What shrimp should I put in my 4ft?

[Zebra]

Hope everyone is having a nice start to the new year.

Now my otos have settled in nice and the initial brown filamentous algae and bit of staghorn I had has cleared up, I'm wondering what type of shrimp to put in this tank as it's set up as a large breeder with the shrimp safe sump I deseigned.

I always like the idea of natives, They have to serve their purpose (eat algae and dead plant matter) and they must be quite nice and "desired" 

To start I thought chamealeons, they are just a hugely under rated cool as native shrimp.

I know they aren't native haha               I reaally want Sulaswesi shrimp in there, but  I think the otos won't appreciate the higher kh/ph needed for Sulas unless I'm wrong? 

It needs to be a nice little Eco system cause in my head like 300L or so with this large tank should be enough for shrimp and small otos to just think they're chillin in a river somewhere. Hopefully the otos get comfortable enough that they breed, tricky keeping a low tds with the high tech planted tank.

I lost a few to start but from what I've heard this is just common luck with the way they are caught and handled in the industry. Still sucks.

The rest are loving life, 

Any thoughts? 

Cheers

Edited January 4, 2017 by Zebra

[Letsgetsteve]

To be honest, I really don't know what your feeling like putting in that tank. Any of the ones you mentioned should work and I would think the ottos would be fine, just maybe not breed if you get too far our of their "fun zone". I think the chameleon shrimp would be very pretty but I would keep one thing in mind that I'm sure you are aware of... If you ever feel like changing what shrimp your going to have in there it will be forever to catch all the old ones! That tank is very beautiful and that sump setup looks awesome, you would hate to have to rip it apart digging for shrimp that you stopped loving in there! Great work!

[Zebra]

Haha yeah that would not be fun, 

So I'm going to have to think really hard about what's going in there. 

So far I'm leaning towards just one species of shrimp, so as long as they are breeding well I won't want to take them out or anything, just scoop some out to sell now and then.

At the end of the day the tds is going to be quite low for the otos so I want to try to aim for shrimp to match.

im still very new to shrimp, I've only been breeding neocaridina for a few years.

The most difficult shrimp I keep besides cherries are caridina Zebra. So I'm looking for some middle ground between those haha.

So yeah just looking for any suggestions at this point :) I'll post the tanks WP this afternoon. 

I don't mind a bit of a challenge but don't want anything that's going to need harder water. 

cheers

[Zebra]

I might rephrase the question lol.

What shrimp love a tds of 60ppm?

Thats what the  water that goes in reads, then the tank gets hit with some ferts so it goes up a bit.

The otos are happy as now, they've cleaned up just about any algae left around the tank.

Haha one light stopped working so it just running on 4x 20w led floods that I diy'd. Making a proper co2 reactor this week, and need to buy proper sponge matts as I'm still using a pillow cut in half now haha it's ghetto as but doesn't look that way. 

cheers

Edited January 13, 2017 by Zebra

[jayc]

On 04/01/2017 at 5:48 PM, Zebra said:

The most difficult shrimp I keep besides cherries are caridina Zebra. So I'm looking for some middle ground between those

I was about to suggest CRS or Taiwan bees. They are a tiny bit more challenging than Neos, but easier than zebras.

But then I read this ...

3 hours ago, Zebra said:

What shrimp love a tds of 60ppm?

I don't know how they will go long term. They might survive after a long acclimation. 

Hows your pH in such low TDS tanks? Does it remain stable?

[Zebra]

Yeah it's quite stable around 6.6, I have Amazonia and goldvine, then lots of seiryu to counteract the carbonic acid effect. But being a high tech planted tank the ferts still drive the tds right up to 200 or so, (but that's not more the  Gh 53ppm and kh 17ppm unless I add extra) 

I'm an insomniac haha so I measure it randomly through the night Aswell and it's always the same despite my injected co2, think I've just about reached a nice equilibrium with this tank but yeah haha

My otos dance around now, I lost like 3/10 but I hear that's pretty normal with the way they are wild caught and handled.

cheers

[jayc]

I have not lost an oto yet, apart from old age. Lucky  me. 

You can try CRS or Caridina Iogemanni in that case. 

Edited January 13, 2017 by jayc