Lobster or no? And a few other things.......

Starting up a new tank soon. It's a 60 gallon Uniquarium. The wet/dry filter is built onto the back of the tank. It will be my first acrylic tank, but I loved the refugium I had on my 125 vs. regular box or canister filters, so I am giving this style a go.

Going to be heavily planted and plan to do mostly tetras. I am still debating some of the larger tetras (like Congos) because I want to do different species of shrimp. I don't want them becoming lunch. The plan is a dirted tank topped with black fluorite. I think the contrast of red, yellow, and other colored shrimp will be awesome. I wanted a few Rams, but I read in someone's post they ate their shrimp, too! I have always had botias, but this time with shrimp and snails it's not going to work.

I shopped one web site that stated that lobsters are too slow to catch fish and are not an issue in the tank. However, when I went to my LFS, I was told the opposite. They said they are opportunistic and will grab a fish when they can. If I DO add lobsters, will adding more than one create fights? I'm new to the crustacean world here.

I have the time now to soak the dirt and boil the driftwood before the tank arrives. I know you can't boil lava rock due to the chances it can explode. Can you put them in a weak solution of Net Soak to sterilize them?

I do plan on having some bottom dwelling fish such as cory cats, so do I just bypass on the lobster? Anyone out there have one? Any experiences on any of my plans is appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Luke Deer on November 23, 2013 at 6:33pm

The Lobsters (crayfish) will eat anything that they can catch. The are 100 percent opportunity feeders. They will also eat your live plants because they are omnivores. They will also uproot plants in your tank. If I were you I would stay away from the lobsters so that you can get more types of fish and shrimp. If you are dead set on getting some type of lobster, check out the Dwarf Mexican Lobster. You also mentioned having a few different colored shrimp in your tank. If you do that, make sure that they are different species. If they are the same species, they will breed with each other and produce regular colored shrimp (brown/clearish). The colored shrimp are maintained by breeding red with red, yellow with yellow. If you want color variation I would go with some red cherry shrimp and maybe some variation of crystal shrimp or yellow cherry shrimp with some red and white crystal shrimp. Hope that helps.

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Permalink Reply by Sue Harkey on November 23, 2013 at 11:49pm

That is very helpful. Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Luke Deer on November 24, 2013 at 4:08pm

Your Welcome

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Piti on November 28, 2013 at 9:10pm

With a heavily planted tank you may be able to pull off cherry shrimp. You could have the shrimp be the first in the tank and allow their population to grow (They tend to breed pretty regularly) then put in the fish you'd like to put in with them. To my surprise, my cherry shrimp have survived and bred successfully in a 20 long with 2 german blue rams and 7 serpae tetras. Baby tears, rotala, java moss, and riccia fluitans make good places for the young to hide until they are big enough to venture.

Crayfish will eat a fish if they catch it; learned that the hard way. They can also climb out of the tank and take a walk.