing about cycling, did sporadic 100% water changes, and
kept the bettas on a flake-only diet. With lurking here for the past few
months and reading various websites (p.s. thanks NetMax), I think I have
a better understanding of what I need to do differently (i.e.,
everything). -- I'm starting with asking questions before I buy anything.

What's caught my eye are the freshwater shrimp, so I'm hoping to set up
a tank featuring some. At this point I don't have anything yet, so I'd
like peoples' opinions on what to look for/what to avoid. I'm thinking
of getting a small (10-20 gallon) tank - I was hoping to find one of
those starter kits that NetMax talks about, but the ones I've found so
far all come with UGFs, which I was hoping to avoid.

To help with keeping down nitrates for the inverts, I'm thinking of
lightly planting with low-light plants. I'm also looking for suggestions
on mid- or upper-level fish to fill the rest of the tank, but only if
they won't harass my precious shrimp.

I don't have water parameters yet (no kits), but the city water is hard
(from a limestone aquifer, I think) - the water snows on boiling (high
KH, right?), and the kettle gets a thick layer of scale (high GH, yes?).
The water utility reports hardness at "about 20 grains of hardness per
gallon, or 342 parts per million as calcium carbonate" - or a GH of 19.2
dH, as I figure it. No info on KH or pH was provided.

Substrate is also a question. I was thinking about sand (with MTS), or
maybe pea-gravel, but I think I read somewhere that light substrate
stresses the fish, so now I'm not so sure.

I'm looking for any "look for this", "avoid that", "If I knew then..."
advice you care to dispense - I hope to keep my shrimp happy enough so
that I might think of breeding them someday.

A "school" of thanks,
-Rocco

[NetMax]

"Rocco Moretti" > wrote in message
...
> Hello All,
>
> First off, I'd like to say that I'm virtually new to the hobby. About
> twelve years ago or so, I had one of those 2 gallon "deco" hex tanks
> with an air-pump driven UGF and primary-colored gravel, which at
various
> times held bettas, white cloud minnows and cories. I was hopelessly
> naive - knew nothing about cycling, did sporadic 100% water changes,
and
> kept the bettas on a flake-only diet. With lurking here for the past
few
> months and reading various websites (p.s. thanks NetMax), I think I
have
> a better understanding of what I need to do differently (i.e.,
> everything). -- I'm starting with asking questions before I buy
anything.
>
> What's caught my eye are the freshwater shrimp, so I'm hoping to set up
> a tank featuring some. At this point I don't have anything yet, so I'd
> like peoples' opinions on what to look for/what to avoid. I'm thinking
> of getting a small (10-20 gallon) tank - I was hoping to find one of
> those starter kits that NetMax talks about, but the ones I've found so
> far all come with UGFs, which I was hoping to avoid.
>
> To help with keeping down nitrates for the inverts, I'm thinking of
> lightly planting with low-light plants. I'm also looking for
suggestions
> on mid- or upper-level fish to fill the rest of the tank, but only if
> they won't harass my precious shrimp.
>
> I don't have water parameters yet (no kits), but the city water is hard
> (from a limestone aquifer, I think) - the water snows on boiling (high
> KH, right?), and the kettle gets a thick layer of scale (high GH,
yes?).
> The water utility reports hardness at "about 20 grains of hardness per
> gallon, or 342 parts per million as calcium carbonate" - or a GH of
19.2
> dH, as I figure it. No info on KH or pH was provided.
>
> Substrate is also a question. I was thinking about sand (with MTS), or
> maybe pea-gravel, but I think I read somewhere that light substrate
> stresses the fish, so now I'm not so sure.
>
> I'm looking for any "look for this", "avoid that", "If I knew then..."
> advice you care to dispense - I hope to keep my shrimp happy enough so
> that I might think of breeding them someday.
>
> A "school" of thanks,
> -Rocco


Quite a challenge. It's safe to assume that your kH and pH are also on
the high side. I'm not sure if there are any crustaceans indigenous to
places like the Rift lakes. Plants will also be .... restricted in
choices. Probably only a dozen plants which will do reasonably well
(less with low light). As for fish, look for anything small and/or with
an upturned mouth which does well in alkaline water (livebearers,
rainbowfish etc).

You will be doing more research, and/or experimentation. There are quite
a few sites on shrimp, so maybe you can find out what they list as
environmental limits (though you might find that you can exceed them
under the right conditions). Alternately, modifying your water to suit
is another option.

regards
--
www.NetMax.tk

[Bill H.]

On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 12:10:20 -0500, Rocco Moretti
> wrote:

>What's caught my eye are the freshwater shrimp, so I'm hoping to set up
>a tank featuring some. At this point I don't have anything yet, so I'd
>like peoples' opinions on what to look for/what to avoid. I'm thinking
>of getting a small (10-20 gallon) tank - I was hoping to find one of
>those starter kits that NetMax talks about, but the ones I've found so
>far all come with UGFs, which I was hoping to avoid.

Take a look at at 20 gallon "tall" tank. I don't know the exact
dimensions, but these are very good for beginners and will last you
for a while until you're ready to move up to something larger.

A 10 gallon tank is fine too, but you might soon feel limited by it.
You can't safely house as many fish as a 20 gallon which, depending on
your aspirations, may be a problem down the road.

As for the UGFs, I hate them, but that's just me. In the past I had a
29 gallon community tank with a Whisper Power Filter (forget the model
#). This worked pretty well, was affordable, and was easy to
maintain. I also owned a 55 gallon tank with a Fluval 304 canister
filter, which did a better job than the Whisper, but was more
labor-intensive when it came to things like cleaning and changing the
filter media.

If I had one piece of advice for the filter, it would be to buy a
little more than you think you'll need. You won't regret the money
spent down the road if you want to move up to a larger tank, and
there's really no danger in having more filtration than you need...at
least not in MY experience.

>To help with keeping down nitrates for the inverts, I'm thinking of
>lightly planting with low-light plants. I'm also looking for suggestions
>on mid- or upper-level fish to fill the rest of the tank, but only if
>they won't harass my precious shrimp.

If you're going with live plants, you'll need to make sure your tank
has enough light, even for the low-level ones. The stock lighting kits
on most new tanks is just not enough to grow ANYTHING but algae. I'd
take a look on Ebay or www.ahsupply.com for lighting ideas. There are
plenty of DIY plans out there too, and with compact florescents, you
can get a ton of light over even the smallest tanks.

>Substrate is also a question. I was thinking about sand (with MTS), or
>maybe pea-gravel, but I think I read somewhere that light substrate
>stresses the fish, so now I'm not so sure.

Do you mean light *colored* substrate? I don't know about "stress",
but darker substrates usually look better in tanks, since they tend to
let the natural colors of your fish come out more. Too much white and
light colors doesn't really provide enough visual constrast. If you
can, try to mimic the environments you would find in the fish's
natural habitats. Do they come from rocky lakes, or sandy streams?
Also, be sure to pick a substrate that will be good for your plants.
A sand and dark gravel mix can be good, and there are substrates you
can buy that will give your plants a good amount of nutrients as well.

>I'm looking for any "look for this", "avoid that", "If I knew then..."
>advice you care to dispense - I hope to keep my shrimp happy enough so
>that I might think of breeding them someday.

Keep asking questions and go slow. A successful aquarium can take a
while to attain, but it's worth the effort.

Oh, and a final word on "Beginner kits". There are plenty of these
available, but it's rare that they include everything you'll want, and
they often include things that just don't want. Many of them come
with cheap filters or poor heaters, thermometers, filters, airstones,
etc. I guess I'm suggesting buying more quality products which might
cost a little more up front, but are usually well worth it.


For inspiration, check this out:
http://www.vectrapoint.com/main/photo/aquascape/aquascape.html

Oh, and while there's a tutorial here that covers the introduction of
freshwater shrimp to an aquarium. Chapter 4 or 5, maybe. I like
showing newbies these links because this guy (Takashi Amano) is a real
artist when it comes to planted aquariums.
http://www.vectrapoint.com/main/manual/manual.html

Good luck, and have fun.

-Bill H.

[Nitesbane]

"Bill H." > wrote in message
...
>
> Oh, and a final word on "Beginner kits". There are plenty of these
> available, but it's rare that they include everything you'll want, and
> they often include things that just don't want. Many of them come
> with cheap filters or poor heaters, thermometers, filters, airstones,
> etc. I guess I'm suggesting buying more quality products which might
> cost a little more up front, but are usually well worth it.
>

I wish someone had mentioned this to me when I was first starting out. I
don't even want to think about how much equipment I went through because I
bought cheap stuff that broken within a week or two. I think I went through
3 or 4 heaters before I met a guy who works at Petco who actually knows
something about fish. He suggested a plastic submersible heater (I forget
the brand name...came with a yellow box, and the heater itself is black with
a red knob that adjusts the temp) and it's still going despite the fact that
I accidentally left it on and out of the water for several hours.