Reducing my tanks from Six to Two. Looking for suggestions.

I re-started keeping fish about two years ago. Went from zero tanks to six in the span of a few months. Now I am working my way down to two. I formerly had a lot of feeder / wild type guppies I was breeding. Or more accurately, they were breeding and I was buying fish tanks to accommodate them. I found that actually doing selective breeding is a lot more work than I was willing to do.

So, I have given all my guppies away. I now have three Rasboras, a Betta, a lot of ramshorn snails, about 30 assassin snails and about 30 neocardina shrimp.

The three Rasboras, about five shrimp, a bunch of ramshorn snails and one assassin snail live in a 40 breeder.

The Betta, a bunch of ramshorn snails and two assassin snails live in a 10.

About 20 assassin snails live in a 10.

About 25 shrimp, some ramshorn snails and some assassin snails live in a 20 long.

My plan is to give most of the assassin snails away. Transfer the rest of the shrimp and ramshorn snails from the 20 long to the 40 and shut down the 20 long and one of the 10s.

My concern is that the Rasboras may eat the shrimp or at a minimum discourage them from breeding. I originally put about 15 in there are only about five left. Did the other get eaten by the Rasboras? The Betta when he was in there? The guppies? The Betta could certainly eat a shrimp if he could catch one. Don't know about the Rasboras. Maybe the babies.

My Betta formerly lived with the Rasboras in the 40 and they seemed to get along fine. I would like to put the Rasboras with the Betta in the 10, but I am worried that the relationship between the Rasboras and the Betta will be different in the10 than it was in the 40.

My objectives are to have less tank maintenance (take care of two tanks well rather than more tanks less well). And to free up space in the "fish room" to be more of a sitting room / den / guest bedroom.

I could also give the Rasboras away.

My vision for the 40 is to be mostly a planted shrimp tank. Hopefully they will settle in and breed. I am thinking that a planted tank with shrimp and snails would have a nice cleaner crew which would help minimize maintenance. Thinking also of a school of Otos. Don't know if Oto's get along with shrimp. Mostly the tank would be about the plants. The critters would be secondary.

Looking for comments, suggestions, ideas, observations and snarky remarks...... Sometimes the snarky remarks contain the most useful information. Snarky is optional, but if that is how you roll, don't hold back....

 

Given adequate hiding places shrimp can maintain a colony despite most predators. You said you only have 5 left out of 15 shrimp. Are you sure that's all you have? They're very good at hiding.

 

I had shrimp with endlers for a while. At first the endlers were small and the shrimp were very visible, hanging out on the end of leaves.

Once the endlers got bigger and started going after baby shrimp, I still saw a lot of shrimp but they were much more shy.

 

Hey, if less maintenance is your goal, a lowtech 40g planted shrimp tank is the way to go. They practically take care of themselves.

An established shrimp colony in a heavily planted 40g could easily out-breed any losses that 3 rasboras could eat. You could probably do just fine by putting all rasboras and shrimp in there at once. The babies might hide more, though.
I'd personally give the shrimp a couple months alone in the 40g to get a population going, but that's more to speed things along rather than a required step.

Otos won't bother healthy shrimp, nor will other algae-raspers like small plecos or hillstream loaches. Their mouths are located on their undersides and aren't very good at catching quick prey.

 

Given adequate hiding places shrimp can maintain a colony despite most predators. You said you only have 5 left out of 15 shrimp. Are you sure that's all you have? They're very good at hiding.

No, I am not sure I only have 5. The most I have counted recently at one time is three. Guessing there are at least a couple more.

I like the idea of leaving the Rasboras in there and giving the shrimp a place to hide. However, It would be nice to see the shrimp. In the 20 long, I formerly had some guppies. Now that they are gone, I see the shrimp a lot more. Perhaps I could leave the Rasboras in there at first and see how it goes. Then move them if I never see the shrimp.

Also thinking that after I remove the shrimp from the 20 long, I could make that a home for the Betta and three Rasboras. Perhaps they would get along better in the 20 than the 10. Especially if I move the Rasboras to the 20 first, let them get settled and then add the Betta so the Betta is moving into their turf rather than the Rasboras moving into the Betta's turf.