Procrypsis

Get what you want. Respect their opinion, but as long as it's your money and you are taking care of it, then you deserve it. Been in relationsips that the sig other was controlling. Not good. They ended quickly. I do not like others telling me what to do with my life.

2.5 gallon tank is way too small in my opnion. Shrimp do not like water quality changes and with a 2.5 gallon, it is hard to keep water quality stable. With 6 shrimp in the tank you should not be feeding them much at all - they prefer algae and detritus, fish food fouls the water if uneaten food is not removed within a few hours. Shrimp tanks hould be cycled for at least 4 weeks, preferably 6-8. Aqua soil helps, too.

If you want a neat puffer - check out Pao palustris, Mekong River puffer. A Fahaka would cost you more money in food and tank than the Spotted Congo would. And with most puffers tank mates are food. As with anything - do your research before committing.

🥲

neon green

Try whiptail cats. Lots of species to choose from, some are captive bred. They do not hide all day like most plecos.

Capture your waste in buckets and use it to flush toilets.

Escargot.

Gary.

Tequila.

Shrimp are delicate - especially when they are added to a new tank. I cycle my tanks for AT LEAST 4 weeks before adding any shrimp. That means set the tank up with aqua soil, plants, wood, rocks decorations etc. Use conditioned water of course. Then either add filter media from an established tank or use the liquid stuff. Folow the instrucitons and dose every day. 50% Water changes every week. Start testing at 4 weeks, every other day is fine. Once you get acceptable (and consistent) results for 3 consecutive tests, perform a ~75% water change. Test. If good, add shrimp. Mine can tolerate low levels of nitrates and ammonia better than adding them to a new tank . I found out from experience that there are no magic shortcuts or potions for cycling when it comes to shrimp. And I got my best results when I went to RO and remineralized water - you get consistent water quality every time!

Welcome! Lots of variety here from experienced aquarists to "help! my guppies died after a water change". It's great that you are someone willing to share their experience and knowledge.

Not very efficient at all. With all DIY stuff, proceed with caution, lots of inexperienced experts out there..........

Disagree to a point. It all depends on your water parameters - (both tank and supply) and the species you keep or want to keep. You can't control or improve what you don't measure.

Scuds eat shrimp and just about any other creature they can grab ahold of. You may not see a difference for a while, but they will impact your shrump population. More scuds = less shrimp. If you can keep the scud numbers low by regular culling, you may be able to live with them. I would move the shrimp and nuke the tank. Less work and better results IMO.

RO water. No chemical residue and it's free (for me anyway).

You will have a hard time removing scuds without nuking the tank. Everything that kills scuds will be even more effective at killing shrimps. Planaria traps will not be effective. I would set up a separate tank and move the shrimp.

For what it's worth: I set up two 20L tanks with Amazonia aqua soil, lava rocks, java fern, java moss and cholla wood. I had the intent of adding shrimp frm my breeding colonies. Tanks had HOB tidal 35's and sponge filters. They had been cycled - up and running for over 2 months. Crystal clear water, great algae growth. My interests turned to dwarf loricariids - Otocinclus types. I decided to utilize these tanks for Parotocinclus, Nannoptopoma and Rhinocinclus. As I did not have a lot of husbandry info to go on, I decided to add ~1" of cleaned/rinsed pool sand to one tank. Even after rinsing the sand thoroughly - that tank gained a white haze that looks very similar to what you are picturing above. It is now been 2 months since the sand was added and the tank is finally as clear as the other. No changes to filtration were implemented.

I do a blend of both and vary the ratios from batch to batch. I have also started adding coarsly blended botanicals (leaves of : magnolia, dandelion, fennel, dill, oak, birch, mulberry) to the mixture. My Nannoptopoma, Parotocinclus and Otocinclus do not show a preference, they like it all!

Feed them regularly to my Mekong River Puffers - Pao Palustris. I have also started a worm farm as well - beats paying $5/2 dozen. Took a month or so before I started seeing wormlets.

Don't stress water changes. Ensure the water you add is within parameters before adding. I drip the water in (small stream is okay too) just to be sure there isn't a big shock to the shrimp. They are tougher than Caridina and can withstand minor fluctuations. My tanks run ~250-300 um and the water I add is usually lower, ~200 um. I tend to do more frequent, but smaller volume changes of ~10% weekly. If it is longer than that, I will do ~20%.

Your ideal water parameters are dependent on the the inhabitants you keep or the biome in which you want to create. Yes, you can keep fish/inverts outside of their preferred parameters. Just like you can survive at 40F or 120F temps. Not ideal, but you can live - although your quality of life is not great. I like to "chase" the correct parameters for the creatures I am fortunate enough to acquire. I do this by running an RO system and adding peat/minerals etc to the desired parameters. Doing so eliminates that concern.

Mother Nature's store. I prefer UP of Michigan. Ensure you know the species!