Plant recommendations for a cherry shrimp only tank

[pcc]

Hi, I am planning on starting up a 20 gallon long cherry shrimp only tank.  What plants do you recommend?.  I will be using Caribsea Eco Complete substrate. I would like to get a carpeting plant established but have had not good luck in my other aquariums with Monte Carlo and Dwarf Grass carpeting plants. I do not have a CO2 injection system. I do have nicrew classic plus lights. I plan on letting the tank sit without shrimp for 3 to 6 months to really cycle and stabilize.  I might add some snails or some sort of algae eater during that time for some bio loading and algae control.

Thanks for the advice!

[lefty o]

crypt parva is a good carpeting plant, but it is painfully slow growing. has to be about the slowest growing plant of all times.  shrimp tank with no fish, any plant that you like will work out great. my shrimp seem to like java ferns, and those are fairly easy.

[Maximus]

I really like guppy grass with shrimp, especially reds and oranges. It's a super easy plant, contrasts well with the shrimp colors, plus I think it's fun seeing the shrimp upside down picking away through it. You can carpet it, but I don't really have any experience with that. I float it, but the roots will navigate downwards and into the substrate regardless.

[Maximus]

Keep in mind, hungrier plants may help stabilize the water parameters a bit better. E.g. I'd probably choose guppy grass over java moss if I only wanted one, but both is also good

[Lennie]

You can use anything you like basically. 

But shrimp do like to pick on stuff constantly. So addition of moss and/or susswassertang can be nice. However, def not a must. I have 6 shrimp tanks and I don't have moss on any bcoz I don't like it. So I can easily tell it is not a must.

They also like to play around floating plant and roots in my experience from time to time. Amazon frogbit, water lettuce, and me floating some other plants elodea or hornwort. They love it! And they look funny hanging on them :') 

[IanB]

CO2 and high light are really the keys to make carpeting plants easy. That being said, lots of people have success without CO2. Personally, I have found that soft water and careful fertilization is really important in those cases. Too much light/ferts and algae takes over the carpet, too little and it struggles to spread. A lot of the fertilizing depends on your water chemistry. If you have average to soft water, Easy Green should do the trick for anything you can grow without CO2 as a carpet. I have personally had more luck with monte carlo, marsilea hirsuta than with dwarf hairgrass, marsilea crenata, or other "easier" carpets. HC Cuba is definitely off the table without CO2. One that I have only done with CO2 but would be tempted to try without is Riccardia/Coral Moss/Mini Pellia (all the same thing). Unlike a traditional carpet it would mostly do better covering rocks, but it would be easy to cover a lot of the bottom with flatter stones. It is technically a liverwort, not a moss. I don't know if it would grow as dense and compactly as it does under CO2 injection, but I'd be interested to know.

Crypt parva is the safest option as a low tech plant but calling a carpeting plant is a stretch, unless you plan to have your aquarium for 5+ years, because the parva carpet will likely take over a year to fill in, even if you plant relatively densely. Some people like MD Fishtanks on Youtube have amazing success without CO2. Others of us have less luck. Given that you said you have had trouble with Monte Carlo and Drwaf hairgress, you could try marsilea hirsuta? The only other options that I can think of are less traditional "carpeting plants" but fast growers that I have seen work as such (hydrocotyle japan, dwarf sag, and pearlweed). They will all require a fair amount of trimming to keep looking like a carpet.

[Guppysnail]

Floating hornwort is always a win with my shrimp. Even in heavy planted tanks the hornwort is the party favorite and always looks like a lit up Xmas tree. Easy care no co2 plant. Just plop it in. 

[pcc]

I am trying Monte Carlo again this time planting it pot and all like the coop video on the subject now says to do.  During my first experience with Monte Carlo I took it out of the pot and the plant had super tiny roots which made it nearly impossible to stay in the substrate.  The coop video said they had better luck planting pot and all and letting the plat spread then later go back in to cut out the pot. I will also look into floating hornwort. 

Thanks

Here is the article on planting the entire pot for some carpeting plants.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/faqs/how-to-plant-carpeting-plants

[nabokovfan87]

I had my shrimp tank setup with anubias and ferns.  They definitely love having them and those low demand plants are really nice to keep nitrates lower than something that requires a lot of light and feedings.  That being said one thing I noticed when I added moss was how much the shrimp use it and prefer that as a plant.  I would encourage you to try to have moss of some kind in your setup.  It's just an easy plant and it works very well with the shrimp.  they can graze off it when feeding powdered foods as well, which is a bonus feature.

Microsword as a carpet would also work well.  There are also certain stems, staurogyne species, or hygrophila species would be where I go to as well.  Broader leaved plants that can support the weight of shrimp on them.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Java ferns and moss, subwassertang, pearl weed, guppy grass, pogostemon stellatus octopus, Madagascar lace plant, Anubias barterii and bacopa have been go tos over the last few years with shrimp. Pick how ever many you can afford and go for it. Expect up to 50% failure rate but if you exceed this then you’re doing it right. Have fun!

[Furbs]

I really regret only running eco complete. Trying to target root tabs where needed is a paint. I’m bad with plants and have had several plants die I think may have made it to there was a layer of capped dirt to access.

 

 

my shrimp tank is kinda just a mess of plants I’ve taken out of other tanks. Didn’t plan for this to be anything but a quarantine tank but they were getting hunted by a betta. So here I am 

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/3/2023 at 5:23 PM, Furbs said:

my shrimp tank is kinda just a mess of plants I’ve taken out of other tanks. Didn’t plan for this to be anything but a quarantine tank but they were getting hunted by a betta. So here I am 

One step at a time!  You may just fix one plant a week, one plant a day, or do small changes and eventually get it to a point where you're happy with it.  Maybe the first thing is to de-pot that red lotus (?) plant on the right?  Push all the ferns to the outside edges of the tank and that'll let light through for the other plants and moss.  Sounds like a fun project, just enjoy it.  No pressure.  The shrimp will do their shrimpy things and watch the process.

If you want to swap substrate or something I can give you some tips on handling the shrimp and emptying it without losing anything.