What shrimp are best for me?

[Liquidplants]

I would love to expand my planted tanks with some shrimp. I have 2 tank setups with different water qualities.

30 Gal planted discus tank..
Co2 injection + plant fert additives
82-84F
6.5 +- PH

1.5 Gal Nano planted
No fish [yet]
no aeration + no filter
Daily 1 quart water changes + plant fert additives
68-72 F
7.0 +- PH

What kind of algae eating / good looking shrimp can i stock in each setup?
~LiquiD~

 

[Laticauda]

You probably won't be able to keep any shrimp (alive) in your discus tank. They will become food, and soft/acidic water is bad for their exoskeletons.

I the tank with no fish, if you cut back on the fertilizers a bit, and maybe add a sponge filter or small powerhead, you can use cherry shrimp. They are neat little guys, and will become very active without fish in the tank.

 

[Burto]

Although I wouldn't expect it to work, I have seen two completely different planted tanks with discus and a breeding population of cherry shrimp. both were probably in the 40-50 gallon size range and very heavily planted with areas that would have been fairly inaccessible to the discus. One of them had a 3D background with cherry shrimp crawling all over it grazing the algae and the pair of discus didn't seem to be interested in them. Maybe they'd eaten so many shrimp they'd become bored with them.

I wouldn't risk shrimp any more expensive than cherries in such a setup and you'd want to add them when the lights are out and the fish are asleep.

 

[Liquidplants]

Interesting think about adding the shrimp at night. Although I will leave them out of the discus tank for now and maybe try a few in the 1.5G. Cherry's seem to be the way to go.

Thanks both of you for your responses. Any other input?

 

[Burto]

You should be able to get a breeding population established in the 1.5G as long as you don't add any fish, my population had bred up to at least a hundred in my 2G before the early summer heat wiped most of them out. Then once you have an excess of shrimp you could try sneaking some small ones in with the discus and see if they last.