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What is best for a shrimp thanl?

2K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  Cbcrawler 
#1 ·
Hey everyone. New to the site and have some questions. Id like to set up my marineland eclipse 29 gal. For red cherry shrimp and snails. Id like to keep lots of live plants also. What is better sand or gravel? I've read that some ppl say sand some gravel. Id like ppl who keep rcs to give me there input. Thank you
 
#2 ·
Hey everyone. New to the site and have some questions. Id like to set up my marineland eclipse 29 gal. For red cherry shrimp and snails. Id like to keep lots of live plants also. What is better sand or gravel? I've read that some ppl say sand some gravel. Id like ppl who keep rcs to give me there input. Thank you
I keep some cherry shrimp in 29 gal tank with black sand substrate, (soil underneath)trumpet snails,and a dozen cardinal tetra's.
I also have some crypt plant's,water sprite,and several small pieces of wood with anubia growing from them.
I lost quite a few shrimp when I first set the tank up for them, but after the tank was a few months old and more stable,,they did/do much better.
Black sand really makes the shrimps colors stand out in my opinion and I got the sand from Petco.

Oh, I also have a couple LDA25 "Pitbull plecos" in the tank and they leave shrimps alone.(otocinclus could work also)
 
#3 ·
If I could suggest perhaps Nerite Snails, unlike most snails they can't reproduce in freshwater and they do a great job of cleaning. They also have a great selection of patterns that are cool.

Sand or gravel is fine for RCS, they are easily the most durable of shrimp. Usually you want a substrate that isn't interactive with the water to change the chemistry, so check the reactivity of your substrate. I personally use black sand because darker colored substrate bring out the colors of RCS. Darker color substrate tend to make the shrimp to darken in color and bring out the red.

For a planted tank, might I suggest Flourite or Akadama double red small grain. Both are great planting substrates that are good for water. You might have to search online and order them. They hold nutrients for the plants. If you go the sand or gravel route, you may have to supplement the plant roots with root tabs in the substrate

Finally, you probably want to create a prefilter for the intake. Something like a sponge over the intake that will prevent baby RCS from being sucked in.
 
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