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This. Though I think some or all androids do that too. My guess is that the forum software, or browser, or ??? is trying to protect users too aggressively by purging all the metadata. This seems like too amateur of a mistake for a browser maker or apple or google to make, but who knows.

I usually try to fix something that's still working until it's broken.

yep! one female is berried now! 🎉 I heard they hide after mating but this one has no cares in the world.

There are designs for permanent siphons. I have one on a small tank by my sink that works well, but I'd always be afraid of having it running 24/7 if it fails. There are ways to make it more robust though. I'd say if the sump volume is bigger than the HOB you have thats working then the sump will be fine too. I think on one hand bigger is better but also sufficient is sufficient, so i guess do what makes you happy there.

IME it is accurate at exactly-ish 1min for nitrate nitrite. any longer nad it reads too high. gh kh seem to be readable really fast and don't change unless the water from the pads mixes by accident. I don't pay attention to the chlorine because its always 0. ph doesn't work for my batch (but it seems to be specific to my tube of them) but I assume that one is pretty immediate too.

Another small update. I acclimated the new shrimp really slowly and I haven't seen any molts so I assume they weren't too stressed. This morning I took a look and I saw 3-4 shrimp zipping everywhere. they all looked like males to me so I assume a female just molted and I may get a berried female this time. fingers crossed. it would be great if they're comfortable enough to breed this fast.

Corey said in a live stream that he doesn't sell extra part. I think the jist is that its too expensive to inventory spare parts on something so inexpensive and the best option is to buy a new filter and save the old one for spare parts.

This. ACO strips say my water is 6.4, the api "high kit" is maddening to read because 7.4 and 8.0-8.2ish are the same color(!!!). I've taken samples to the lab I work in and gotten other numbers. my tap is 8.0 to 8.6 depending on the day but it has 0 hardness so once anything in the tank reacts to the -OH they add to my tap the ph crashes. Like horsewishr i've given up caring too much. I throw crushed coral in my HOB so now I'm pretty sure it stays above 7.5. Good enough.

I think they're usually placed in the rock wool so only the roots are inside. If that's the case you should be fine.

Did you use an online service? if so Which one?

If you have a little too much it can't keep up until more grows. If you have too little it eventually dies back. So it eventually reaches an equilibrium with how much you typically feed. (There's a bit more to it but that's the jist) Supposedly, above 4ppm it becomes toxic to most of the microbes that process ammonia. It's hard to say which microbes are in your tank and it differs from tank to tank so it's hard to know for sure what a toxic level really is though. Most people aim for 2ppm when cycling.

Plants can go in right away. You'll probably want to do a few water changes in the first two weeks still because Amazonia will leech a lot of nutrients at first just to prevent the worst of an algae bloom

It was a hypothetical. I've never witnessed eggs dropping. My simp population exploded until my Cardinals figured out they can murder the small ones. Last month I was down to just 4 females so I started a new tank just for the refugees and got some more males from a local breeder. It'll be a long journey but we'll eventually repopulate the earth. (I have a journal under "12" shrimp cube")

If you're a crazy person (like me) you can rescue the eggs and put them in a tumbler.

I think once they're fully dropped they're not going to pick them back up but this video is actually of her trying to get that one egg back in for most of it.

I'd water change until ammonia is down below 4ppm. Aquarium nitrifying bacteria generally don't survive above that. Once you see ammonia go down again feed the tank a little bit every day or every other day. A cycle isn't an on/off kinda thing. It has a capacity to convert ammonia that's usually close to the typical amount that you feed. I'm guessing the snail bomb killed your cycle with the large ammonia jump.

woah those are so cool! a quick google search says they don't sting like hydra and are filter feeders. I say keep 'em if you like them other wise scrape them off whenever they're a pest.

I've been tempted to try this, and now I think I will 🙂

Nitrites started to fall around the beginning of the month and was 0 yesterday. I never saw ammonia, but I have been feeding the tank 1 crushed food pellet a day (plenty for a few shrimp I think). I haven't seen the male for quite some time so I assume he's gone. In any case I bought some more shrimp to bolster the numbers and get a male from another hobbyist. They look really good and I'm sure will get this tank going. I also just missed out on watching a molt. oh well. there will be more chances since this tank is next to my desk.

I saw a shrimp freak out out of the corner of my eye and went to investigate. she was laying on her side and twitching. I almost pooped my pants because i thought my water was bad but I had just checked it about 20 minutes earlier. I ran to my computer to look up the problem and some sources said she could be molting. I check the tank again and there she is acting normal like nothing ever happened with a molt laying on the substrate. I wish I knew so I could have stayed to watch it. I've never seen a shrimp molt in person. here she is looking at me like nothing happened shortly after almost giving me a heart attack.

Interesting. Someone else on here got them breeding by blending in freeze dried blood worms with vegetables and chia seeds. I've never actually seen what they eat in the wild, only internet accounts of "afwuchs" (I forget how to spell that), which is biofilm slime and micro crustaceans. I think you mentioned your common otos eat the hikari micro wafers too? I think those are mostly "meat" too. but its hard to argue with results. I kinda want to try out super green now but I have a cupboard full of fish foods now and my wife looks at me funny whenever she opens that one. Natural biofilms though are usually pretty high in protein too though, so I wonder. Maybe they do just want high protein(higher than just "vegetables") but mostly from microbes.

Yeah I'm wondering if thats the case. but crypts are supposedly very low light so I wonder where their "enough" light threshold is.

I want a crypt that lays flat like the photo on the right and not stand up like on the left. but according to google images they're they same plant. Is this high vs low light? or something else?

I think swim bladder's on catfish are different. they can gulp air to fill them. So I don't think swim bladder problems present the same way. Also, any reason why you picked Super Green vs Soilent Green? the soilent seems like the more "obvious" choice for otos. (I'm asking your opinion to learn, not criticizing btw. internet tone is hard to communicate)

I was far more flummoxed than he was. The fact that he even happened to have two BN plecos was an accident and the fact that they were M/F and found a place to mate in that tank was also an accident. He's been trading the babies at the LFS 🙂