Shrimp ant farm style tank?

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Experiment397

Experiment397

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Feb 26, 2010
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Probably the Poly section
So I have a question for all the shrimp gurus. I want to put a smaller aquarium on my desk and I was wondering if a shrimp ant farm would be possible. I would custom make the tank so it was tall and wide but only about 1-2" thick and then put some sort of decor, either grow tall grasses or bamboo or grow a carpet of baby tears up a fake rock wall background like an ivy wall. Then throw in a bunch of shrimp and let them climb up and down it like ants in an Ant farm. I'm just wondering if this would work? I have a plan B for a desk top crayfish tank that I know will work since I've seen it done before. I've never seen this done before and I think it could look really cool. What do you guys think? I'm open to suggestions on decor, shrimp species or just flat out your opinions. I've got a filter that's 1.5" wide and kicks ass for its size. It was filtering my frog tanks water section that was approximately 10 gal for several years and it never had any problems it says its rated at 60 gph. Should I try and find a lower powered filter? Also would a small led aquarium fixture work for lighting? Thnx


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This is a very interesting idea, i dont see why it wouldnt work. Granted im no shrimp expert either. I could see if this works tho going big and youd see these all over petsmarts right next to the fluval chis lol...make sure theres plenty of surface aggitaion tho, without alot of open surface area you def want to dowhatever you can to increase DO
 
I would make it slightly wider to accommodate a rock wall of baby tears, the shrimp themselves can get 1-2 inches. Maybe 3-4 sounds better to me, awesome
Idea by the way


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Haha thanks guys. My mom won't allo ants into the house and ive always been fascinated by ant farms and shrimp so I just put the two together. I found a way to run a filter built into the tank since I'm making it and I'll be sure to make sure I have lots of surface agitation. 3 inch doesn't seem to bad still. I'll keep you updated. I'm thinking of making it around 24 or so inches wide and around 18 or so inches tall. I am looking at orange Sakura or super tiger shrimp at the moment. I will be running either a thin led fixture for lighting or a single florescent plant tube. The filter I've designed is a bit like a submerged power filter combined with a in tank sump system. The pump on it is around 45 gph but I can get a Stronger one if needed.


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That sounds so awesome! I just recently got into keeping shrimp, lots of personality for such a small creature :] I agree with the others here though, make it a bit deeper and your shrimps will be happy. Let us know how it goes!


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I would stick with sakura or red cherry shrimp as they are the easiest to keep... Tiger shrimp tend to be more picky about temps etc and may not be your best bet...

But i agree 3" front to back would be much better than 1.5"


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These aren't my first shrimp might I add. I bred ghost shrimp for years and kept common mountian crayfish in my 10 gallon for as long as they survived the bullfrog:P I was thinking of ordering from elite inverts or the shrimp farm. I like the look of the orange Sakura, the yellows, and the tiger morphs, I also like the good bred snowballs but those seem harder to find. Any thoughts?


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I was always tought when trying something new to experiment withcheap things first......id personally throw cherries in till i was satisfied with everything, feed them to my other fish then get the shrimp i want. I would def check out some thai micro crabs for this endevour as well.....ya know after the first guinea pigs so to speak. How do you plan on heating the tank? Youllneed a specialized stand for this too id imagine so it doesnt fall over.....def keep us posted
 
It will be secured on the two sides with almost tall skinny bookended style things with a bar going across the top of the tank from one to the other. The heater will just be a normal aquarium heater on one end. Ive thought of doing a tank like this one with moist sand and putting in fiddler crabs and watching their burrows. But theyd make a mess and this wont exactly be easy to clean:P I can get 10 tigers for the same price as 10 cherrys so at this point it's just looking for the cheapest place to get a small colony of any kind:P


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Fiddler crab idea is interesting as well....def some good ideas. Reason i mentioned thai microcrabs is because they dont need land or to leave water. And it adds a diff shape in the tank. Everything sounds well planned be sure to post pics of the build.
 
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