First aquarium, what do I want to vary/add? Going to deal with shrimp, snails, and corydoras

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maxwutcosmo
10 Comments
  1. Move the heater down. You don’t want _any_ of the glass exposed to air. You’ll potentially be creating a temperature gradient in the heater that can cause the glass to crack or shatter. Most heaters are fully submersible, but check yours to make sure. Either way, none of the glass should ever be above the water line.

    I do see that it’s not plugged in right now, so that’s fine, but before you turn it on, make sure the glass is covered by water.

    Other than that, nothing is jumping out at me as needing to change. Maybe a cave or some more cover for the corys and shrimp, as both like to have that kind of safety available. Plants can also provide this kind of cover, if you get some bushy cryptocorynes or something else that they can hide under.

    Speaking of corys, what size is this tank, and what species of Corydoras are you planning on getting, and how many? Corys want to be kept in groups, preferably six or more, though that’s not really a magic number or anything. So if this is a particularly small tank, you might be wanting to look at the smaller corys like pygmaeus or habrosus. Check AqAdvisor.com to get a decent idea of how many you can keep. Shrimp effectively don’t count against your bioload, so you’re fine with as many shrimp as you want (and neos will breed in your tank too, so the colony will grow).

  2. Shrimp love floaters, and I’d try to add some more plants all around. You can nestle a lot of smaller plants along the edges of the scape and maybe place a few taller stem plants around the filter or out front of it to hide it.

    Be careful next to the window, as it’s easy for algae to bloom with direct sunlight.

  3. I’ve only had my first aquarium for 10 months, but one thing I feel I can’t recommend enough is floating plants.

    My thinking is that they are able to grow at max speed with access to CO2 from the air, drawing in excess nutrients, and all of that bad ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.
    Their job is to grow and lock those toxins.

    I like phyllanthus fluitans most of all, but riccia fluitans is also nice and versatile(it can grow submerged and attached to wood and rocks).

  4. Sponge filter, order it from aquarium coop

  5. Might I recommend pygmy corys? I would love to tell you where I get mine because the place is rock solid in terms of quality, but I am sure its against the rules……pygmys have the same behavior as other corys, but at mas they grow to be 1/2 to 1 inch long…adorable….like aquatic hummingbirds……surf the HUNA!

  6. For shrimp, you are going to want a lot more plants. Since you have sand, I would encourage you to get plants that feed from the water column, like ferns, and Anubis. Also, youā€™re going to want a sponge filter with a pump.

  7. How large is it?

  8. Make sure there’s good carbonate hardness. Shrimp really like that

  9. I should add some moss (java mos, flame moss) your shrimp will love that! and the baby shrimp can hide in it

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