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Emersed for shrimp tank.

Z

Zante

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Joined
14 Jan 2017
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92
Location
Florence, Italy
I'm planning two shrimp tanks: the two tanks are identical, in shape and size, (52 litres) so I thought it'd be interesting to set them up near to each other, one with a population of crystal red shrimps and the other with a population of sexy shrimps.

For the crystal red shrimps I wanted to set up a dirt tank, with a nice carpet of dwarf hair grass, a submersed plant (still need to think about which) and pothos draped over the side. I was also thinking about a dieffenbachia growing out of the water. I had originally thought of lucky bamboo, but then had this idea of this big "tree" growing up and out of the water.

Is it a silly idea? Would it grow too big? Any suggestions for another plant if the idea is indeed silly?
Any suggestions, comments and/or critique of the idea is welcome.
For the moment it's just a wild thought.
 
Dieffenbachia is mildly toxic so don't know how that'd translate to shrimp friendly. Also, it does grow pretty big, definitely out of proportion in a 52l tank.

From what I've noticed of mine, the shrimps do appreciate having plants to climb onto and rest in between the stems and leaves frequently. I even have the babies hanging onto the roots of duckweed!

By the way, I'm using dirt in all of my 3 shrimp tanks and one word of advice, CAP CAP CAP! Especially if you're going for caridinas. I lost all 5 of my cards slowly to pretty high TDS in a tank where I did the lazy thing and dumped the compost on top of the gravel instead of the other way round. The neos on the other hand don't care. Breeding nonstop.
 
Now you have an idea of what I want to achieve, visually speaking, do you have any suggestions regarding a plant to replace the dieffenbachia?
 
Thanks for the advice regarding capping. I was going to let the carpeting plant cover the soil before adding the shrimps instead of capping, but I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to do so anyway.

As for the Thor shrimps, nothing to cap there ;)
 
Doesn't work that way unfortunately. I have a tank where I used the usual pelleted Amazonia to cap the compost. No can do sir! If I'm a bit heavy handed during water changes, there'll be a depression in the substrate and I'll get floating HC in the filter.

On the other hand, I have a tank which I drained properly, took every single gravel out, put in the compost gently and then capped with the rather coarse gravel. Water's clear as if it's all gravel although the compost had only been rinsed for a short while before being dumped in the tank.

As for plants, you can try getting something like what I have in my dogs' drinking pool. Sorry I have no idea what they're called though.

sobV6V7.jpg
 
Reading the link you posted I think I'll go for tying it to an almost emerging piece of wood, that should look awesome growing up between the two LED lights.
 
There's only like 4" of water in the upper tray and 6" below. They're easy to grow. No fertilizers. Just lots of fish poo.
 
If you're taking about amount, assuming pound for pound of bodyweight, I think they'll win. Have you ever seen how much poo shrimps release in just one hour? You can see this for yourself during acclimatization.
 
Zante said:
Reading the link you posted I think I'll go for tying it to an almost emerging piece of wood, that should look awesome growing up between the two LED lights.
Click to expand...
You may save yourself some trouble, checking the size of this plant; it will grow H U G E given just acceptable conditions.
There are literally hundreds of species and varieties of Spathiphyllum to choose from, though. Ranging from very small to huge, but generally very easy plants to grow, tolerant of quite diferent amounts of humidity and light - very high light intensity (=much direct sun) not tolerated, though (which make them perfect house-plants).
 
Mick.Dk said:
You may save yourself some trouble, checking the size of this plant; it will grow H U G E given just acceptable conditions.
There are literally hundreds of species and varieties of Spathiphyllum to choose from, though. Ranging from very small to huge, but generally very easy plants to grow, tolerant of quite diferent amounts of humidity and light - very high light intensity (=much direct sun) not tolerated, though (which make them perfect house-plants).
Click to expand...

I'm open to suggestions on a specific plant species, not necessarily a Spathiphyllum.
I'm new to this emersed plants lark and I will gladly take any help given.
 
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