Low dense moss/plant for non CO2 tank?

[sixftsam]

Hello everyone,

I’m looking for advice and hope someone can help. I’m about to move house at the mo, so setting up a shrimp tank is on hold. As soon as I get in I want to start making a custom stand and hood, lighting, and getting everything set up ready for some CRS breeding.

Because of being eager to start, I’m after some recommendations for some mosses. The main goal of the tank will be selective breeding, so I need to ensure the planting isn’t so dense I cant see the shrimp – I was thinking a moss would be best, but am open to very slow growing dense plants without many spaces for shrimp to go "inside" the plant and out of view. I would like it to be low maintenance, as the idea of using scissors to cut things worries me – what happens if there’s a little shrimplet in the way! Also I don’t want to use CO2, as I want it to look nice, but the focus is 100% on the selective breeding, and not on the aquascape.

I plan on putting in some hiding places through stones/bogwood, but around half the tank I want to be covered in a low dense plant for them to graze on, and its at these points I can pick the shrimp to be selectively bred, and those to get rid of.

Any recommendations would be appreciated, as well as any flaws in the design – if they shrimp simply NEED plant hiding spaces, perhaps I’ll have to reconsider the idea – I just don’t want to miss one shrimp with negative characteristics because it always hides, and let it breed with prime stock.

[Fento]

Try with some fissidens gennus (but they're slow growing type). I have a mosswall into my tank with Java moss. It's dense, but branched out, it allows to see shrimp hidden between between their "branches" (anyway, you have to prune it from time to time). There's another moss usually known as string moss or japan moss, it's not compact at all, but I can't tell you more, because I haven't any experiences with it. You may try with some moss with up growing pattern, like flame moss or stringy moss (but in low quantities.)

[sixftsam]

Thanks for the answer Fento. I did some research into fissidens gennus but couldnt find it online. It turns out that fissidens is a type of moss with many kinds being native to Britain, and I often see it on walls/fences around where I am.

Is there a special aquatic version of it, or is it literally a case of finding some on a wall, putting it in some wire meshing, and then putting it in the aquarium and it will be fine? I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to aquatic planting im afraid!

[Fento]

I'm not sure... what I know is that there are some fissidens species wich are terrestrial, but tolerate submersed conditions... that's better to try with well known aquatic mosses.
You may try... but some friends experiences with local aquatic moses (not fissidens) weren't very succesfull :/ some mosses grew very very slowwwwwwww and others died (despite the aquarium where they were was meant to imitate natural conditions where it was taken from) What you have in Britain -and that may be quite good- is Fontinalis antipyretica another moss that may be what you are looking for, and I think it's fast growing.

[sixftsam]

Thanks again Fento. It seems there are some terrestrial, and some aquatic mosses. Looks like i cant grab one from a wall and turn it into an aquatic carpet! At least im learning there, even if I feel I still have a lot of learning to go!

I dont suppose anyone else from England has any good recomendations for where to buy any aquatic mosses? and is it ok to keep moss species without any CO2 injection, or am i just asking for troubles?

[adrianng1996]

US fissiden,Mini fissidens,fissidens sp,weeping moss,mini pelia,christmas moss

[murival]

Hello everyone,

I’m looking for advice and hope someone can help. I’m about to move house at the mo, so setting up a shrimp tank is on hold. As soon as I get in I want to start making a custom stand and hood, lighting, and getting everything set up ready for some CRS breeding.

Because of being eager to start, I’m after some recommendations for some mosses. The main goal of the tank will be selective breeding, so I need to ensure the planting isn’t so dense I cant see the shrimp – I was thinking a moss would be best, but am open to very slow growing dense plants without many spaces for shrimp to go "inside" the plant and out of view. I would like it to be low maintenance, as the idea of using scissors to cut things worries me – what happens if there’s a little shrimplet in the way! Also I don’t want to use CO2, as I want it to look nice, but the focus is 100% on the selective breeding, and not on the aquascape.

I plan on putting in some hiding places through stones/bogwood, but around half the tank I want to be covered in a low dense plant for them to graze on, and its at these points I can pick the shrimp to be selectively bred, and those to get rid of.

Any recommendations would be appreciated, as well as any flaws in the design – if they shrimp simply NEED plant hiding spaces, perhaps I’ll have to reconsider the idea – I just don’t want to miss one shrimp with negative characteristics because it always hides, and let it breed with prime stock.

you aim or goal is tough to achieve, as you don't want to use co2 and you intend to put plants. Why? lack of co2 leads to algae problems. But if you still insist to put mosses, one thing that you should remember is to water change at least once a week to replenish the lost co2 and reduce ammonia and nitrates since you dont have quick growing plants to do the job; You can also put liquid co2. FYI- You also might want to consider a moss that is not hard to raise, base on my experience its hard to raise christmass moss they need lots of co2.

I see that you main goal is selective breeding, well for starters you need to have a temp around 24-25 degrees for crs to breed. if you dont have the right temp, a chiller for a big tank will do. On the other hand on a 5-15 gal a fan can do the job as long as its powerfull enough, but this can vary based on your environment's temp. Its hard to breed selectively unless your gonna put an external/internal breeding box, in that way you can ensure selective breeding.

Goodluck!p.s. they dont need hidding spaces unless they are stress or there are fishes lurking around. one more thing 1 gal is to 10 shrimps.

[sixftsam]

Thank you for the reply Murival.

that temperature wont be an issue for me at all! Here in england im more likely to need a heater to get it to 23 than i am to cool it down!

I don't want CO2 injection just because its something extra that can go wrong - I'd rather be told "you can only have these three types of plants" than use CO2 - I'm a big fan of the low tech approach to fish/shrimp keeping. If anyone has any other recomendations for a small dense plant that will survive ok without CO2 injection, I'd love to hear it please.

Regarding the tank size, its going to be around 12 gallons, and will only be starting with 7 shrimp, so i think it will be a fair while before I'm over run! plus i plan to use a tank divider to seperate out breeding stock from stock to cull/sell. But thank you for the advice on that.

[adrianng1996]

all the plants i mentioned previously can do fine without co2 and strong light...

[sixftsam]

Thanks for the info Adrianng, I think I'll take a look into it and get some of the plants you mentioned

[bacon5]

hello for one i agree with fento on some of the fissidens species. one in particular that came to mind is fontanus. its slow growing, and is doing great in my tank without co2.

[sixftsam]

Thanks again to Bacon. Your recomendation looks good. I've just done a bit of research and it does seem like a really good option.

Another idea I had was get some Marimo balls, take them to pieces, and use these as a carpet. It this plain crazy? I've heard of some people doing it, but im not too sure of the ins and outs of it.