PaleoShrimp

Hi Everyone, I recently bought some show quality guppies that I absolutely love. I’ve done some reading online and pretty much all the resources say that if you want to preserve a show guppy line you need 8-10 tanks. What I’m wondering (and couldn’t find online) is can you keep producing decently nice looking guppies with only 3-4 tanks. I’m not really wanting to show these guppies and am hoping I won’t need to set up a fish room just to keep some nice looking ones going. I’m pretty new to guppies and only have top quality ones because a member of my club shows them and gives really good deals to club members.

Thank you everyone for your ideas! @FLFishChik Great video, thank you! @Mmiller2001 your tank looks amazing! I like how the dark background and substrate really make the plants stand out. I think I’m going to visit some stores and watch videos as suggested. Whatever I end up doing, I’ll share it when it’s finally setup.

Hello Everyone, I’m planning to get some guppies and do a new planted tank with them. I’ve been trying to decide whether to find a dark substrate or go with something more natural colored. I want their colors to really pop. The back and sides of the tank will be painted black.

Would cuttlebone or crushed coral raise the ph much? My ph currently reads around 6.8-7.2 and I wouldn’t want to shock the shrimp or cories too much.

I have a 10 gal tank with 5 pygmy cories and blue dream shrimp (about 20 adults). I tested my water a couple weeks ago with the co op strips and my KH was 0. I did about a 40% water change at that time. I just tested my water again and it read 0 KH again. My water out of the tap reads around 80 per the strips. I’m wondering if anyone knows what might be dropping my KH? I’m guessing the answer is to change water more frequently, but I’d love to know if there is another answer.

Hi everyone, I want to try and polish my aquarium water because it has a lot of small particles clouding it up. I would order a Co Op polishing pad, but I don’t want to buy just one thing that’s so small. Has anyone had success with polyfil? I know you don’t want ones with added chemicals, but I was wondering if anyone could share a link or photo of a specific item that they’ve used that was safe for they’re aquarium.

Would you mind sharing a link or photo of the ink bird model you use?

Having the same problem. Just lost the heater on my 10 gal and now am looking for something.

Hi everyone, Thanks for all your input. Life has been a bit hectic and I haven’t been able to get back to this. @TOtrees I usually get quite a bit out of the sponge when I clean it, but we’re talking months worth of filtering and I have nothing to compare with. I think for me, if it’s a breeding tank or experimenting tank I’ll just do sponges, but if it’s a display tank where multiple people will see it, I’ll have something extra. Of course then you run into the age old question of which HOB or canister. I like the idea of polishing the water more but haven’t found an HOB that ticks all the boxes for me and canisters can be expensive.

I have a 55 gallon tank with two medium ACO sponge filters. It looks like there’s always little bits of fish waste, plant parts, whatever that are making the water murky. Does anyone have any suggestions for trying to polish the water better with just the sponge filters. I’m careful not to over feed the tank. I’m thinking about trying to make taller lift tubes for the sponges and have an elbow at the top to direct flow, but I don’t know if that will be enough to get better water clarity.

I soaked a couple big pieces of wood from our yard in one of those large black bins from Costco, then I tried to get as much bark off as possible. I put it in my tank and put a large rock on them to keep them submerged. I definitely got a lot of the fuzzy stuff, but the ramshorn snails are very good at cleaning that off and my shrimp seem to like it.

I have a 55 gal that I got a great deal on. Im 6’4” as well and I don’t find working in it a problem (this also depends on the height of your stand). I really love it! I only have cherry barbs in it right now but I love watching them swim through the whole height of the tank. My hard scape and plants are also at different levels within the tank witch makes the height more fun/interesting. I would go into a store like petco that has a bunch of different sizes of tanks. You can test how easy it would be for you to work in them and also imagine what you might do with each size. I had a plan of what I wanted to do with mine when I got it.

I’ve been using two medium sized ACO sponge filters in my 55gal. It’s only been going for about 2 months, but I’m happy so far. Plenty of water movement. I second @rockfisher, I would keep the HOB and start with just the sponge, if you want more filtration you can just add the HOB.

I went to my local club auction and the store that was hosting it and got my plants! I also received my ACO order with the sponge filters and fertilizers, so the initial setup is up and going! My Phone doesn't work well with my light so the colors are off a bit. I have dwarf sagittaria, java fern windelov, needle leaf java fern, a crypt, java moss, anubias nana petite, and two anubias whose names have slipped my mind. Some of the anubias leaves have some holes, but I don't think I was putting in enough easy green, however, I am dealing with some brown hair algae which I think is due to me being too worried about the plants and putting in too much easy green. Oh the joys of beginner mistakes! The hair algae is on the plants as well as the sand. The dwarf sagittaria has quite a few brown leaves, but I think (and hope) it is still adjusting. The Japanese Maple wood seems to be doing fine except for a white fuzz covering it, which I have read is normal and will eventually go away. Just being patient and waiting to see how the plants do as time goes on. The tank has been setup for a week now. The fish store was having a sale, so I went ahead and picked up a school of cherry barbs which have been in my quarantine tank. The water parameters in the big tank have been looking good, so I'll probably add them soon. Just not sure if I should add them while the wood is still covered in fuzz. Thinking about getting some hillstream loaches or otocinclus to help scrub the algae and possibly some amano or cherry shrimp eventually.

Coral and purple pencilfish are bucketlist fish for me. I’d love to breed those!