purrmaid

So far I can count 4 of the 5 shrimp and I've fished out 3 of the 6 neons. I may have jumped the gun a bit on shrimp. Like idk if my calcium is high enough? I have a bag of aragonite sand in the filter, is that enough?? I also saw nilocg selling a 'shrimp safe' fert without copper. Is copper bad for them? How much?? Do I need to switch fertilizers?? I'm debating adding a piece of that cholla wood too. It's not as heavily planted as I'd like yet but there should be plenty of cover. They like the filter, which makes me nervous. At least one has eggs and I'd like them to do well and like, not get sucked in

Added some potted monte carlo and ludwigia today. And 5 cherry shrimp! Petco had a sale. My bro is *still* dithering on ordering some but I'm not as patient. I'm quarantining 6 new neons too. I noticed my monte carlo buts growing up instead of out so I upped the light and the time the co2 is on. I haven't changed the fert yet but maybe I should? I'm watching for algae 😕 Bro printed me a snail trap. Not sure exactly how it works if it's just a bait holder or if they can get in there. There are just entirely too many though. At least one of those shrimp had eggs and I want some to survive 😩 So cute!

I FINALLY DID SOME TRIMMING! It only took like, a month longer than I expected to get around to it and the dust hasn't settled but here's to progress! The amazon frogbit sadly choked some plants out. I had some pink alternanthera (I think), some corkscrew grass, and dwarf hairgrass that didn't survive the dark times 🥺 my monte carlo seems to refuse to carpet too. It's a nice green but it just isn't rooting. It was a culture cutting though so maybe I just need to try a potted one? Anyhow, progress is progress. Pondering trying to quarantine more neons while I wait on bro to decide on shrimp. I think if I get this dense enough, I can probably keep cherry shrimp going even if I added a dwarf gourami. I'm not sure how many I can really have unless I somehow find colorful females though. Part of me wants one from each of the 3 major variants but 36 g, even well planted seems a bit tight for them 🤔 I'm also lowkey on the hunt for a 5 g bowl. I have one that's 3.75g that would make a bare minimum betta walstad bowl but the table I have could hold a 13" diameter one. So far the thrift shops and craigslist have failed me and I don't really want to spend more than $20 since I also need to find a small adjustable wall lamp for it too.

Thank you kindly~

They sell shrimp?

Got any good shrimp sources? My sae may eat some but really my bro wants to put some in a 3 gal I've been donating (read: dumping) extra plants to. He also has an 8g with 2 little tetras? Barbs? Regardless it's space themed and cute It's hard to see bc he texted me this video and the lights aren't even on (though they're only blue??). He has an led volcano bubbler and a wrecked Enterprise in there. The 'planted' tank has a broken tie fighter lol. He keeps snails in it at the moment

Thanks for the vid~ I noticed he quarantines everything from Petco/mart lol Except for one tiny mom 'n pop lfs that is way more focused on saltwater, all I have are the chain stores. I think the next closest lfs's are 30 min away in different directions. One looks like it's saltwater only (their website is a facebook and I don't do that site) and the other is actually a plant nursery/pond place with great big koi, so not exactly what I'm looking for. My local lfs seems to care for the fish and plants well but the prices are generallya good 25% higher and I'm not sure what the return policy is. The vid even said all neons get quarantined regardless so I figured if some are likely to die anyway, I'd rather cut into petco's profits than that nice old couple's. They have the best plants~ the amazon frogbit they gave me is taking over all my tanks though lol

Welp, it's been 3 weeks and 4 neons remain. I think that's long enough but it's literally been years since I've added more fish. I'm also a bit worried that 50% of them didn't make it to three weeks 😒

Still 5 but one likes to hide. It comes out for food. I can't imagine it being picked on by its fellow neons...well unless...it's a lady neon 😅 They're pretty small though 36 tank is flourishing wildly. There's a pink plant (alternanthera i think) that has kinda dissolved some. It seemed to be doing well at first but started getting holes and then just gone. I haven't been good about fertilizer though and the cabomba just loomed over it, probably blocking its light 😞

So down to 5 since the day before. Still, they're doing better than the first batch. Assuming they survive, I gotta figure out when to call the quarantine 🤔 I think 2 weeks is minimum? My bro suggested ¾" vinyl hose to make a containment ring for the frogbit. I'm not sure how to attach it to the side of the aquarium but maybe he can 3d print something if I can find it on thingiverse. Otherwise not much excitement here past I'm one chemo treatment from being done! 🥳 In 2 weeks, I may actually have enough energy to do basic chores! Yaaaay

The box filter has a little lid for the biomedia that isn't even touching the little media cup because of how much established I tried to stuff in there lol those are probably load-bearing sponges now 😆 Also, still at seven this morning! They've eaten a few pinches of Hikari micro wafers yesterday and this morning which is an improvement over the last batch. Now that I think about it the last batch tended to ignore my attempts to feed them. I assumed they did when I wasn't watching and nothing ever spiked. If the employee was right about larger ones being overfed and overheated, maybe the stress of being in a normal tank with normal feeding amounts stressed them out. This new batch all eagerly snap up the food in <30 seconds :3 I'll do water tests later to see if anything is spiking between a new filter and new bioload. Maybe shift it so the bubbles are more even. And add more frogbit? I made an airline loop for the main tank but it's broken containment!! 😬🚨

I empty the bag into a pitcher then add tank water every so often. Then I net them out and add them to the tank. Ideally over 2 hours but I had to rush today and they only have about an hour of me adding tank water in steps. I lent my Whisper 10 pump and regulator to my brother. He wanted an LED volcano in his octagonal 8 gallon Star Trek themed danio tank lol. Personally I think he should have gone with fancy guppies but it's better than the GloFish he started with. Anyway I'm running it off my rechargeable backup air pump and it only has these imprecise regulators. I filled the box with the cultured biomedia in the HOB filter as much as I could for weight and to have good bacterial population. I guess I could remove one of the 3 sponges??

Okay, new batch! Petco had a buy 3 get 1 free deal too, so I got 8 instead of 6. They're smaller than the others but the employee said that might be a good thing bc the big ones are overfed and overheated by some breeders to force growth. I'll take hardy over size. Anyway, my nitrates were at about 10 ppm so I did a 50% water change before acclimating them. Hopefully didn't rush it bc I had to make my chemo appointment. Post chemo update: one already passed 🥺 the box filter came so I threw out the dry biomedia and used mine. It wants to float up so I put a rock on top. How do I make it make smaller bubbles? Wait until it figures itself out?

It may *have* to wait til tomorrow. It's so stormy out! Atlantans don't know how to drive when stuff is falling from the sky lol Also there's fewer people at the pet store in the morning and I still have to be leery about my immune system. My mask helps but it'd help if everyone else wore one too 😮‍💨

Same here on the medication front. I checked the water daily, did a couple water changes, fed frozen brine shrimp and the mini pellets I normally feed. I have older neons in my main tank that have been around years so it's not like I don't know what to look for. By the time I noticed any odd behavior, they'd be floating in an hour. No physical evidence of disease, no gasping for air or anything like that. For 2 of them, the only hint something was up was 'separating from the group'. 2 others seemed to have some swimming troubles and 2 happened overnight so no clue on their symptoms. I think my petco gets their fish shipments today so idk if I should get them replaced today while they're already stressed or let them relax in the petco tanks a few days, then stress them again getting them Friday or something

Welp, none of the neons survived the week. I checked the parameters daily and there were no spikes. I am sad but I figure it was a bad batch? I ordered a box filter to maybe be gentler? Regardless I hope to feel up to taking the little frozen bodies back to Petco tomorrow. Red blood cells dropped enough the doc wanted to know if I was open to receiving a blood donation but I'm hoping taking a week off chemo will help without using scarce resources. Anyhow, at least I'll have the box filter as a backup bc if the power goes out, I can heat up heating packs on the gas stove and I have a rechargeable air pump that can operate the filter and aerate the water. Hopefully that can help both the fish and plants stay healthy the few days it would work for. Luckily the power has never gone out more than a couple hours and they'd be fine without my intervention for that short time

I keep extra biofilter media and plants in the main tank and then use the main tank's water to fill it. Also use patience. Start with 1-2 new fish in the q tank, don't give into temptation to buy a whole aquarium's worth of new fish 😅

The quarantine tank~ Wish I could get those nerite snail eggs off that wood. It'd be great for the Walstad bowl I want to do later but they're impossible to get off 😕

Well bro and I did get some (6) neons to quarantine. So pitiful that that was enough to tire me out. Hoping these guys do well! Nitrates in the q tank were 10-20 ppm so the plants should be happy but maybe I shojld add more frogbit just in case? They ignored the dry food I gave them so maybe tomorrow I'll check how the ammonia/nitrite is again, change out some water if needed, and maybe start bulking these babies up with frozen brine shrimp For ref, the quarantine tank is a standard 10 gal with a terrarium grating top we cut a hole in for a Seachem Tidal 35 and 100w Fluval m series heater. And an old light that was on my 36g before I changed the top to a glass one and upgraded to the Fluval. I think they're Aqueon bulbs? It has 2 different ones if memory serves right, like you could switch them out for different color combos but none of them were really bright enough for high lighting plants? Good enough for the extra plants and cuttings I have floating in there though. I should really like...pot them or something

Thought I would take some pics to show how things are growing. The cabomba and frogbit are going nuts~ May do a trim tomorrow if I'm up to it. Maybe get some more neons in the quarantine tank? I already moved some frogbit to the q tank and it filled back in lol. Some ludwigia has decided to free itself from the substrate too

Feel, I guess. And I've been testing the water. I don't have a tds meter. The ideal is to get to where there's so many plants and everything is so balanced, I don't have to do many changes in general.

My gloves came in and seem pliable enough for aquarium work! Too bad I've been stuck in bed all morning with neuropathy. The trimming shall have to wait 😭

The only house I can really see from the back is far away. They have like a greenhouse and gazebo they never seem to use? I can only see it during the winter anyway. Neons and hillstream loach are in a pitcher acclimating to go into the 36g. Means the q tank is free for more neons or shrimps~ time to shop soon! The pH difference between tanks was not very much, like the vials were practically the same shade

✨️Google✨️ Absolutely not!! I'd shell out for new blinds first. They're only 'broken' bc the last people here were some college kids renting from one of their parents. "No dogs lived here," my tush. No one has to screw sheet metal to the backside of the laundry room floor and garage door frame, replace all the flooring, and still missed the dog nose smudges on the patio door that didn't have a dog 🙄 Anyway it's in the suburbs too, just on a hill towards a creek so most of my land is only mine bc they couldn't build another 3 houses on it lol. It has more privacy than average

I read you don't want your livestock to endure more than a 0.4 pH change over a 24 hr period so I've been chasing that pH stability. Wish there was a way to independently raise kh without raising the pH 😢 I'm afraid neon tetras and hillstream loaches are weaker to those extreme pH shifts but that may just be my assumption that smaller fish=delicate constitution. Personally I'd be happy to have any functional blinds in that room. Those things are pricey! Hard to have curtains around cats too so window coverings are just something I have to deal with not having. Luckily that's at the back of the house. Only woods and coyotes and owls to watch me