I finally got a shrimp that has lasted more then 24 hours!!!!!!!!
I removed the rocks over a month and a half ago.
After waiting a couple of weeks (and several water changes later) I bought a beta.
Great! no problems with him for the past month...

Last week I bought an otto...
Great! he did not die and is eating all the algae it can fined.

So on Sunday I got my water officially tested for iron and found that it was within the safe limit!
So I took the plunge and bought a Wood shrimp! And as the title suggests it has indeed lived (so far) for over 24 hours.

It is about 3 cm long or so and has the same coloration as the shrimp in the last two pictures from here...
http://www.petshrimp.com/bambooshrimp.html
So now all I need to do is move the betta and I'm ready to go for more shrimp!!
Oh right! He wood is not fanning so much as using it's fans to pick bits of food from the surface of the java fern, java moss and the side of the tank. They all have a heavy coat of algae and other stuff. Will it enough food this way? More then half the time it is hidden in the plants and I can't see it so I drought that getting special food only for it would help.... Any ideas?
TKD
PS for those that don't know about my shrimp/aquarium woes please look at the following threads...
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viewtopic.php?t=737&highlight=
viewtopic.php?t=719&highlight=
viewtopic.php?t=693&highlight=