# Revamping Pico - some questions



## thrillreefer (Dec 16, 2008)

So I have a 1.25 gallon pico planted tank going. It is actually a lamp made out of a vase and a shade, with some plants and a piece of driftwood going up the back.

Here's a couple pictures:
















It has no filter, but has an airpump slowly bubbling for some water movement. Until recently, I had a betta living in there, but I have been battling hair algae for a while now, and I added a trapdoor snail to eat algae. (Tried some amanos, but they quickly became a betta snack). Anyway, the betta for some reason died, so I can now add some algae eating shrimp and change everything up.

Here are my questions:

1) Has anyone ordered from Arizona Aquatic Gardens? They look pretty legit, and min order is only $35 so I'm going with them unless people have had problems with them.

2) I would like to go with Red Cherry shrimp (_Neocaridina denticulata sinensis_) since there won't be any fish in the tank and I need some color. Probably 4-5 shrimp in my 1.25 gal tank. Are these a good choice?

3) New Plants: I have laterite mixed in with the bottom inch of substrate, and then fine gravel over that. Jungle val has been growing well despite the algae, and I had an aponogeton bulb that did well and sent up floating leaves several times. I'd like to add some easy bunched plants, looking at Ludwigia and potentially Pink Hippo Grass , though only because it looks cool from this picture. I'm open to other/better suggestions for bunched plants. Light is at least moderate, and possibly high, since I have a 15 watt daylight spiral compact fluorescent over the tank, which technically is better than 10 W/gal. Are these good/bad choices? Is there something better? I'd like to get some red or other color in there if possible.

4) Fertilizer: Up until now, I've done nothing to fertilize the tank since the laterite should be supplying iron, and the fish was supplying N/P. But now that I won't have a fish, I presume a fertilizer would be a good idea. I'd like to use a liquid fertilizer if possible to make dosing easier. (Hard to break a tab rated for 10 gals small enough). Any suggestions here? Are any of these good choices: API Leaf Zone Aquarium Fertilizer, Kent Pro Plant, or Red Sea - Flora Gro+ ?

Recent pic, you can see all the nasty hair algae:









Thanks for the help!


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

a long time ago, about two years i ordered from AZ gardens and half of my stuff did not come in...i never touched base with them again. as for the plants, you might want to go with something slower growing so you don't have to be trimming out very often, someone else will have to pitch in because i don't have hardly any stems... sorry about the betta


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## ecotanker (Jun 12, 2009)

I would nor order from AZ gardens. I ordered from them once and they seems to charge me excessively for shipping. Google them and see what others comments people have to say. I think it is better to buy
from hobbyist on the board or from aquabid.com.


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## thrillreefer (Dec 16, 2008)

Yeah so it looks like they get horrible reviews based on a google search. Does anyone know a good site to use to order cherry shrimp? I want to order 4-5, some sites I've looked at have minimums. For plants I may try aquabid...


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

thrillreefer said:


> Yeah so it looks like they get horrible reviews based on a google search. Does anyone know a good site to use to order cherry shrimp? I want to order 4-5, some sites I've looked at have minimums. For plants I may try aquabid...


place a BTW thread here, you might get lucky and find a seller...im lucky enough to have a few local guys i met through the site and local club. take care!


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## thrillreefer (Dec 16, 2008)

So I gave up on mail order sites, the prices/selection were a bit better, but paying that much shipping on such a small order will never pay. So I headed over to my LFS with the goal of buying 4-5 cherry shrimp, wife in tow. When we saw the tiny cherries, she said "Meh" and instantly noticed the african dwarf frogs. The LFS lady said the frog might eat tiny cherries, so we settled on one frog and 3 amano shrimp. Also picked up a bit of Rotala indica and some broad leaf Ludwigia. Got everyone home and while acclimating the inverts I remodeled the plants a bit. Got the shrimp in fine and then went to add the frog. She got to the opening of the bag and then made a little hop, just barely clearing the edge of the tank, landed on the cabinet and promptly hopped behind it into the abyss. So I flipped out and pulled the cabinet and armchair away from the wall, while the wife chased the frog down and plopped it into the tank, covered in dust....

But now 2 hours later, the frog looks visibly fine and is active, taking air every 5 mins or so and exploring. Probably going to be fine. I'll have to post some pictures when the water clears a bit from the sediment I kicked up.


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## thrillreefer (Dec 16, 2008)

OK I'm impatient:
FTS








Dwarf frog among the Vals









Might be a bit overfull, but we'll see how the Ludwigia grows before thinning too much. There's actually a decent amount of free space that gets lost due to the curvature of the glass in the image, but we'll see how it goes. Also going to remove the trapdoor snail and exchange for a freshwater nerite snail. Possibly will just remove the snails, the 3 amanos seems to be eating algae nonstop already.


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## thrillreefer (Dec 16, 2008)

I was a bit worried about making sure the ADF was eating, since I read that they are timid feeders with poor eyesight and smell...

Incorrect. I was feeding some Selcon-infused frozen mysis to my reef, and I decided to drop a small amount into my lamp. The amanos clearly have no reservations about cannibalism, and they started to enjoy the shrimps that drifted down first. With them occupied, a couple mysis made their way down to where the frog was resting. She immediately got interested. I'm not sure if it's mysis or Selcon, but within a minute or two, she started to go berserk, chasing the amanos around the tank and even snapping at their bellies where they were clutching the mysis. She is clearly aggressive enough to startle the amanos into dropping some of their catch, and these were all greedily gobbled up. I thought she might damage some of their legs or other creepy parts, but they seem unharmed. Wish my camera wasn't on the fritz, I'll have to make a video next time there is a feast. 

But now I know what to feed the frog. I'm actually curious to know if its the mysis or the Selcon that are so delicious, I'll try flake/pellets soaked in Selcon and mysis alone over the next few feedings...


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