ideas needed

Hi all I'm after some advice, I've recently got a second hand 5ft shallow tank (60x15x12) 45g and I'm not sure what to do? One of my concerns is filtration and dead spots, in such a long but fairly small tank will I have dead spots and how do I go about preventing this? Does anyone have advice...

Ignoring the bad puns up above, what are some suggestions for relatively dark patterned Neocardina or Cardina shrimp? I'm looking at a heavily planted setup (6.6g/25l) to house a pair of licorice gourami, and was curious if anyone had some suggestions! While I know Neo. shrimp prefer cooler...