Good Beginner Inverts?

[Wyomingite]

Alright, been keeping fish for 25 years, never kept inverts other than pond snails, ramshorns, and the little spiral ones that hide in the gravel all the time, a.k.a. puffer food. The insulation and walls go up in the fishroom next week, hopefully. I'm getting antsy.

Anyways, thought I'd devote a tank to shrimps and inverts, maybe keep some snails. Considering a 10 or 15 gallon tank. Would like an interesting community of inverts. Now I have been researching different critters and shrimps on-line, but I can't seem to find any good books on FW inverts. And info on compatibility among different types is scarce.

So what I'm asking is (1) what are some relatively hardy inverts and (2) what do some experienced people suggest for a small, peaceful community? Nothing fancy, I've see some exotic stuff in these threads. Something simple to begin with to get my feet wet. I really like the little red cherry shrimps and tiger shrimp as a base to work around, if that helps. However, if they're a little more advanced or incompatible please just say so. Thanks for the patience.

WYite

 

[ChilDawg]

WYite, RCS do really, really well for me, with not much effort. I'd highly recommend them as a starter invert.

 

[Lupin]

The spiral ones are Malaysian trumpet snails. They dig around the substrate a lot which makes them a plus for planted tanks other than proiferating too quickly. I like my brigs, canas and horned nerites but you'll learn soon enough canas are voracious plant eaters so I don't put them in my planted tank. Brigs are fine. PM msjinkzd if you want some. They are not effective algae eaters but they do a good job cleaning up the dead plants and food leftovers. Nerites also do an excellent job cleaning up the algae. Mine have thus far eradicated all the BBA so now I'm supplementing them with green algae I grow with sunlight, fish foods and water.

What's the pH of your water? You do not want it acidic as it will erode their shells. Supplementing them with calcium enriched foods and calcium pills never hurt to try. You could give them cuttlefish bones or eggshells to rasp as their source of calcium. Dosing liquid calcium isn't necessary but that's up to you.

Here's a chart for veggies. Rachel's snail jello recipes can be found in one of our sticky threads.

nannasmom wrote:
I would caution us all to remember when feeding these foods that the phosphorous can have an ill effect on your water quality and may cause an algae bloom if the levels of phosphorous become too high.


Calciumhosphorus Ratio -- Vegetables

14.5:1 -- Collards
7.5:1 -- Spinach, Mustard
4.5:1 -- Turnip Greens
4.3:1 -- Lambsquarters
3.2:1 -- Dill Weed
3.0:1 -- Beet Greens
2.8:1 -- Dandelion Greens
2.8:1 -- Chinese Cabbage (pak-choi)
2.7:1 -- Lettuce, LooseLeaf
2.4:1 -- Mustard Greens
2.4:1 -- Parsley
2.4:1 -- Kale
2.1:1 -- Chicory Greens
2.0:1 -- Spinach
2.0:1 -- Watercress
2.0:1 -- Cabbage
1.9:1 -- Endive
1.6:1 -- Celery
1.5:1 -- Purslane
1.4:1 -- Cilantro
1.4:1 -- Lettuce, Butterhead (Boston, Bibb)
1.3:1 -- Okra
1.1:1 -- Swiss Chard
1.1:1 -- Turnip
1.1:1 -- Chard, Swiss
1.0:1 -- Squash (winter, all varieties)
1.0:1 -- Green Beans
0.8:1 -- Lettuce, Romaine
0.8:1 -- Sweet Potato
0.8:1 -- Rutabaga
0.7:1 -- Broccoli
0.7:1 -- Cucumber (with skin)
0.6:1 -- Carrots
0.6:1 -- Squash (summer, all varieties)
0.6:1 -- Carrots, Baby
0.6:1 -- Brussels Sprouts
0.5:1 -- Cauliflower
0.5:1 -- Kohlrabi
0.5:1 -- Pumpkin
0.5:1 -- Alfalfa Sprouts
0.5:1 -- Parsnips
0.5:1 -- Peppers,Green
0.5:1 -- Peppers,Red
0.4:1 -- Sweet Potato Leaves
0.4:1 -- Beets
0.4:1 -- Asparagus
0.2:1 -- Tomato
.02:1 -- Corn, White

Calciumhosphorus Ratio -- Fruits

4.8:1 -- Papaya
2.9:1 -- Orange
1.8:1 -- Lime
1.8:1 -- Raspberries
1.6:1 -- Lemon (no peel)
1.5:1 -- Blackberries
1.5:1 -- Grapefruit, White
1.2:1 -- Grapefruit, Pink and Red
1.2:1 -- Tangerine
1.0:1 -- Pineapple
1.0:1 -- Pear
1.0:1 -- Apple (with Skin)
0.9:1 -- Mango
0.9:1 -- Watermelon
0.8:1 -- Cherries, Sweet
0.8:1 -- Grapes
0.8:1 -- Cranberries
0.7:1 -- Casaba Melon
0.7:1 -- Apricots
0.7:1 -- Kiwi
0.7:1 -- Strawberries
0.6:1 -- Cantaloupe
0.6:1 -- Honeydew Melon
0.6:1 -- Blueberries
0.5:1 -- Persimmon, Japanese
0.5:1 -- Raisins, Seedless
0.4:1 -- Peach
0.4:1 -- Plum
0.3:1 -- Nectarine
0.3:1 -- Banana

 

[Wyomingite]

I'm on a well, pH runs 8.2-8.6 and the water is hard. Haven't tested all parameters thoroughly since I'm still in the construction phase on the fishroom and I'm expecting late Jan. to mid Feb. to have it all completed and to be able to cycle tanks. I'm going to run two water lines to the fishroom, one post water softener for my planned Neotropicals and one pre-water softener for Africans, and the inverts. May seem premature to ask now, but doing my homework first so I don't go into it blind.

Malaysian trumpet snails. I can never remember that. Definitely no canas, I like live plants. Would the brigs and nerites be compatible with shrimp, esp. the cherry shrimp (thanks ChilDawg)? I have read the snail food recipe. Hope Mrs. Wyomingite lets me play in the kitchen long enough to make some, that place has been off limits since I burned dinner one night and the neighbor's called the fire department.

Thanks Lupin and Childawg.

WYite

 

[Lupin]

The pH is fine for the snails and snails are compatible with shrimps.

 

[bazil323]

Cherry shrimp are a great place to start. I've been able to keep them, so they must be easy, lol. Yellow shrimp and green shrimp are color variations of cherries (if I remember correctly), so you shouldn't keep them together as they will breed and muddy their colors. Although that might be cool. Anyway, I keep cherries along with ramshorn snails and pond snails without any trouble. My tank is also heavily planted with java fern and moss, bacopa monnieri, dwarf sag, anubias nana, and guppy grass. I do add cuttlebone (weight them down as they will float and be ugly) and Kent Marine Iodine solution 1 drop per 10 gallons per week after water changes. I mainly feed Hikari algae wafers and sinking wafers and shrimp pellets (yep shrimp eat them too) along with any tropical flake or crisp food or frozen foods that my diamond tetras and kribs don't get (the fish are temporarily being housed in there, to my dismay, though they are not decimating my shrimp population like I thought they would). Anyway, they also really like sweet potato, cucumbers (I removed the soft inside so it wouldn't mess my water), carrots, and romaine lettuce. I don't think iceberg lettuce really does much of anything for them. Tomatoes too. Though the skin gets left behind. I leave the soft stuff in the tomatoes usually. The seeds start sprouting soon, though I think the got sucked into the filter and died.

Cherry shrimp also breed like crazy, which is great if you want some feeders for puffers or other shrimp eating fish.

 

[Yadokari]

Cherry shrimp are a great place to start. I've been able to keep them, so they must be easy, lol. Yellow shrimp and green shrimp are color variations of cherries (if I remember correctly), so you shouldn't keep them together as they will breed and muddy their colors. Although that might be cool.

Cherries will interbreed with yellow, blue pearl and snowballs. Most of the green shrimp out there are of the caridina sp. so they should be okay with cherries. However, seeing as how your PH is 8+, I highly doubt they can survive in those parameters. I wouldn't risk it, they aren't cheap to practice on. Tigers as well, need lower PH, under 7 is preferable but I think they can take 7.2 waters and still breed just fine.

Cherries would be your best bet right now, especially since you're still starting. Cheap, attractive and readily available. If you feel like blowing money, then you can start with yellow, blue pearl or snowballs. They are all as easy as cherries but remember, they CAN and WILL interbreed. Blue pearls are probably the "hardest" of the four, although still, they're cake compared to tigers/crystals and so on.