JettsPapa

There is one thing to watch out for. I thinned some crypts a while ago, and floated the excess in one of my tanks for what turned out to be a couple weeks. All the growth was of course going toward the light, so when I finally got around to planting them it took a while for them to straighten out and look right. There wasn't any permanent harm, but I wanted to mention it.

I shipped a pearl gourami a couple months ago that was about 3" long. I ordered my bags from Amazon, and they aren't the breather bags. At the time I could only find one source for those, and there was a long wait time. I didn't use oxygen, I mailed the package on Tuesday, and it got hung up somehow and didn't arrive until the following Monday, and the fish was fine. I also double-bagged it, but when I ship fish or shrimp I invert the first bag in the second one, which rounds off the corners similar to the method on the video using tape.

I'm a big fan of black neon tetras.

Shrimp do best with dense plants that they can hide in. Of the ones you listed the hornwort and dwarf hairgrass would probably be best. I don't think it matters which order you add them, but someone else might feel differently. I wouldn't put vallisneria in a tank that small.

I'll second the suggestion to drop off a sample. I've posted it in another place or two, but I recently emailed a store offering guppy grass and pearl weed. The owner replied he only wanted 20 portions of pearl weed. When I delivered it he wasn't there, but I left a few samples of guppy grass. He emailed me back a day or two later, thanked me for the samples, and ordered 20 portions of it along with 20 more of the pearl weed. I just got store credit for the plants, but if he hadn't bought them I'd have had to throw it away, and I wanted some fish anyway.

I wish I could help, but mine eat them just fine.

I haven't kept honeys, but I recently got some sparkling gouramis in my 20 long. It amuses me the way they often seem to examine their food before deciding whether or not they want to try it. A kubotai rasbora will frequently swoop in and steal it before they make up their minds.

I probably shouldn't ask, but I can't help myself. How could ammonia be less than zero?

That happens to some of my plants occasionally, and as said above I believe it's because not enough light reaches that portion. I typically trim out the bare portion. The lower part will usually sprout new growth, and I stick the top part in the substrate to make a new plant.

There are a few exceptions (otos come to mind), but almost all fish see shrimp as a food source. I'll agree that some will actively hunt them more than others, but they'll all eat one if they happen upon it and it will fit in their mouth. Whether or not fish will eat shrimp has very little to do with their level of aggression, or whether or not they're peaceful To really enjoy shrimp it's my firm belief that it's better to have them in dedicated shrimp tanks. When I first got mine I had them in a tank with a few guppies for the first few weeks. Within hours after moving the guppies out I could see twice as many shrimp every time I looked at the tank. Even though the guppies weren't a big threat to the adult shrimp they still saw the guppies as predators, and would spend a good bit of time hiding instead of being out and about foraging.

My only experience selling to a store is guppy grass and pearl weed. It occurred to me that I never see it offered for sale at any of the stores I go to, so I emailed one of them. I had it packaged in clear food grade containers with neatly printed labels, so it was ready to sell. I wound up taking almost $100.00 worth in store credit to them. Sorry for the long response, but because of my experience I'd encourage you to contact them, via email so you can send pictures. It won't cost anything to ask.

The only thing I've bought in recent months that really stands out is a pole saw (especially since @Corymentioned gardening) I bought early this year. I needed one to trim some trees near my house and didn't want to spend the money for a gas powered one, so my wife and I went to Lowe's to look for an electric one. While I was there I got to talking to another customer who said his son had bought a battery powered one and really liked it. I took his advice and bought a battery powered one from Craftsman. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked, and I don't know how long the battery will last on a single charge but I know it lasts longer than I do. I'm especially glad I didn't buy an electric one because I've also used it to trim low-hanging limbs on some trees in the pasture, which allows me to get under them better with my tractor when I'm mowing.

For the last 22 years I've worked for a division of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. My division develops, builds, and tests roadside safety structures (bridge rails, guardrails, signs, etc) and anti-ram structures such as fences, walls, gates, and drop-arms used to protect sensitive installations like power plants, military bases, and embassies. See https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Texas+A%26M+Transportation+Institute+crash+tests for some videos you might find interesting. For the first 11 years there I worked on the construction crew, but in 2009 I moved inside and started doing the drafting and some design work instead. I've really enjoyed it, especially since as I'm getting older being out in the heat and cold isn't as much fun as it was in my 20's and 30's. I was a little surprised (I don't know why) to see there are several other people here doing CAD work. I've been using Solidworks the entire time, and am fairly active on their forum, and have written quite a few blog posts answering frequently asked questions there. I was also happy to see the post from @Danielabout supplying honeybees. I worked for a local beekeeper for 2-1/2 years before going to work where I am now. It's a multi-generational company named B. Weaver Apiaries (I suspect he's heard of them).

I have a few cows, and have had them for decades. I refer to it as a tax deductible hobby, though they do make me a little money most years. I read a lot. In fact, my office/fish room has 9' of wall space taken up with bookshelves, with about half hardbacks and the other half paperbacks double-stacked. Occasionally I think about how many more fish tanks I could have if I moved the books out, but I've enjoyed recreational reading for close to 50 years and fish keeping less than two years, so the books are still there. I know I could get a Kindle, or something similar, but part of my enjoyment is finding books in stores that I think I'd like but haven't run across before (pre-COVID, of course). I like listening to music, and listen to Pandora all day long while I'm at my desk, with it usually set to Shuffle. I have a decent range of genres and artists I like, from Bob Wills to Muddy Waters to Stevie Ray Vaughan to Etta James to Ray Wylie Hubbard to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Bonnie Bishop to . . . .

I believe you were given bad information. I've had it in my 10 gallon red shrimp tank for almost a year and haven't had any issues. If it doesn't cut shrimp feet I'm pretty sure fish would be safe.

I have quite a list of "No-no's". I have also never done a "fishless cycle". When I set up my first tank I didn't know anything about the cycle, so of course I added fish immediately. Since then I've always seeded new tanks with media from old ones and also added fish immediately. I haven't tested my water in months. I do weekly water changes of around 30% in the fish tanks and about half that in the shrimp tanks, so my thought process (such as it is) is that I'm going to change water anyway, so why waste time testing the water first? I only quarantine fish going into my 65 gallon tank. I cringe when I think about what it would cost to replace those fish. The angelfish is the only one that cost more than $10.00, but the Lake Kutubu rainbowfish didn't cost much less than that. It adds up. The 65 is also the only tank with a lid. I also got tired of scraping mineral deposits. By some people's standards I wildly overstock. "one inch per gallon" rule? I'm closer to "one fish per gallon" on a couple tanks, but it's working well. Being heavily planted helps. I also started out with just a few fish in each, and added more gradually to get to the present levels. I tried to temperature match when doing water changes when I first started, then talked to my daughter-in-law, who started keeping fish shortly before I did. She refills hers with a hose from outside. I started doing that too on the larger tanks a few months ago, and it sure beats lifting buckets of water up shoulder high to pour into the 65. I'll revisit this when the weather gets colder, but I suspect I'll keep doing it. I have one set of tools that get used interchangeably between tanks. I know a lot of people who are smarter than I am (which is most of the world population) say Seachem Excel does nothing for plant health, and only kills algae, but after using it to treat staghorn algae in my 40 gallon tank some months ago my plants definitely looked better. I started using it in all my tanks, and the plants look great. I now use it 5 days a week (they get Easy Green the other two days).

Hello @Steph’s Fish and Plants I also had some accidental fry that I'm hoping are CPD's. I had moved some guppy grass from my nano fish tank to my 10 gallon shrimp tank, and noticed a few tiny fry a few days later. I assume the eggs hitchhiked on the guppy grass. I've been feeding them some small pellets and shrimp food that I roll between my thumb and finger over the tank to crush as fine as possible twice per day. Of course that results in hundreds of times more than the three or four fry can eat, but the shrimp and snails eat the excess. So far they seem to be growing and doing fine.

@ChefConfitmade some good points. It's not something you're going to make significant money at without a big investment and a lot of hours, at which point it's your job. My plants need thinning occasionally anyway, and while I'd prefer cash to store credit I also prefer store credit to just throwing the excess in the trash.

Hello, I really like Pearl Gouramis, and applaud your choice, but while they aren't shoaling fish like tetras or corys they are social. Because of that I'd encourage you to get more than one. I'd say to start get one male and two females, but you could have even more if you have room with your other stocking. I have two males and six females in my heavily planted 40 gallon breeder tank.

Howdy. I just joined yesterday, and I've only been keeping fish about 1-1/2 years, but I've done a tremendous amount of research in that time. There's still a lot I don't know, but I'll help if I can.

Hello @James Black Here it is. I cheated. I opened the file in Paint, outlined the area I wanted, and pasted it here directly.

No, I don't. I remove any snails I see, but that's it.

It's an LG phone, using Firefox.

I'm trying, but it's not working. I clicked on the "Add Files" button, selected a picture, and it says it's uploading, but then nothing happens. Edit: I just tried again, but I noticed the file is 54.4 MB, and it looks like that's slightly larger then the max allowed. I'm afraid my rudimentary tech skills aren't up to the task of making it smaller.

I keep common goldfish outside in cattle troughs to control algae and mosquito larvae, and while it isn't common in my part of the world, it occasionally gets cold enough for a layer of ice to form on top, and the goldfish survive it just fine. With that bring said, I suspect the temperature change your fish went through was just too abrupt.