Jennifer V

Wow! I'm impressed! I tried a nerite snail and shrimp in with my peas and sadly, it didn't end well. Maybe mine are extra feisty!

I second the 14! I have four in a 10 and they are happy as can be. Pea puffers are shoaling fish, so the more the merrier as far as they are concerned, provided you have a healthy ratio of male to female. I believe it's one male to every three females to prevent aggression. Enjoy your new peas and send pics of your journey! 🐡

The shrimplets may come out with really cool coloring. It'll be fun to see! I'm no expert, but I did get a few cull shrimp in a variety of colors to start a colony because they were cheap and I don't mind color variations. The shrimplets are showing very cool colors, not just wild, even though the parents didn't start off with "desired" coloration so my guess is you'll probably get some very colorful looking offspring.

That sounds like a good plan. As for being picky eaters, you can try fasting them for a couple days and reintroducing a food they don't normally eat to see if they'll go for it.

I unfortunately haven't had anything similar with my babies but try not to get ahead of yourself just yet. There may be a cause we're just not familiar with that isn't life-threatening. Interested to see what some others have to say. I think @eatyourpeas is on to something. Have you seen any courtship behavior?

I had no idea such small snails have such a big bioload. That explains so much about how high the nitrates are in my 5g snail/shrimp tank. I thought just having snails and shrimp would be a breeze compared to my 10g pea puffer tank but it's actually the other way around.

Is that like an inkbird or not really?

Wow! Tell me more about the Bluetooth temperature probe. That sounds like something I really need to Nerm out on and get.

Is that an air stone you have in there? I read that daphnia can die if the bubbles are too fine. Can you adjust the bubbles? Keep me updated about your success with green water. I've heard that it can be tough to get, unless you don't want it, of course. 😆

Or you can just buy more!

I had no idea there are so many different kinds! Planning my next tank is going to be even more fun than I thought. I love anubias!

What a cool idea! I never thought about putting them up higher in the tank to appreciate the beautiful root structure. I'm going to steal this for my next tank!

@Zenzo@Zenzo beautiful! I'm learning that daphnia are harder than I thought. 😬

Hi Nerms! I've read the ACO article about raising daphnia a few times but I got some from a lovely local supplier and somehow killed all of them overnight. May I please see pics of your setup?

Aqua Huna has pea puffers in stock. That's where I got mine and they are a lovely company. You can even call them and talk to a specialist ahead of time about any questions you have. I think I called twice before I ordered! Ha! Your gh is in range, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. I would love to see pictures of your setup!

I know there are always recommended parameters but mine live in very hard water and are just happy as can be. As long as the parameters stay stable, I think they'll be fine. You may want to check the parameters they are in now to see how they differ from yours, but mine came from very different water and I didn't have any problems acclimating them. Do you have your tank set up yet?

My first set of shrimplets in my odd tank are a month old and starting to show a bit of color. I've noticed some blue, red and one that looks black. Other than that, the others look clear, which is what I expect the majority will be but still very cool. I wish I could catch them long enough to get photos! Another observation, the female adults seem to be much more fearless and quick to go for their food than the males. I'm learning so much from these little guys! A few of the adults in the snail heap looking for food. The adult male to the left is hard to see but he's very dark blue and so pretty.

My shrimp didn't reduce my snail population either. There seems to be enough for all in my shrimp/snail tank.

That's true. I stumbled upon it and didn't realize what it was until further research.

I often wonder why susswassertang isn't suggested more often. I have some in my tanks and I really love it. Maybe because it can get messy?

Here's hoping that the windowsill will be a magical place where it decides to grow for you! Mine actually look a minute to really start to multiply. It hasn't taken off yet after quite awhile in my puffer tank but it's still multiplying. It's a bit outrageous in my snail/shrimp tank but I don't have anything else in there like your beautiful guppies that would eat it.

Just another thought to throw out there, how often do you feed your fish, what amount and roughly how many bladder snails did you have in the tank before die off? It could be that there just wasn't enough food to sustain the population. Bladder snails can live in a wide variety of conditions, so I'm inclined to think your parameters are not the issue. The mystery snail death could be unrelated. As @xXInkedPhoenixXmentioned, they do prefer higher pH so water parameters could be the cause there.

@Guppysnail what excellent suggestions! @GuppyMan I often find that local aquarists will give away plant surpluses so you may want to join local Facebook groups and see if anyone has anything you may want to try. As stated above, it's likely the plants will do well in your water because they've been grown in similar water, although every tank is different. When I bought Java fern for my first tank it went through a very ugly stage but I just ignored my disappointment and it eventually came back around. It never did that in my second tank. It grows at a very quick pace in there. If you have sand, I would try epiphyte plants like anubias and Java fern. You just attach them to your hardscape. And mosses too. All can be found relatively cheap. As the others said, floating plants are a great option. I actually added the "dreaded" duckweed to my tanks, which you can likely find for free. It's very easy to grow, looks pretty in my opinion and will multiply at a quick pace. You'll just have to eventually start removing some from the tank or confine it to a certain area so it doesn't get out of control and cover the entire surface. I've never had luck with other floating plants for some reason, which is why I eventually went to duckweed because it's guaranteed success and that feels good.

That gravel is really pretty. What is it?

I would try some floating plants too. I have duckweed in my shrimp/snail tank and they love picking at the roots.