JettsPapa

I'd also vote for option one. Seal the bags with 1/3 water and 2/3 air, with half of the water from the tank the fish or shrimp came from, and the other half fresh water (dechlorinated of course), and don't try to put too many in each bag. Fish are shipped all over the country like that every day.

Here's a link to another discussion where I posted some stuff for someone in a similar situation: Feel free to ask questions after reviewing it.

That's why all my heaters are low enough in the tank that I don't need to unplug them when doing water changes.

I don't have heaters in any of my guppy tanks, and the house gets down to 60° at night during the winter.

I don't know what's causing it, but if there are no fish or invertebrates in the tank may I ask why it's a concern? The plants should utilize it.

Hello, Here are my thoughts. Three guppies would be good for feature fish, as long as you get all males. If you get even one female you will soon find yourself overrun with fry. I don't know what you mean by "Cleanup Crew", or what you expect them to clean up, but only get them if you like them, not because you expect them (or any other tank inhabitants) to do any "cleaning". Contrary to what some people think, just because corys rummage around at the bottom of the tank doesn't mean they eat fish poop, and they also don't eat algae. The only cleaning they do is to eat food that falls past the other fish. They will starve if they don't get enough food, and not algae wafers. While they might nibble on them, they need primarily protein. A school of one of the smaller tetras, rasboras, etc, is a good idea for the middle of the tank. As @Ninjoma said, smaller fish allows you to have more of them.

In this situation, probably so, but not always. As I've gotten older I'm more willing to go ahead and do something that I think needs to be done instead of asking for permission.

Do you have an area of the house that's "yours"? Like maybe the kitchen, or a study, breakfast room, etc? I have one room in our house that's my office / library / fish room. While I wouldn't put a tank in just any room without asking her, I certainly wouldn't ask her if I can add another one in my room (and she wouldn't expect me to). Even if you don't, if it's important to you then your husband should work with you on finding a place to put it that you're both happy with.

You could use gravel, but I prefer sand. I'd recommend going to a swimming pool supply store and buying a bag of pool filter sand. It's relatively inexpensive (especially compared to sand sold and labeled specifically for aquariums), and will need little to no rinsing. I've used two different brands and didn't rinse either one. One didn't cloud the water at all, and the other one did very little (it was cleared up the next morning). I've heard reports from people who bought pool filter sand at one of the big box home improvement chain stores and it needed a good bit of rinsing.

If you're marketing them to other fish keepers I'd call them mixed guppies. If you plan to take them to an LFS for cash or store credit you can call them whatever you want, but they will likely correct you can say they're mutt guppies.

Try putting a container with rocks at the bottom of the tub, sized so the shrimp can get inside but the fish can't. A layer of dead leaves helps also. It gives hiding places, and as a bonus the shrimp will graze on them.

To get a tank ready to give shrimp the best chance it needs time to build up biofilm on all surfaces, in addition to being cycled. Squeezing out a dirty sponge would be a good idea, but I'd still recommend giving it time. I generally recommend letting a tank run for three months before adding shrimp.

If the tank is well seasoned you shouldn't need to feed at all, but if you want to anyway it should be a very small amount. One example would be food made for nano fish, that's in very small pieces, I'd only feed one piece for every 2-3 shrimp. Of if you have some of the Xtreme shrimp pellets, that are about the same diameter as a pencil lead, feed one small one for every ten shrimp.

I haven't kept those species outside, just guppies and shrimp, and in much smaller containers, but I will be happy to share my experience with them. All of mine have a big mass of either guppy grass or hornwort, so I don't have any mechanical filtration or water movement. As I said above, I don't have any experience with those fish, but if it was me I'd put them in separate tubs unless someone gave me a real good reason not to. I bring the guppies in when the night time temperatures start getting into the low 50's, but the shrimp stay out all year (southeast Texas).

I agree that keeping them in a tank that small will be difficult, but it shouldn't be impossible. I also agree that in a well seasoned tank you shouldn't need to target feed six shrimp. The most likely result of that would be increasing the snail population, or decreasing the water quality (or both). I wouldn't break the tank down and start over to get rid of the snails. I have rams horn, bladder, and Malaysian trumpet snails in all my tanks, and they coexist with the shrimp just fine.

If you're wanting something for the cull shrimp I'd suggest a small tank with just an inexpensive LED light. I have a 5.5 gallon tank on my desk at work that's been doing just fine like that for almost two years (no mechanical filtration or air stone). Several weeks ago I took 70 shrimp out of it to sell to a neighbor, and the population was by no means decimated by removing that many.

Welcome. You might try a few neocaridina shrimp (red cherry shrimp, or other color varieties). While your tank is pretty small, they might be worth a try. They're considerably smaller than ghost shrimp, and quite a bit more expensive, but they are often healthier also. I would wait until the tank has been running for at least 3 months though, and you will need to keep a close eye on water parameters.

Why? I'm curious, not arguing.

72°F is definitely not too cold, but you can raise the temperature if you want. Warmer temperatures speed up their life cycle, so while they may breed faster, they will also die faster.

A lesser know Lynyrd Skynyrd song (Jamey Johnson has a version that I think is at least as good).

Unless you're really sold on spherical substrate you might consider pool filter sand. It's relatively inexpensive, and depending on brand it may need little to no rinsing (I get mine from pool supply stores and it doesn't need any, but apparently the pool filter sand sold at big home improvement stores needs more). I have either that or Black Diamond sandblasting sand (as @rockfisher suggested) in all ten tanks, depending on which color I wanted.

Dump it and get new. Pool filter sand is cheap.

I suspect it's mostly because the breeder needs to sell them for more to offset the additional time and expense to get them to that point.

I'm confused. If they're berried they are breeding.

Welcome to the forum. My water is hard, with high pH, but it's my understanding that as pH gets lower the ammonia toxicity does also, so with that in mind I have doubts that ammonia killed your fish, especially if your ammonia never got above 0.50 ppm. I doubt it would have killed them even if your pH was around 7.0, much less. How are you testing your water. Many people recommend the liquid test kits instead of strips, but unless you follow the instructions very carefully, especially shaking the bottles like your life depended on it, they can give false nitrate readings. With that in mind, I wonder if your tank is cycled, but your test isn't showing nitrates? As far as the fish dying, this may be a dumb question, but I assume you've added dechlorinator every time you add water to the tank?