Looking For A Few Bits Of Advice...

[Shifty1303]

Hi!
 
have a few questions to run by you all today and answers to any of them would be appreciated.
 
I have a 110litre aquarium stocked with a peppered cory, bronze cory, 5 glowlight tetras, a 5-stripe barb, a tiger barb (mistaken for a 5-stripe when bought as a baby) and a few nerite snails. i realise this is both under stocked and a weird combination but the shoal numbers have slowly dropped over a couple of years due to natural causes (thankfully no disease in a long while) and as a university student I am away from home for up to 15 weeks at a time and have to rely on my family and tetra easy-balance to keep the aquarium going in my absence. I am constantly deliberating whether to stock up on fish as i want bigger shoals to make the fish happier but am concerned about upsetting the balance before i leave back for college. so my first question is really what are people's thoughts on this matter?
 
my second query regards feeding. the catfish are fine with eating but i rarely see the tetras and barbs eat anything. i have tried tetra flake, tetra sinking granules, hikari micro wafers and another flake brand which i cant remember along with frozen bloodworm. Bloodworm aside, the fish will chase and eat the food initially before spitting it out and then immediately losing interest. this has been happening for over 6 months now but they are all still alive and colourful etc so they must be eating something? i am at a loss as to what to feed them now.
 
thirdly (and finally) I am interested in the prospect of adding some ghost shrimp or similar to my aquarium to help with general cleanliness etc while I am away and was wondering again whether this is a good idea and if so how easy shrimp are to look after? I have however had issues in the past with what i think is low calcium levels causing my nerite's shells to partially dissolve and turn a pinky colour so would this be an issue for shrimp in any way?
 
final note: tested the water two days ago with API freshwater kit and got readings: pH: 7.0; Ammonia: 0ppm; Nitrite: 0ppm; Nitrate: ~40ppm (<-- will change water soon)
 
apologies for the long post and thanks in advance for any responses!

 

[BerryAttack]

if you are leaving i wouldn't get anymore fish. it'll add more maintenance.
the fish are most likely eating if they haven't then 6 months without food they should be dead. if they look skinny, and have a pit where the stomach is then they are not good and need more food.
if you have a catfish in the tank then the shrimp will be eaten.. the barbs and tetras i do not know if they will pick on them. but for the tank as it has other fish should be densely planted or they will stress and die. the pink colour for the shrimp i think is that they are stressed and died that way. not too familiar, but when i had shrimp in my 20 gallon with guppies they bred and where find even though it was not densely planted.. 

 

[haleem8777]

i think by catfish he or she means the corys

 

[Shifty1303]

would a cory really have a go at shrimp?? they seem so docile all the time.
 
also one additional thing. when i am away the pest snail population blooms (mostly pond snails) so i was considering getting some assassin snails to help control it. would they be of concern to the nerite snails i already have? and what can i do about the dissolving shell issue? is there a safe way to add calcium to the water now that my ph is stable? how many assassin snails would be needed to control a 110 litre tank without eradicating the pest snails, as they are somewhat useful in cleaning up detritus etc.
 
cheers!