I think we should go for the world's longest thread here! Back in September I bought 6 crystal red shrimp. I confess, they were an impulse purchase. Since then I've been watching this thread and intending to post. But I wanted to get them set up nicely (they spent the first month in a bucket). And then I just procrastinated. OK, here goes.
I wanted to try a Walstad-type tank for this. This means starting with a layer of dirt, then gravel. I will post some of the photos, but there are more in this album:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/members/jennewt-albums-shrimp-tank.html
Here is the first layer - dirt.
Here is the initial tank setup, back in October:
And here is the tank today:
And one of the inhabitants:
This tank let me do some things that I can't do with a newt tank (the Walstadt style tank, particularly). I find that I really like these guys, they are fascinating. I'm hope this tank will be a place where they can breed some day.