# Bottom Dwellers



## Brook16 (Mar 27, 2011)

In a 10 gallon with 6 serpaes, what kind of bottom dwellers would work?

Thanks.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

mystery snails


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## Rohkey (Apr 25, 2011)

With a tank that small you should probably only really consider small shrimp or snails in my opinion.


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## Brook16 (Mar 27, 2011)

Thank you both...I've tried both shrimp and snails, but htey just dont last because my water is soft...


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## Rohkey (Apr 25, 2011)

What kind of shrimp did you try? I've personally never had problems with mine, they've been in some fairly harsh conditions and survived it. Also are you buying them in an aquarium with a ton of them in it? If so you could have purchased ones designed for being fed to other fish and those will inevitably be harder to keep alive. If you buy them from tanks where only a few are scattered in the tank they'll have a much better shot (Petsmart does this, usually they have 3-4 tanks with some of them in it but not one big tank with a ton of them). When I bought my Ghost Shrimp home for the first time I didn't realize they jumped and some of them jumped on my kitchen floor, one ended up in the pet's water bowl and lived in that semi-freezing water for over 5 mins before I noticed it..threw her into the tank and she was just fine


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

You can help the snails/shrimp out by putting a piece of cuttle bone (like you give a bird) into the tank. The snails will graze on it, and use the calcium to help harden their shells.

Then, put some crushed coral or crushed (real) sea shells into your filter, the calcium from that will help harden the water a bit.

Doing those two things would probably allow you to have shrimp/snails.... what is your pH and hardness?

And, OH MY WORD! ROHKEY'S BACK!!! XD


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## Brook16 (Mar 27, 2011)

Thanks to all...I've had ghost and RCS and a mystery snail. Would the cuttlebone help shrimp also?


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Not sure if the cuttle bone would help the shrimp... I suppose if they chewed on it then yes...

You can get bags of crushed coral from Petsmart. Just put some in a nylon stocking and add it to your filter.


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