xXInkedPhoenixX

When I first got Punk he was VERY stressed. Super pale and sat on his fins for several days, so much I was concerned he couldn't swim. While treating isn't a bad idea- a horribly bullied fish could be so stressed they are doing what Punk did.

Tank maintenance yesterday. I started with the Medieval. Recently I got some embroidery netting to dim the lights on the arch side of the tank. I usually keep the floaters culled to just over the "tree" on the left of the tank. I was battling some pretty good hair algae attacking the plants in the arch area despite the beautiful carpet I was getting on the arch. So I had to sacrifice losing it by dimming the light. the hair algae is greatly reduced! Sadly my Arch carpet is leaving, but the hair algae is minimal. I guess I'll take that! Here is the tank: Here's the arch: Because the lights are so bright you may not be able to see but side by side- floaters on one then the net on the other: Inhabitants doing well in the Medieval. I keep an eye out for the Kuhlis but rarely see them. One, however is sometimes sheltered up front along the glass in a rock cave of sorts- their faces are so cute: I don't see the shrimp super often but they're still there: AND I SPOTTED MY FIRST SHRIMPLET! So that was cool. I'm slowly turning the oldest tank, the Parent, to a little better looking. Because there are soooo many bottom feeders it's a hard tank to keep clean. They push food everywhere! Plus I had some algae that I'm working on (my ACO light is down to 20%!!!!), as well as a detrius problem from the wood I added. I did keep one of the 2 large pieces in the tank so the pleco and others can enjoy it. That has helped a lot but it's still a hard tank to clean because of all these things. At one point I was having to switch out the intake sponge every week, clean the HOB and squeeze out 1 of the 2 sponge filters. Right now it's much more manageable but has a ways to go still: Here are a couple of the messy culprits (the Cory at the worst mess makers): Angry Man doing good. It's getting so grown out the Angry Man himself is hiding: Punk and his girlfriend Industry get along ok, she's getting bigger. He still chases her off the bottom from time to time. I don't think these two will ever be a breeding pair, but that's ok.

Yea I have these. Actually mine is a long extra big coral feeder I LOVE. See below: 2 Pieces Aquarium Coral Feeder with 2 Pieces Stainless Steel Feeding Long Tweezers Syringe Spot Coral Feeder Reptile Feeding Tools for Aquatic Plant Reef Anemones Lionfish (Green, Silver) https://a.co/d/c15N6u2 However the Parent tank is SO messy with their food and detrius from wood (I've removed a big piece however left one for thr pleco) that there are times I have to risk a vacuum unfortunately. Otherwise risking the health of the tank is a very real thing. I don't do the whole tank, usually try to stick around the eating area. Good to know the shrimplets are good hiders.

Been uber busy lately. Tanks always get time but other things not so much. Everyone seems to be doing well including the Julli Cory in my Parent tank. Whiiicchhhh....continues to have parents. Pretty sure I've spotted some Julli fry in the tank. Sadly also caught a deceased one not long ago. Still in a tiny stage. Going to be hard to clean the tank and keep from damaging fry they are fast, small and camouflaged. I think I saw one last night, they scoot like a little tadpole along the bottom of the tank (the Otos have never been known to do this so my presumption is they are Cories). Oi. That tank is a spawning scurge! I know so many of you WANT their fish to multiply, not I! I mean it's cool and fun for about 5 minutes for me, but fry are so much work! Plus it was never my intention to breed. Oh well, here we go, again! Speaking of which. No baby shrimp seen despite egg carrying females being spotted. Now in the Medieval tank maybe that's because the White Guppies are menaces and probably eat them. Or Kulis eating them? Do they? I have no idere. I haven't seen the fat female in a while, but I think I saw that the other possible female in there was carrying as well. I was not able to confirm for sure. In the Parent Tank I've seen up to 4/5 of the shrimp I've put in there at a time. They hang out on the Apongeton which is great because I'd rather them not hang out on the tank floor since I'm down there frequently, cleaning. Sadly with recent shift change at work I'm usually up before tank lights come on and home after they go off. The only time I see my tanks in the light is on my days off and more and more frequently ONLY when I have time to do my weekly maintenance. Anyway, here are a couple of shrimp on the top of the tank (tank lights off). Hope all goes well in your tanks out there!

Yes absolutely!

@IsisP YES you can absolutely keep that filter and leave it in the newly cycled tank- and put it in the QT tank when ready just bump start the QT. I also recommend taking a tank decoration, plant or rocks from a cycled tank and putting them in a QT. I usually run a small sponge filter in my tanks that I can switch out and instantly cycle a QT tank but that's all considerations for what is best for your situation. I see you run a quiet flow, I personally love them, but I no longer use their filters. When you feel brave, get yourself some coarse sponge (and fine sponge if you need it) cut it to fit the filter area and put that in instead. Then all you need to do occasionally is take the sponge(s) out to clean them then just pop them back in! (coarse sponge lasts longer than fine) When you do that you can also put some crushed coral in the filter box as well, that helps with your gh/kh and is better than just putting it in the substrate (so they say) as the water flows constantly around it. (I AGREE, we on the forum are much nicer than FB! 😉)

Isis don't worry, guppy will be fine until your cycle improves. Bringing on more fish now will just cause you problems. In the meantime you can consider the things you need to set up a QT. Since you are already showing ammonia and then nitrite it shouldn't be too long until the cycle is ready!

I agree with jetts, when I do fish in cycling I change water every day. It takes longer but it's worked for me without putting the fish through too much stress. I will say however that Prime will definitely be your friend and I would keep dosing that.

On this subject @Odd Duck do you know if they eat shrimp adults?

@DaveO, mmm, maybe but sometimes one needs their stomach pumped cause it's going to hurt coming out the other end....

To be safe I might feed the Betta a high fiber diet of daphnia (I use freeze dried) and/or bloodworms for a week.

That's probably a good plan. Hope it resolves for you soon.

Welcome to the forum, great tank! Welcome to the world of "smalls"!

It seems SOMETHING might've died in the tank. Yes it's entirely possible the Kuhli is the culprit. Do you feed the tank heavily (just trying to eliminate a food caused spike). I would look a little harder to see if you can find the Kuhli- it's possible the shirmp/snails could have eaten some but ammonia spike hints that there may be pieces left...

Welcome to the forum @gjb! You should post pictures of your tanks when you get the chance, we love seeing them!

I have currently got the reverse going on in my tanks (shrimp added to fish santuary so to speak). Guppies and Ember Tetras. Now I JUST now have a preggo female shrimp so I don't know about babies yet but so far so good. The fish don't seem to pay them any mind. I really think Chilis would be the same.

Welcome to the forum! I've tried to keep ghost shrimp before and adored them, however their lives were short lived! I was bummed.

@Odd Duck I very much appreciate that. I'm kind of keeping my eye out on my Band for the local aquarium club for a cheap tank. The coworker and I aren't the best of friends, but I wouldn't mind upgrading the fish if i can find the right setup. Thing is, with fish keepers like my coworkers they prefer "pretty" (let's face it they aren't keeping the fish for much more than that, at least until I can convince them) and sadly most tanks I've seen for sale used are not well kept (you should have seen the tank I was given, it was free but oh my!). So I have to be a little discerning, or the gift would not be well received. I will also keep my eye out for sale tanks. I'm all about strategic, diplomatic education, especially considering who I'm dealing with- don't want to rock the work boat.

@Lennie oh yeah! They match well! Her coloring now though, is almost entirely that dark purple at this point. It's crazy how much she's changed.

Things are plugging along in my tanks. First I'll mention the Parent Tank. It's the current pain in my rear- part of it is the wood in the tank I believe- detrius from it deteriorating. Then we have the fish making messes with the Repashy. The detrius from both eventually lands on all of the plants. Plus I'm still battling some algae from the lights I was using before and switching to the ACO light- I may need to turn it down once more though. I believe they are at 40% at this point, maybe even 30. I cannot remember! I pulled a bunch of leaves out that were negatively effected and have been squeezing out 2 of 3 filters every week (they've been DIRTY) from all the cleaning. The fish seem happy though. I had to get up at o'dark-thirty this morning and turned on ambient lights to check on fish, the Otos were all over the place. The Julii Cory have also given this tank a lot of life/movement so they were also out. The Longfinned Albino Pleco who has yet to have a name is growing up nicely. I'm not sure but I think at this point it should be sexable? If so it's a girl. No bristles to be seen, but the cutest belly: I caught her mid-poop- looks like a good one though. Always happy to see this. Don't think I mentioned this but I did lose one of my 3 Mystery Snails in the Parent Tank. That was a few weeks ago now. The 2 I have left seem good. Shells look healthy. They were mud wrestling in the Repashy dish though. They are not helping my cleaning situation: The most changes have been happening in the Medieval Tank. Since I pulled the Subwassertang shelf I've been slowly adjusting things. I Reverse Respirated 2 of my Anubias on rock and let the floating plants pretty much take over the top to try and help block out some of the light that's causing algae issues. Now I have to be extra careful pulling floaters since I've got shrimp in there- but they're prolific plants for sure. Even the Dwarf Water Lettuce. All of this to say since my Monte Carlo has pretty much failed, and I've pulled more out in this tank I got some Cryptocoryne Parva to try. This was planted a few days ago. Hoping that does well. My new Embers are doing pretty great. They've colored up so that I can't tell the new from the older anymore. More activity from them as well though I would maybe like to get a couple more to make 10. See if that helps their behavior even more. I've discovered that one of these things is not like the others: Yes I see a ramshorn snail- likely hitchhiked as an egg on plants given to me by the fish keeper I got the shrimp from. He/She is not the only one I've seen. Last but not least my shrimp seem to be doing ok. I've not seen all 5 at once in the Medieval Tank for some days (I've seen at least 2 in the Parent Tank) but the ones I see are bright and seem to be doing well. This one in particular seems to be doing very well: Not super bright in that picture but when she turns to her side...... Check that out! I've got a preggo female! I hope I get to see some shrimplets! In recent days I've also done some Good Samaritan things for fish. I have 2 coworkers who are woefully ill-equipped to take care of the fish they have. Firstly there is a Betta in a 1 gallon unheated jar. I try diplomatically to get this fish upgraded. So far it has been a no go. However this week I managed to get this person to try more plants. Thankfully they already had a moss ball. Now they have 2 of my plants, an Anubias Nana Petite and some Java. She said the fish looks really happy about them. I personally think the fish would color up more if it had a better environment. I'm trying folks. Sometimes its an uphill battle. Then I had another coworker who won 3 goldfish at a fair. Yes. Collective groan. She described to me a couple months ago the contianer she was keeping them in which seems like it was about a quart or pint sized container. Yes, groan again. Sadly she lost 2 of them (not surprisingly) and was doing daily water changes WITHOUT WATER CONDITIONER. Ugh. I at least convinced her to leave water out overnight in hopes of gassing off (she never went to the pet store as I advised her for the conditioner). She was talking to me again this last week about the fish and how much her very young daughter loves the fish. So I took the opportunistic view of using her kid to upgrade the fish's situation. I asked her if she would be ok if I asked my local forum for a tank if she would take it. She agreed but of course would not take anything larger than a 5 gallon tank. One step at a time people. So I asked. The kind people of the forum instantly stepped up and I picked up a tank later that day......sadly it was the ugliest tank- plastic which is fine BUT it was all scratched up- only good as a QT tank in my eyes and I KNEW it wouldn't meet my coworker's standards. What was cool is that fish keeper gave me some other things with the tank. So between that and extras I had I was able to piece together the guts of a decent tank. I still had a tank issue though. I drove to the petstore and bought her a 5.5 gallon tank with a lid. It set me back but I'd do it for the fish. It deserves better. Maybe in having a nicer tank, they will be more motivated to care for them. I included some floating plants and Subwassertang but I know the goldfish might eat them which is fine. Fake plants were in there too. Different foods (because she was feeding the fish what the fair people gave them) and proper filtration. OF COURSE I got her some water conditioner. I hope the fish is doing better now. The upside to that was that the first coworker asked how much a set up like what I gave the other might cost, telling her, I hope, will result in her upgrading her Betta's house as well. We shall see.

She looks exactly like Purple, my rescue Betta, now known as Zaggi- since now she resides in my Mum's tank. She looked like that when I rescued her from a bigbox store, now she looks like (actually she's gotten darker):

Nah, they aren't easy, and require brackish water to multiply. I don't know of any fish keepers that have successfully bred Nerites. Happy Nerites just like to lay infertile eggs everywhere 🙃. Most fish keepers don't like having the females for this reason which I'd why I usually tell someone if they want Nerites and don't want eggs to ask the store they get them at before purchasing them if they would trade for a different snail if one found a female. Personally I don't mind them. I just scrape them off viewing glass, the others fade in time.

Yes. This for sure. I actually leave my carriers out (I have several) and make beds out of them, my cats sleep in them. So not only are they familiar with the carriers but they are already outfitted with blankets that have their scent on them. Of course they're cats they don't like the door being zipped up on them but they don't panic like I've seen some cats do when they're being shoved into a container they only go to the vet in.

Have been keeping an eye on the tragedies going on to the island of Maui, Hawaii. I am always so sad for the loss of pets, wild animals and habitat that this sort of disaster causes. I worry for the poor people who didn't have time to get their animals or prized possessions or didn't even have time to get out themselves. I've thought about similar possible disasters if it were to hit me and I cannot imagine the enormous sense of personal loss I would feel if this happened because I already feel a sense of loss and I'm not even part of it. This is a reminder to do your best to have a disaster plan in place. Think about what you'd grab in 15 mins, 10 mins, 5 mins or 1 minute if this were to happen to you. Are those things accessible? Can you grab them quickly? Don't let your cars sit with only an 1/8th of a tank. I rarely let my cars go much under half a tank. So many people run out of gas trying to escape and gas stations have long lines when these sorts of things happen if they're even open. Consider putting important paperwork and valuables in fireproof/waterproof envelopes so if they are not grabbed in time there is a chance they survive the fire or flood. Any time there is a weather warning, practice this emergency plan- get the items together and time yourself. If you have animals get them crated up. Consider how you would load up your cars and trailers. Keep your crates and leashes accessible. Have more than just enough to carry them so you can have them in other rooms. Consider you will not be able to contact friends and family during an emergency. ALSO when you are not part of the problem area: Try not to call into disaster areas or emergency 911 centers (calling a police department or fire department non-emgergency line IS calling the 911 center) - I understand entirely that people are trying to get information about missing loved ones BUT- if you are safe consider you are tying up emergency lines that others need- 911 centers don't just answer 911 they answer ALL non-emergency lines, dispatch help, and often dispatch other services like electric and gas. For every call they get there is one less line for someone who needs help. If you are on Maui or know someone who is I feel for you and hope you and they are ok. Consider if you can donating to a reputable rescue agency to help. They are going to need it for some time to come.

Hi! You have 3 Nerites and at least one of them is female. Those are Nerite eggs. Totally harmless, won't hatch. Hard to get off surfaces but eventually fade. Just call it tank glitter and a happy Nerite.