Stocking suggestions?

[fireflies]

Hi all, I have a 65 litre tank (the aquastart 500 to be exact) and am looking for stocking suggestions. My current plan is to put a number of blue velvet/blue dream shrimp in there, and then maybe a centrepiece fish?
I'm also planning on using sand as the substrate, so any suggestions of live plants that would tell well in sand would be great! I'd like plants that don't require added CO2/liquid fertiliser, and ideally no root tabs if possible!

Also a quick question about cycling - I have an established betta tank with a sponge filter, might be a stupid question but how do I use this to start up the new tank? As in, when I add a new sponge filter for the betta, do I need to cut the old sponge in half and leave it in there as well till the bacteria establishes on the new sponge? And the same with the tank I'm setting up?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[AmyKieran]

Hi all, I have a 65 litre tank (the aquastart 500 to be exact) and am looking for stocking suggestions. My current plan is to put a number of blue velvet/blue dream shrimp in there, and then maybe a centrepiece fish?
I'm also planning on using sand as the substrate, so any suggestions of live plants that would tell well in sand would be great! I'd like plants that don't require added CO2/liquid fertiliser, and ideally no root tabs if possible!

Also a quick question about cycling - I have an established betta tank with a sponge filter, might be a stupid question but how do I use this to start up the new tank? As in, when I add a new sponge filter for the betta, do I need to cut the old sponge in half and leave it in there as well till the bacteria establishes on the new sponge? And the same with the tank I'm setting up?

Thanks in advance for the help!

What is your kh and gh for your water?

 

[Essjay]

It is risky keeping any fish with shrimps. Most of them will eat baby shrimps and many will eat adult shrimp. The only shrimp safe fish I can think of are otocinclus, which aren't exactly centrepiece fish.

What were you considering for centrepiece fish?

 

[fireflies]

What is your kh and gh for your water?

Unfortunately my test kit doesn't have a KH/GH test however I'll try to get hold of one before I buy any fish! Looking online though it seems to be a medium water area, however for some of the time they'll be at a different house which is a soft water area. So anything thats hardy or would suit those ranges would be ideal.

It is risky keeping any fish with shrimps. Most of them will eat baby shrimps and many will eat adult shrimp. The only shrimp safe fish I can think of are otocinclus, which aren't exactly centrepiece fish.

What were you considering for centrepiece fish?

Ah that's a shame, I was hoping if they had plenty of plants/places to hide they might be okay.
Honestly I didn't have anything particular in mind. I want it to be mainly a shrimp tank with just a fish/small school of fish to add a bit of interest. I was thinking something along the lines of a dwarf gourami or a small school of tetras, just whatever would work best in a 65 litre tank really.

 

[Seb2502]

A school of ember tetras are a good option as their mouths are too small to eat any of the adult shrimp and you might have a few babies that survive. Again do your research.
I’ve had rotala blood reds do well In sand and bacopa carolinia with no co2/fertilizers. However depending on your lighting situation you may get a different outcome

 

[Essjay]

I had one of the Boraras species in with shrimps and a lot of plants (mainly a tangle of hornwort) and the shrimps seemed to thrive. I bought the fish as chili rasboras (Boraras brigittae) but it was soon obvious they were the related less red, stockier Boraras urophthalmoides. I had them in a 54 litre tank and when I had to close it I counted out over 90 shrimps ranging from newly hatched to full adults.
Boraras are soft acidic water fish, though, so you'd need to check the parameters before considering them.

 

[Beastije]

For the tank injection, you just have a new filter sponge and squeeze the old filter into it, or wash the betta filter in a bucket and then put the new (WASHED in clear water first) sponge into this bucket and let it absorb this new dirty water.

You will get some bacteria, but still only small part, so you should do the 4 week cycle anyway.
Shrimp with fish require a lot of moss, but it doesnt grow well in new tanks. Good tip would be buying some moss and keeping it on a windowsill in sun to give it a bit of a boost. In the tank, hardy plants not requiring fertilizers would be any (small) anubias, vallisneria nana (though the root system can be a mess and requires some fertilizing in the end), hornwort, limnobium, java fern, egeria densa. Not a bad center piece plant is Cryptocoryne affinis but in low light/low feed will not be red.

You may have luck keeping fish and and shrimp, but the key is small fish with small mouths like the small rasboras or ember tetras (depending on your water parameters). Put in plants, give it a month, test, if all is ok, put the tetras in, give it few more months for the plants to grow, the algae to grow, reach 60% of bottom covered with plants, then put in shrimp.

 

[Beastije]

Plus you can get an interesting snail if you wanted something to watch. Shrimps are neat and fun to watch but small, ember tetras are a bit boring, lot of static standing. The rasboras I had were maybe a bit better, but not by much.
However, with large snail you will have to feed, otherwise it will eat your plants, and that may be counterproductive, so better choose wisely.

 

[Lynnzer]

My tank had a stock of all sorts of fish. Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish, and gouramis being the largest. Also a mix of silvertip Tetra, Black Phantom Tetra, also Rummynose and Asian Rummynose, to name but some. In the meatime my stock of Golden Shrimp multiplied to well over 200.
Whether any were eaten is beyond me, although I never saw any fish chasing the shrimp.
I have another tank with Golden Shrimp in it too. That tank has Emporer Tetra, Rathbuni Redfin Tetra and Glowlight Tetra. All the shrimp are doing just fine.