Lennie

I have 11 in a 15g tank. In my experience, they are fairly peaceful. I have 8 females 3 males if I am not mistaken. I got mine tankbred, so I did not need to deworm too. The issue is, you need to have cultures going on to feed them properly as they need to be fed various live and/or frozen(if accepted) foods. I also had a F8 puffer for some time. Live feeding is not my thing. Yes, fish love all those earthworms, whiteworms, artemia, etc. but it was bothering me. Therefore lesson learned, live food required fish are not for me really. I prepered a tank with pest snails settled in before I got my fish. LAter on I realised they even sometimes don't kill but just bite their antenna or body parts and let them live this way. It was reaaaaally bothering. I moved them to a new snail free tank after some time. Other than that, I fed them different type of worms, live daphnia and live bbs. I would question if you are okay with keeping cultures and feeding various live foods to another animal. It is not everybody's thing. It is not my thing I realised. Also they are schooling fish naturally. I saw some peeps mentioning keeping them in lower numbers above. Without a proper gender balance and group dynamic, it is very likely to fail and witness aggression issues. The lowest recommended group number is 6 as 2m:4f. Also, they are probably easiest to find tank bred puffers, and also this makes you avoid getting C.imitator which can be mistakenly collected and sold together with actual pea puffers, and may cause potential problems or may be the reason why people categorise them as "aggressive"? Also puffer forum has great guides. Here I am sharing it below: https://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library/puffers-in-focus/dwarfpuffercare/ Another great guide: https://www.pufferfishenthusiastsworldwide.com/post/c-travancoricus

Mesh lids are especially popular in the saltwater hobby. You can check those. They aesthetically look better IMO

Yea. I said it before, German blue rams are surely not peaceful. But they tend to be peaceful in a community tank in general, but I would classify them as semi aggressive at least. I would personally crowd the tank with schooling fish that does not share the same color of your GBR if it is something like electric blue, gold, black, etc. Same goes for the gourami, I would choose a different color if the GBR is a selectively bred color. I kept my bettas and gouramis (golds and honeys) successfully with my GBRs (gold and blacks) but I always hesitate choosing very similar body size and color pattern between two aggressive fish. All fish you have barely have any effect on crowding the tank. So likely your GBR claimed the whole tank and sees the gourami as a potential danger in its territory. If you add many fast swimming schooling fish to the tank, they will be a big distraction for the fish considering they will constantly invade the territorial space of GBR and distract him nonstop, while making them feel more naturalistic I believe. Right now it is like two boxers in a boxing ring. Long story short, here is what I would do: Play around the tank decor a bit. Get active fast swimmer fish that is suitable for such GBR temps( I personally like rummynoses but bigger tanks feels always better for these guys). Not only 6 or 8. I mean, crowd it. 15 of them. OR two different schools with 10 of each if thats your thingy. And keept the lights off for the day.

I keep majority of my tanks without a lid. I haven't kept clown loaches, but in general, you gotta lower the water level significantly to lessen the potential jumping. IT is never zero, but water level being down helps a lot. Water level visibly down is not everyones thing, which I understand. It may not look very good to the eye. Rachel O Leary also keeps majority of her tanks this way too, if I am not mistaken. You can check her fishroom videos as well.

salty bee is a reputable one from what Ive heard. I have never tried it tho. I use a product of a local company in my country. It is called "Shrimps Forever Powder GH Plus"

I have water softener too. I use gh+ products to increase my gh. They dont have an effect on ph and kh this way

I have never kept harlequin rasboras. But I believe they should not require an exact ratio, when you get a group you will more or less be balanced anyway. Like as an example, my rummynoses have nothing to with m f ratio really. But if they are like pencilfish or barbs, then it would be nicer to go for a balanced group. My male rosy barbs did chase females for breeding. Also pencilfish males have some sort of aggression in my experience and can bully females a lil So someone with an experience may help better, but I think they would be similar to rummynoses and don’t really care an exact ratio. Pygmy cories are surely my favorite too. Cutest fish ever. Plecos use wood as hiding point really. And they do enjoy grazing around for the natural growth/aufwuch. It is a good enrichment but not a must. Plecos eating wood is a misconception, and it is thought to be a byproduct at best if any found in the gut. Like a hunter animal eating an animal with fur or feathers, so unintentionally you can find bones, fur, feathers, etc in their gut but they don’t really feed on feathers as food

I used bleach once and I would never do again. Making sure there is no residue left is tough work. I am on the team hydrogen peroxide. Also drying should for work many problems but not all ofcourse. Also, I should mention, I try to use a seperate equipment like nets, hose, etc for QT tanks

I would either do 1m:3f honey gouramis or just one . 15 harlequins 20 pygmy cories To start increasing the stock slowly to be budget friendly and easy on the filter and b.bacteria colony to keep up with the upcoming stocking, I would start with 7 more pygmy cories to complete the group to 10 (they barely have any bioload really. Such tiny fish) 10 harlequin rasboras and 1 honey gourami.

When I use aquasoil, I am hesitant to add fertilisers especially at the beginning. Aquasoils commonly leech nutritions to the water column at the beginning, and decaying fish food will leech some too. Shrimp soils also have certain amount of nutritions even tho not as much as normal aquasoils. Later on you can support them with additional root tabs and liquid fertilizer. Plants take some time to settle too. Dumping in too much nutrition would lead to unwanted algae growth. I have never used co2 in my life. I know my plant limits that require co2 so I dont go for those options. co2 is usually good for plants, but probably not something ideal to start and balance for a newbie. Also good systems can be costy, and cheap DIY ones can be risky. If I were you, I would keep easy plants, learn about shrimp keeping and hobby more. And skip the idea of trying co2 at least for now. Just as a side note, you dont bury Java fern rhizomes to the ground. You attach them to the driftwood/rocks/etc like anubias/bucephalandra or similar to moss. I can't see how it is exactly located in the picture but just wanted to mention this to make sure.

In seachem's site it is stated that: To start a cycle, you need an ammonia source there in addition to bacteria culture. If your shrimp soil release none, you can also ghostfeed to release some ammonia and start the cycle. Shrimp have super low bioload, so you dont really need to cycle with a high reading of ammonia IMO. Keeping the parameters stable is usually more important. Your parameters are just fine. Try to aim keeping it stable in what way you can do. Healthy neocaridinas are crazy good at adapting different conditions. But constantly changing parameters are never good for shrimp. Don't worry too much. You will be a great shrimp mom considering your effort and worry about your future shrimp friends and trying to do your best. By the way, shrimp soils tend to be a good choice for caridinas usually as they commonly soften the water and lower the ph. Usually combined with RODI and let soil do its thingy. When I use tap with aquasoil, I barely see any result in ph tho. I did notice some gh decrease in the past for some time however.

We are here to help each other in this forum. Helping and trying to explain a situation that may cause a potential misunderstanding is not sniding. Considering you talk about my message at the beginning and thanking me at the end, I wanted to clarify my message to make sure not to cause any potential overfeeding due to a potential misunderstanding. That's it. I see you are new to the forum. Quoting while responding may help to notify the message sender, and show the direction of your response better. You can see the quote option below every entry. You can also directly choose related lines of a message and click "quote selection".

Bettas need horizontal space too and vertical tall tank only makes it worse for them to keep swimming up and down to breathe from the surface. Especially long fin ones may have horrible experience in tall tanks. I did try two halfmoons in both 40 and 50cm high tanks and I had to change their tanks quickly witnessing the obvious struggle. Plakats can be done but they love swimming. The bigger the space the better in my experience. Shallow tanks work wonders for bettas of any kind

Just to be clear, I did not mention anything about underfeeding fish. It is impossible to tell with zero info given anyway You might be feeding your fish enough and they could be still going after shrimp sticks.

Shrimp only really eat dropped food if they are hungry. If they ignore it, they are very likely not hungry. Or maybe not like the food They probably enjoy the natural growth of biofilm, algae, leftover fish food, etc. in your tank. So not hungry enough to go after shrimp sticks. I used to feed my shrimp shrimp food too. But I quit it while ago. I provide an established tank, let them enjoy high quality fish food, keep a few botanicals around, and feed them bee pollen from time to time. I also dose mont.clay during water changes and use gh+. I don't think they need shrimp food really. So I don't see any point to make them eat it in your scenario. They seem to do fine without it anyway. I have never kept caridinas tho. I am talking for my neocaridina experience only. In terms of harm, I assume it wouldn't be that problematic for the fish. But the ingredients don't seem as the greatest for the fish really. I wouldn't want my fish to stuff themself up with a shrimp food with such ingredients myself but instead with high quality fish food. Like the first ingredient is grain products in the mentioned shrimp food I'm not a fan to be honest. Personal opinion I like Dennerle's Shrimp King complete much better if you really want to feed shrimp food:

I stock my tanks based on the bottom dimensions of the tank, and take the height as a bonus until I need that high water volume or keep a tall fish. I have my tanks custom made. As an example, regardless of the water volume, my 110x40x25cmh tank gives me way more option than my 50cm cube in my opinion. A tall tank like this does not provide much stocking options just because it is a 10g; as it mainly provides vertical swimming space but lacks the horizontal swimming space, and fish don't really utilise going up and down but instead swim horizontally mainly. If It was me, I would only stock it with shrimp and very tiny not mobile fish maybe, like smallest rasboras such as chilis. I would not take normal 10g stocking suggestions as applicable for tall tanks myself just because it holds the same volume of water.

There are air pumps that work with battery. Sounds like the best choice here to me I don't think 23-24C is a problem for 4 days at all

She was bold enough Like I had a moliwe krib and that apisto together as well as angels. You would expect the aggression between these guys right? Especially given moliwes are not even from the same continent. Nope! Bettas tend to not like fish that are colorful and closer to them in size I think. And although I had no issues in bigger tanks, I did have a female betta bullying my honey gourami in a small tank before. Not like extreme aggression or such, but picking on now and then when he swims too close to her. I am surprised it works well for you in a 10g. I even keep the same female betta, Alice, with endlers in such tank size peacefully and with an increasing population nonstop. But didn't really work well with honey gourami Alice: Agave(RIP my angelic guy):

As staple food, I use New life spectum small community fish formula, thera A+. Tropical Insect menu, spirulina flakes and krill flakes. I have been feeding white worms instead of bloodworms but I am not very willing to keep and feed cultures all the time lately. I sometimes feed FD tubifex by sticking it to the glass. The tank gets extra live bbs from my hatches from time to time. My all fish has been a huge fan of Sera O nips but I no longer feed it really for the past year. So angels never really got any but I bet they would love it too

I used bloodworms for a long time until I witnessed two problems. One being one of my juvenile angels eating the bloodworm and directly dying in front of my eyes. Second being the worm sticking to the gill of my black ram. After witnessing these two occasions, I quit feeding bloodworm as a whole. They are not great in terms of nutrition anyway, and are treats. I have better and safer treats for my fish.

Pair for gouramis does not sound good to me. I would go for at least trios, but I found them not crowded enough too. I would say 4 as the lowest should be a better idea. That being said pearl gouramis are fairly big and calm fish, your schools might be too active and small. And 20g tank is too small for pearls too. My 100x40x40cm tank felt small for my gold gourami trio if I gotta be honest

I have not seen any direct adult shrimp hunting behavior from my 11 bettas till today. But realising the population growth issues show us they do eat shrimplets. And being aware of the possibility is good to know. But I know my friend’s betta was a shrimp hunter, sadly That being said, your neons and cpds will already eat many of those anyway. So far, as long as I add the betta last to a tank, my success rate is %100. Even for those bettas that seemed community tank fails if other fish ( or in some cases any fish being added) after the betta. So I would always add betta last to a community tank, once I know there wont be any fish going in the same tank. Because I even witnessed one of my community tank females attacking a male triple red a.cacatuoides after adding him to the peaceful community tank. She has never had issues with any other fish before and the tank was overstocked, and she was added last. about the betta personality part, it is still a good idea to have a potential second plan if you wanna try a community tank no matter what My honey gourami, Agave, has always been alone as a honey gourami in the peaceful community tanks. Honeys are known to be super peaceful and my boy was also angelic. I did keep my gold gouramis and sparklings as trios, and found it somehow problematic. I know it is unlikely for honey gourami to be problematic like golds in groups fro example, but I am not sure if you even need a group anyway. I believe my boy had a great time, fulfilled his lifespan nicely and I lost him due to old age sadly

I already live in a region that is by the sea, so the extra moisture is quite problematic during winter too. And tanks are an addition to it regardless of the season. Since its cold during winter, I cannot open the window frequently. The tank temps are stable all year long anyway, so there is not extreme differences when it comes to evaporation in my case During winter, even my windows are covered in water drops sometimes. I even consider buying dehumidifiers as you can set them to a certain level you wanna keep your room at I cant get a lid because my wood piece goes above the tank level

I have 3 tanks in my bedroom, and they are my favorite. I have a chance to wake up and see my fish and interact with them every morning. I love it. HOB filters are extremely quiet too. That being said, for me, the biggest and maybe the only issue I have is moisture levels. If you use a lid, it shouldn't be a big problem but my big tank has no lid and it is only 160 liters. So that's problematic. My recommendation would be finding a suitable lid for such big tank if there is none

In my opinion, not really. Those little guys are everywhere from bottom up to floating plants in my experience. In a heavily planted and scaped tank, they spend time at every level and surface. I love shrimp, and they are pretty interesting to watch. But I would not classify them as a certain level dweller in a tank. In your tank size, suitable bottom dwellers are corydoras (I would avoid big species myself, I found sterbais problematic when fully grown in such tank size and much happier once moved to a bigger tank, so any small to mid size ones sound great, small might be an issue for centerpiece be careful), kuhli loaches, red lizard whiptails and dwarf chain loaches I believe. Some consider otos are bottom dwellers too, which in my experience, just like shrimp, spend time and feed on everywhere and no specific level. You can also look for borneo loaches/hillstream loaches, rosy loaches(no experience with this one unlike others, just thinking aloud). Panda garras are great looking fish. I have never been able to find a healthy good looking stock to keep a group of them, but you can also keep them in mind. My friend @beastie has them, and they look beautiful. You can check her journal below. You can see her panda garras and hillstream loaches in these pictures: