1moretank

Welcome to fish keeping. I don't think shrimp are necessarily harder than fish or that they make fish keeping more difficult. I think they are a wonderful part of a community tank. However, I think shrimp need a much more established tank than most fish do. Since they essentially "nibble" all day on the things in our tank, a newly set up tank may not have what they need. They also need more hiding spots and cover than most fish do, so as your plants grow and your tank becomes more established keeping shrimp will become easier. Wonderful that you are thinking it all out in advance - good luck and enjoy!

Sorry about your loss. Sometimes no matter what we do, our pets die. Your set up sounds good. I can't be certain, because I keep a 10 gallon QT tank set up all the time. It has rams horn snails and a few cherry shrimp in it all the time. I usually leave a guppy in it when its not in use, just so I stay good about feeding it lightly - I usually feed before and after a med treatment. I keep an air stone and hornwort in it instead of a sponge filter.

@Brainsponge Have you considered the biggest rubbermaid type stock tank outside with 1 or 2 100 watt heaters in it set to 60 - so they only kick on if your outside temp drops too low? My pond gold fish come in every winter when the water temp gets down near 60, and they live in a 100 gallon plastic stock tank in a back room that isn't directly heated (barely warmer than a garage). My stock tank is full of Val (in and out of little planters), and the fish are from 2 to about 7 inches in size. I have more than 3. Good luck with whatever you decide on.

Good luck. The waiting is so hard, but it is always worth it to do it right. I heard Cory, on a live stream (I think), say that the length of the quarantine could be tied to the value you place on your display tank. If it is empty - you could QT in the display, but if you have fish you value, QT separate until you are sure they won't bring anything to your existing fish. The more fish I have, the longer I QT, this hobby is building my patience. 😇

@BBlue is there any way you can set the current bowl inside the 10 gallon tank and then add water until the 10 gallon is full? That would allow the temperature to even out and make the change less stressful. Once the waters were the same temp, you could just tip the bowl until the fish could swim out. That would prevent the stress of netting him and it would also let you have he benefit of all the beneficial bacteria currently in his bowl. Good luck.

@RichNJ I have A 55 loaded with bristlenose and endlers. The bristlenose breed regularly. Endlers worse. I have 3 dwarf african frogs and almost perfect population control. Never see or find bodies, and there are always babies, but not too many babies. There are days my frogs are so fat I think they might explode, the rest of the time they are normal sized. The fat seems to follow baby plecos coming out of the cave. All that to say I love frogs for population control and they are truly fun to watch. Good luck.

@Wet Elbows I have 4 that are more than 3 years old. They will eat food, go chew and pull on my plants, then go back and eat more food. They go after val, amazon swords, crypts and anubias equally - don't seem to have any preference. They are definitely not doing it because they are hungry. They tug on anubias hard enough to pull them off the wood and rocks I've glued them to. If I was going to put them in a planted tank again, I would make sure the plants were really grown in first. Good luck.

@Native Keeper I keep my goldfish and some danios in a 100 gallon rubbermaid stock tank over the winter and put them out in a pond in the summer. In the house I have 2 4 foot super cheap old shoplights hung over it. On the back side the light is about 8 inches below the ceiling - way above the tank. On the front side the light hangs about 2 feet above the tank. I grow val on one end - it grows on both sides of the tank no problem; and I have pond plants on rock risers - on the other end, they seem to grow toward the lower light a bit, but not much. This set up has been working for 2 full years, and made 2 baby danios last summer when the fish went outside. Have fun and good luck with the decision you make.

@Brandon p In situations like what you describe, my choice is to say "in my experience, this is what I have had happen". I like to think that the person providing bad info is trying to do their best, and anyone that spends 30 minutes reading this forum for their own topic should be able to sift thru to the best information for themselves.

@Scapexghost the key is to use super glue GEL, not liquid, and that the ingredient is cyanocrylate. Then I have never seen a side effect from putting glue on plant, plant on item, sticking into tank - I think the explanation was that the water activates and speeds up the glue gel setting. Good luck.

I have 2, they are more than 3 years old, the smallest is about 3 inches long. The largest is about 6 inches - at least as broad and long as a full grown bristlenose pleco. I was told once I put them in my tank I would probably never see them again. Truth is they appear on occasion but usually you can't find them. They bury themselves in the gravel - which is really cool to watch if you ever get to see it. When you do see them, you'll think they are dead because you almost never actually see them move - they lay very still on the plants. Super cool, but not a fish you are gong to sit and watch swim. @BenA have you looked at Panda Garra? They are super active interesting fish. I highly recommend them for a fish to enjoy watching.

@Cinnebuns Sounds unlikely, give it a good clean, test it for leaks, let it air dry. Then fill it and let it run, you can test for ammonia with test strips. Good luck

Definitely, you can, no filter needed.

You can use forceps to plant in gravel, sand or dirt, you can use the finger & crater method you described, you can use 1-2 drops of super glue gel to attach a small rock to the plant root to weight it, then just carefully drop it on top the gravel or soil. If the plant comes in a small planter in rock wool you can just drop the plant -container-rock wool into your tank. As you practice and experiment you will find different things work better for different plants. My experience, using mostly pea gravel and larger gravel (1-inch) for substrate is that val, amazon swords and crypts with good root systems are easiest to push in, then drag a bit, with or without tweezers, because that helps spread out the root system under the substrate. Anubias works best with a few roots (not rhizome) pinched between rocks or buried under the gravel, or glued to a rock or piece of wood (cholla wood will almost dissolve out from under the plant leaving it kind of floating but anchored. Swords or crypts with almost no root system work best with a small rock glued to the side of the root/stem spot then set on top the gravel - roots grow faster and grow down into the gravel to anchor it and you don't risk the plant getting buried too deep and rotting. Most important is to do what is easiest for you, experiment and have fun. Good luck.

If your tank is shallow (10 or 29 gallon) try putting an algae wafer in a cup (I like the size betta are sold in). Lower it in the tank and wait 5-10 minutes, guppies go for the wafers every time in my experience. Then lift the cup out and use your fingers to return any you did not want to catch back into the tank. Good luck.