It's best to have a matured tank, as they feed of biofilm and algae that builds up on the sides of the tank and the objects in it.
Get some Bacter AE. It will grow tons of biofilm for you. Indian almond leaves and elder cones have helped me also.
I've heard some good things about the Bacter AE. About to start a 10 gal shrimp and plant tank. Any down side to using it with Fluval Stratum.
@Stephen Hiatt Thanks, not to hijack this thread but along the same lines of mature tank. I have a new piece of driftwood and a mature piece of driftwood in another tank for 6 months. Which would be better starting a new shrimp tank?
Depends on the shrimp you want to keep. If you want CRS and don't mind waiting for a tank to establish for about 4 months, then use the new driftwood. The tannins will leach out of the new driftwood and will be very beneficial to the CRS, lowering the pH and creating optimal conditions for breeding. If you want to keep a Neocaridina species like RCS then you don't need new driftwood. pH isn't as big of a factor for them, so the tannins won't benefit them. The established driftwood would help you establish your tank faster, and would work best for RCS.
Those are nearly bulletproof. Just make sure you do your water changes, and feed them about once a week.
In my opinion there are better looking colors than red, like orange, yellow, and my favorite, blue. The cheapest place I found Dream Blue Velvet shrimp was actually on amazon. $60 for 10, which is really good considering other sites are asking $70-90 for 10. Amazon.com : 10 Dream Blue Velvet Shrimp - Neocaridina davidi Live Freshwater Aquarium Shrimp - 1/4 to 1 inch long by SoShrimp : Pet Supplies
@Stephen Hiatt Thanks for the idea very vivid blue color. I have approx. 10 RCS with shrimplets already in QT tank for 2weeks, doing fine. 10 gal should be ready in a couple of weeks. But the blues will be next. Thanks Again
They can't go in the same tank though, as they're both Neocaridina Davidi, and if they breed together the shrimplets will have the ugly wild coloration. To keep multiple species of shrimp together they need to be in a different genus. Caridinas and Neocaridinas can be kept together for this reason. I plan to keep CRS and Dream Blue Velvets in my 16g once I get around to ordering them.
This is my first endeavor into planted shrimp tank. Hopefully more to follow. I have read about the breeding aspects and the terrible colors. Thanks for the heads-up. The CRS and Blue Velvets will look great together. @Jake Micallef did not mean to veer off track.
