JettsPapa

If someone was going to forcefully remove me from my house with a net to put me in a strange AirBnB I'd probably rather stay in my house.

The freezer should be fine, or even in the refrigerator. Any place where it won't absorb moisture.

Trimming roots certainly won't hurt anything. When my crypts get too thick I typically pull them all up (the roots are too interlocked to pull up just a few), separate them, sell some and replant the rest. I trim off most of the roots on the ones I replant just because it's practically impossible to get all the roots back in the substrate if I don't. I've done the same thing with a sword plant.

I had my first tank when I was about 20. I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I thought all I needed to do was get a tank, add water and fish, and sit and watch them. As you can imagine, that didn't go well. I tried again about 20 years later we got a tank for our son's room. I enjoyed sitting there beside it watching the fish, but didn't know any more than I did the first time. I was so clueless I didn't know there was stuff I was supposed to know. Almost another 20 years went by, and my daughter-in-law got interested in fish keeping (in 2019). They live next door, so of course I watched her journey, and decided to get my own tank. With her help getting me started, I've learned a tremendous amount in the last three years. That one tank has turned into seven tanks (so far) in the house, several tubs outside for shrimp and guppies, and another tank on my desk at work. Favorite fish is a tough question. If I had to pick just one it would probably be pearl gouramis.

Assuming you have hard water with relatively high pH, try finding some from a hobbyist breeder instead of the ones that are mass produced commercially. If you have a locally owned fish/aquarium store some of them buy locally, but the big chains generally don't. Or you might find some online. I haven't listed them yet, but I have a few strains of guppies and am starting to sell a few.

Those are beautiful shrimp. One of these days I'm going to get brave and try caridinas.

Hello, I haven't kept badis, but I've kept shrimp with a wide variety of other fish. With the amount of hiding places you have in that tank I'm not at all surprised that you aren't seeing the shrimp, unless you added several dozen or more. By the way, just as an observation, in my tanks the fish don't seem to bother shrimp that are on plants or the glass. On the other hand, if they're swimming in open water they're jumped on pretty much instantly.

One thing I like about the Cryptocoryne usteriana is that it sends out runners with new plants. I've tried a couple of other crypts that just seem to sit there and don't do that (Cryptocoryne spiralis is one of them).

My first "job" was working for my father and his partner in the hay business, when I was around 13. It was almost 50 years ago, so I don't remember how much I was making when I started, but I know it wasn't over $1.50 per hour, and may have been less.

Bettas have their share of problems also, but I would choose one of them over a dwarf gourami. However, honey gouramis are a good alternative, and can (and should) be kept in groups, which often isn't possible with dwarf gouramis. Pearl gouramis are another good option, though they're a little larger, so need a larger tank, and like honey gouramis they do best in groups.

Dwarf gouramis (Trichogaster Ialius)

Here is one. Please ignore the algae on a few of the older leaves. I have the light running too long in this tank, and I'm not smart enough to adjust the timer. I need to get my son to do it.

Cryptocoryne usteriana is my new favorite plant, and should work well there. It has crinkled leaves that are green on top and reddish bronze underneath, and reaches the top of my 40 gallon breeder tank.

When I set up this account I was a new grandfather, and my grandson Jett (short for Jethro) calls me Papa (the paternal grandfather has been called Papa in my family for at least four generations). That's where mine comes from. Since then he has a baby sister named Violet, and another on the way, so at some point I suppose I should edit the name to include them.

I have a 40 gallon moderately planted community breeder tank with (currently) eleven pearl gouramis, along with tetras and corydoras. I wouldn't hesitate recommend doing something similar.

I have two of them in a 40 gallon community tank. One of them will occasionally eat a frozen blood worm, but the other never has, and neither has ever shown any interest in dry fish food. I haven't fed any frozen blood worms in months, but they both seem to be doing well. There's a thriving colony of cull neocaridina shrimp, along with a few amano shrimp, and I drop a few rams horn or bladder snails in the tank every few days. They seem to be doing fine.

If you bought a good quality pool filter sand it shouldn't need rinsing. I've used two different brands, both bought at pool supply stores. One didn't produce any cloudiness when I added water, and the only one only made a little bit. It was cleared up the next day, so I don't consider that enough to justify going through the trouble of rinsing. I've seen reports from people who bought theirs at big box home improvement stores who had different results.

I meant burn the mesh and the duck weed.

That looks like a good idea. Do you burn it after using it (I hate duck weed, if you haven't already guessed)?

I forgot about that one. It thrives in one of my tanks, but has struggled in every other one I've tried. In any case, for me it doesn't exactly float.

Water sprite is one of my favorites. You often see it planted, and it's usually sold that way, but in my experience it does better floating (and it looks good floating also). Pearl weed and guppy grass are good choices for providing cover for fry or shrimp. Red root floater is another popular one, but I don't have any experience with it. Hornwort is one of the best at removing nitrates from the water, though all floating plants do well since they have access to unlimited carbon dioxide. Just about any stem plant will do fine floating also, though they generally aren't as attractive floating as rooted.

Hello, I have several tanks with pool filter sand substrate, and wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Most of those are just pool filter sand, but the last one I set up (a standard 20 gallon) I started with 1" of dry cow manure at the bottom, then 1" of potting soil, and then topped it with 2" of pool filter sand. As you might expect, I had bubbles coming up through the sand for weeks, but I had it stocked with guppies almost immediately and it didn't seem to bother them. Eventually they stopped. If you do something similar, be very careful when first adding water (I wasn't careful enough). I've used two different brands, all bought at swimming pool supply stores, so it may be of higher quality than what you find in the big box home improvement stores. I didn't rinse either one. One didn't cloud the water at all, and the other one did just a little bit. It was cleared up by the next day, so wasn't enough that I'd bother with rinsing in the future. I saw some at one of the home improvement stores a few years ago. The label said it had some special additive to make it work better, without giving any details on this additive. The brand name was Clorox, so as you might imagine I gave that a hard pass.

Hello, In the post above you listed nitrates twice. Is the second one supposed to be nitrites? If yes, that could be the problem, but as @nabokovfan87 said above, if some of them are still alive after a week or so they'll probably be okay. While some (maybe most) fish food contains copper, it's in very small amounts, and is unlikely to be enough to hurt shrimp.

Others may disagree, but I think the female dumbo mosaics are more attractive than the males.