Lonkley

I don't really think it's important, but why do my pest snails flee my waterline. Sometimes there's none, sometimes there's like 30 (not all by any means). Is it normal? The fish are happy. The amano are happy. The plants are thriving. It's an aquaclear 50 and a sponge for redundancy. Ph is about 7. Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate about 20. Hard water. No CO2.

Probably decaying plant matter and nitrite conversion isn't ready.

Yes. I usually change 1 degree every couple of days and that's probably overly conservative. Also 77 would be fine anyway

I would also keep them on opposite ends of the tank, with the stone near the bottom, to increase the current cycling around the tank.

I always recommend just replacing the 5 gallon with a 10. It's not much of a bigger footprint, you can use the same gear and the water will be a little easier to maintain. You can get them for $10 at any half off sale That will give a lot more room too.

Yes, except you should see that a few days in a row to make sure everything is somewhat ready. Then slowly add fish. The idea is that the ammonia you are adding represents fish waste. Your beneficial bacteria colonies are like invisible pets you have to feed to make them grow.

Also the instructions say to keep ammonia at 2ppm It takes longer for nitrite converting to nitrate. I Just cycled a new 10 and it took about a week after ammonia converted to nitrite before nitrite converted to nitrate quickly enough.

I saw my amano molt and was surprised by that. At first I thought the amano had died.

You shouldn't keep it on 24/7. You'll end up with a algae everywhere. Lighting is kind of a mix between science and a guessing game. It depends on the intensity, the tank, and if you have live plants. But 8 hours is a good start, and yes you can split it if you like. It would also be very helpful to put it on a timer. I like using the Kasa home control with my alexa. You can add whatever schedule you want. Just make sure that if you unplug the light while it's turned on, plugging it back in turns the light back on.

The CPD should easily breed though right? Wouldn't hurt to give them future space. It's a completely arbitrary rule told to new fish keepers. What you are really looking for is that the tank processes ammonia and nitrite quickly. When testing (you are testing right?) you shouldn't see any and you should see low levels of nitrates. With all the filtering you have and all the decorations and gravel, you have plenty of room for bacteria to grow. Not to mention the plants that will also directly consume some ammonia

Oh the plan is to let them breed. That's why I have 5 in a 10 gallon. I'll be adding 5 a week until I have 15 to start the colony. But for right now, with this first batch, I'm happy to see one.

I find placing them sideways works better for keeping them under gravel. They seem to be taking shifts walking by one at a time.

I imagine it matters whether customs confiscates or returns. You would think they would confiscate, in which case the seller did their part. Im more interested how you plan to order from the US. I have a friend in Canada, and I couldn't find a way to enter his address to ship to. Figure I'll have to use amazon.ca

I just added 5 new blue dreams to a new tank for them, so I feel your pain. You want to see them running around but it shouldn't be surprising that if you've made conditions for them to be comfortable in, they're going to use them to be comfortable and just disappear. You're really wanting them to live long enough to breed, so the shrimplets are raised in your water. As long as you're seeing some in your tank, you have to assume the water quality is suitable for all. Here's my tank at the moment. You can see 1 of the 5 shrimp when I started this post. He's now gone off somewhere. I saw 3 this morning. Part of it is being super patient. It may take 20 mins or more for you to find some.

Not to pile on, but literally a few drops of dechlorinator would take care of it. Now, you have a tank that has likely crashed it's cycle. I would add dechlorinator now, and something like fritz 7 and try and get that cycle going for the survivors. Including cutting back on food since it'll be easy for that ammonia to build up. Another possibility is you inadvertently added something to the tank from your skin. Any oils, soap or the like?

Put a pin hole in them so they fill with water. Works a trick on my 35. But this 10 gallon has only about an inch of substrate. It cleared up, i vacuumed some. SInce then the tank has cycled and I've just added my first 5 shrimp this weekend to see if they agree with me that it's ready for life. So far so good, though being a shrimpy paradise I doubt ill ever see 5 at the same time. Slowly adding more once I feel confident.

Pretty sure a betta will treat them as lunch.

That's way too much for a 10 gallon. With good filtration maybe 10 to 15. Plus the CPD may breed. You would need a bigger tank. Plus look at water requirements for each.

You know, since you have the space... you could swap it with a 75g, i mean either petco or petsmart is running their eternal 50% off sale.

It also depends on the fish. I bought bug bites for my community guppy/cardinal tank and while they like it, they don't go crazy. Drop a algae wafer and the entire tank fights over it, and the amano slip in to steal it. It's probably the tanks favorite, and I feed like 6 different foods including frozen. Fish be fish.

Also remember to only buy as much as you can use in a few months. You're better off being able to finish and get fresh food than change it up. And frozen foods. Or live food. Can't be beaten when part of a balanced breakfast

You can reduce the temperature. My guppies relaxed when I dropped to 75

To me, that's plant food. I think it's more or less sequestered under the gravel. But I could be totally wrong.

I second Amano. They are hilarious creatures. Last night I fed the tank an algae wafer. While it was still floating at the surface, an Amano swam up to, grabbed hold of, then surfed it down to the bottom and tried to drag it to wherever they drag things to. Honestly I'm not sure if the fish were able to steal it back.

From what I understand apple snails are like the evil twin to mystery snails but can grow up to like 6 inches or so. I think they also eat plants.