Small Fish For 10 Gallon, High Ph Cherry Shrimp Tank?

[Gvilleguy]

I have a 10 gallon tank with crushed coral for substrate. I bought the entire setup already mature, and it has about 50 cherry shrimp now. The shrimp are my priority in this tank...I do not want to introduce any fish that would endanger the colony. But I would love to see a little more activity.

The crushed coral keeps the pH around 7.8 to 8.0 consistently. Without the coral the pH would plummet to 6.0 from my local tap water.

Any suggestions for small fish for this environment? My first thought was Pygmy cories, but I did not know if the pH is too high for them.

 

[fluttermoth]

I think you're right; pygmy cories wouldn't like water that hard. The substrate's not ideal either, even though pygmys spend less time at the bottom than most cories.
 
You have a few choices. Endlers are cheap and easy, but are very pretty fish, and if you have all males, won't cause you any trouble.
 
There's also celestial pearl danios or dwarf emerald danios. What are the dimensions of the tank? Featherfin rainbows might be an option, if you've got enough length.

 

[the_lock_man]

Male Endlers were my first thoughts, too. They tick all the boxes.

 

[Gvilleguy]

This tank is 20 in wide x 10 in deep (not sure about height, and don't want to do the math before breakfast).
 
Endlers - good suggestion! I did not think about them. I kept four endlers for almost two years in a 26 gallon community. I liked them. The problem would be finding a local source for them. They are not usually stocked in the stores around here. 
 
Celestial pearl danios would be a dream....but I've never seen them in local stores.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I will start to keep watch for them.

 

[Ch4rlie]

I in fact keep endlers in a 10 gal tank, along with some microrasboras (kubotai, but these require slightly lower ph at around 7 - 7.5.) I love these endlers, not all that smart tbh but enteratining and are guttons for food
 
I keep them with red cherry shrimps as well as assassin snails in a low tech tank with some easy to look after plants
 
BTW, i also keep celestial pearl danios in a larger tank, lovely little fish but are skittish, they spook easily and need room to dash to, so imo a small group of CPD's in a 10 gal tank is JUST about ok but I'd prefer to see them in a larger tank really.

 

[Gvilleguy]

I will lean toward the endlers then. I would rather match fish types to the proper sized tank than cramp their style. Do you guys think I can do 8 endlers in 10 gallons? Or should I got closer to 6?

 

[fluttermoth]

You should be fine with eight, or even ten, depending on your base nitrate levels.

Male Endlers have a very small bioload

 

[Gvilleguy]

I will admit it. I am weak. I drove to another city today to check a small fish shop - they had an amazing array of cichlids and other types of fish not found at the big box stores. They did not have any Endlers, but they did have Celestial Pearls. Seven of them. I bought them for the shrimp tank. They are so awesome looking I could not resist. I'm probably going to post a video in another thread asking how they look and ask for opinions - one in particular is emaciated and I hope I can nurse him to health.

 

[Gvilleguy]

An update on this old thread. The seven Celestials that I added to the tank in March are all still doing very well in the shrimp tank - they seem to be thriving - their colors are spectacular. The emaciated one that I worried about slowly recovered and gained weight. The CPDs are a great companion for the cherry shrimp. I imagine that they are probably eating some of the baby shrimp, but my shrimp population has grown the past few months. So they must not be getting too many of them.
 
The CPDs are also controlling the population of small critters that were overrunning the tank walls (copepods + worms + other critter types). So I'm very happy with the combination of fish and shrimp in the 10 gallon. The fish are extremely shy and hide when they see humans - but this video shows them darting around in a couple of spots - near the end you can even see one of the very colorful males:
 
https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFq4z_ODpIQ 
 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Very nice indeed.
 
I think you'll find over time the cpd will gradually come out and roam the tank even when you're around. Takes a few months to get them totally used to their surroundings plus usual noises you make around the house.
 
Well, at least mine do anyway, and now they annoy me when am doing maintenance cleans, have sucked up one or two into the plasic syphon bit, but always get out unharmed, and have come close to unintentally catching them with my long tweezers when taking out bit out of the tank
 
They love their food too, gluttons the lot of them
 
Btw FYI, I have 12 CPD's (did have 15 but lost 3) and 12 harleyquins espei with red cherry shrimps and a few amanos