Do you think I have room for some Ghost Shrimp?

[Paul102695]

Hi all,

Here are the specifics:

-20 gallon tall aquarium, almost a year old
- double filtration
- 50% weekly water change
- borderline heavily planted
- 75 watt incandescent, 10 hours a day (too much..?)
- 6 Peppered Corys (Corydoras Paleatus)
- 7 Neon Tetras

Do I have enough space to add some shrimp to help out with the extra bits of food my Corys especially leave behind? Surely the shrimp produce waste of their own, but I still think this might help me a bit. They're also a very entertaining species!

Please feel free to express thoughts and concerns. Thanks.

[Lady Hobbs]

Shrimp take up no space at all. Sure you can add them. Is this going to be a neon tank? You can have more of those to if you wanted to.

[Goes to 11!]

Yes you can add shrimp.

Also, Do consider feeding less since having food left over is a pretty big indication that you should do exactly that.

[Paul102695]

Thank you both.

LadyHobbs: How many more Neons do you think I could add (in a addition to four or so shrimp)? Your advice was very exciting! Nothing like that feeling when introducing new residents to one's aquarium.

850R: I've been doing that lately but I always have the nagging fear that I've gone from limiting my Corys' pellets to downright depriving them of food. For six of them, do you think that half a 1 cm wide pellet a day is enough, or possibly too much? I also try to fast them once (and now even twice) a week, but some extra gunk nonetheless remains.

[Lady Hobbs]

I wouldn't be afraid to have 30 neons with only some corys and shrimp in the tank. For sure 20.

[wijnands]

30 is a bit steep in my mind, not impossible though but you'd be fully stocked. 20 should pose no problem at all.

Almost any tank of 15g or more can easily handle half a dozen shrimp unless the bottom zone is heavily stocked.

[imma24]

Ghost shrimp would be a good addition to your tank because your fish are too small to see them as meals.

I agree that you should add more neons - would look really nice to see them all swimming together (or even not swimming together! they don't always school)

[Paul102695]

Wow... my mouth was pretty much agape when I saw these replies! 20 or more Neons would be fantastic! I love their brilliant and contrasting colors.

Thank you all so much. I will definitely be adding several new members to my aquarium in the coming weeks. I wish I could post pictures but alas, no camera.

[Lady Hobbs]

When you stock a species of small schooling fish like that, you can stock more than you think you can. Neons are timid and hide when other larger fish are with them in a tank and alone they are happy and swim all over the place.

My 29 has cherry shrimp, otto's and 26 neons and I will be bringing the neons up into the 40's ......(where I had them previously). Just don't stick some gourami's or something in with them or they will go back to the bottom of the tank again. And make sure the tank is not too warm for them. They are not fans of tanks too warm.

[wijnands]

Good points. Neons (and cardinals and in fact most small tetras) can do larger numbers than you think. Combine with a small number of bottom dwellers and it looks amazing.

Quite high on my "someday" list is this tank:
http://www.juwel-aquarium.de/en/Prod...00000000005300 with a good group of cardinals, 10 hatchets and a few good looking L numbers