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Ok so as some of you know I WAS planning on having a couple 1-2 gallon tanks in my dorm room but some members poo-pooed my idea (which is an exaggeration, they just encouraged pushing the limits)... And so my plan is to clear out one of my 29 gallon tanks and start from { mostly } scratch up here.

The tank will have substrate, some plants, some hardscape (rocks DW etc) and about three dozen cherry shrimp at least (just ordered earlier this week). I just wanted to get going on a little log on how I plan on getting this tank going, stocking, scapes, and so on and so forth.

I have two tanks to choose from at home. Both are lightly stocked and I plan on selling/trading the fish in them before bringing it to my dorm, I just want to know which tank I should choose to keep as is and which tank I should gut and get a new thing going in.
Tank 29A: 2 "teenaged" angels (about two years old, had them a year), 2 FLying Foxes, 1 Golden CAE, 1 Black Ghost Knife, and a handful of khuli loaches (i plan on keeping the khulis in one of my tanks... too awesome to let go!) This tank has a few anubias and lots of large granite rocks with black substrate.
Tank 29B: Lots of plants and driftwood already, java ferns, anubias, marimo, some crypts, amazon swords, etc. Has a (supposed mating) pair of Zambian Julis, 6 zebra Danios, a male betta, 3 fat head minnows (from my previous venture), Cherry Shrimp, and a Tire Track eel that i havent seen since I got it in March (A BAD INVESTMENT ).

My current thoughts are: Gut tank A, get new bulbs (in the 10,K range for the two bulb fixture), switch from black to natural half and sand the other half. Move half of the DW from TANK B to it along with keeping much of the granite and using the two different elements together. Get some more DW and attach moss to some and the unattached anubias in TANK A to it. Stock with Cherry Shrimp, Khuli loaches (get a few more), a school of harlequins, and maybe some fancy guppies (i mean breeder pure strain fancy).

I also have my little ten gallon tank that has DW and some rocks with a pretty good light, a couple corries and some cherry shrimp, but I'd like to let the plants grow in a few more months before I start to mess with it very much...

All in all the tanks can have improved scaping (which is something I'll probably toy with over the break) but I just wanted to hear from you guys what fish I could keep or move around or etc to keep a cool set up going and what fish I should look into rehoming/selling/trading so I can have a MOSTLY blank canvas to work with when the new semester comes...

All imput is gladly accepted and Pictures of what I got will be posted as soon as finals are over and I'm back home in my cozy room with all my tanks!
-Brandon



\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Think the loaches will eat any shrimp they can get down. Love the Harleys

I have 3 did have 4 Kuhli Loaches in my 45lt tank with the CRS and as far as I know not a problem. I am still seeing plenty of young ones.

Keith

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Thanks for the feedback, but I used to have a 45ltr tank like keith with both Cherries and the Khulis... Not a problem as far as I noticed, so long as there is plenty of plant matter for the shrimp to hide and enough food for the khulies, they will eat whats available fish before going after any of the live stuff, something i learned the hard way with being away from my tanks and my spixis snails with the khulies... not a good mix when you are relying on others to keep the feeding regimen constant!

Other than that I can confidently say that the shrimp and khulis will be fine together, but I might hold off on brining one or the other up for a month or so until I get the tank completely set up and stable.

THANKS GUYS

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

So I think that bringing up a 29g may not work which is VERY VERY sad! I'm still going to try, but it might just not happen depending on whats going on in the new year. Today my new cherry shrimp order came in (mom's taking care of acclimation with some pretty simple instructions "Float bag for 30 mins and open it and they'll go out on their own accord." I mean it isn't the "BEST" way to acclimate but its what I usually do and the water in there is pretty good (as far as I know) so they should be totally fine! I'm going to give my dad about 10 of the new shrimp and a few that I already have (get some different gene pools going...) for his 10 gallon and I am going to take one of the 29 gallon tanks down no matter what, so I might just have a new project in a couple years when I graduate and have my own place, or maybe someone else in the family will "hold onto it" for me for a while

PLAN B (if bringing 29g fails): dec out the 10g with some more DW and some interesting rock formations as a "backdrop." It should still be pretty stable as far as water capacity and I'll get 5 harlies and the khuli loaches along with what will be close to 30 cherry shrimp (I'll probably be selling some of them off locally once they get breeding a little more). I'll probably move the deco in all the tanks around A LOT when I get home, so as soon as I get some WC's done and the tanks rescaped I'll get some pictures up for you guys!

QUESTION: will Zambian Juliis munch on shrimp? I know most cichlids are active predators and I assume that some of the babies wont make it no matter what fish are in the tank, but would they eat the adult/older shrimp too? They do have fairly small mouths, but I am just not sure...

PS DONE WITH FINALS WOOO HOOO (longest week EVER)!
-Brandon

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"