Demobanana

But! Don't let that stop you from getting them because they are just adorable! Given that you don't stare at them in the eye. Then its just freaky.

Ok, I don't know how to quote since I literally joined last night, but 5-6 nerites and a bristlenose for algae? How much algae do you regularly have? I have a tiger nerite and 2 horned nerites in my 10g and they barely take care of the algae on the front glass, I think pond snails are faster. Also, Rob, I don't think cories eat that much algae, BN plecos do it much better. Plus they look goofy.

🎇🎇🎇 ( I would comment the fire emoji but for some reason they don't have that, so fireworks will have to do)

My question is why 5-6 nerites? I understand a few but 5-6? How much algae will there be? Anyways, it all depends on your circumstances how much fish you can put in there. But you can put a lot in there since it is 60 gallons. Just make sure you proper filtration for them. Also, where di you get the tank from? I remember getting one from Petco a while back and not being to reach the bottom to plant anything without getting my whole arm wet....I think either I have short arms or that tank is tall...lol

Well......whatever happens....I hope you get through it! Without any more shrimp deaths of course.

Well then look at the reviews and Q and A. If anyone else is having problems with the smell and worried something is off, then you should probably wait before you put anything in the tank. If not, then its probably safe, just low quality.

Hm....ok. Well, thanks for the advice, guys! I think I'll just let it relax and starve themselves out. Probably will just end up adding that gourami anyways too.

I know exactly what you have. I actually encountered some not too long ago when I was starting out. Cyclops and Copepods. Heard its a pretty good fish food (they have freeze dried cyclops). The only difference I can tell is 1 has 1 tail and the other has 2. They're not really micro IMO, but thats besides the point. hey usually eat detritus/anything decomposing like a plant. Don't think a dead fish though. Anyways, Im kinda dealing with hydra from them. so add something that will eat them before your tank gets infested!! Im kidding, but I am in serious deep water here. As long as you don't have too much, you're fine. They're part of a healthy planted tank. Oh, forgot to add, they're harmless. And kinda funny looking. You don't have to get rid of it. Let me be the first to tell you...they look horrifying up close in a microscope.

Disclaimer: All of this is due to my incompetence, so no, hydra didn't come to my house and rob me. So I had a little 10g tank that had some plants in it (the main one I'll be talking about is some parrots feather I got. Now, I cannot confirm nor deny this was actual parrots feather, because there are so many species that look like parrots feather and hornwort and...ugh its making my head hurt. But anyways, I had a little HOB and a sponge filter in front of the HOB, catching the flow on the way out. The parrots feather was catching the bubbles and the flow between both the filters. It was a kinda new tank (not really though, the bacteria wasn't at least), and it started growing some kind of algae on the very fine leaves of that plant. I hear a lot algae is not necessarily bad unless its killing the plants, and I thought the couple of cherry shrimp I was planning to keep would benefit off of it, and I would just leave it there. Big mistake. Fast forward 2 or 3 months and it was a a lot thicker and small and black, just coating the plants. But I was still in denial. I forgot to mention, the algae was some staghorn algae. But I didn't know at the time. With the tons of pond snails I had, they were creating a ton of molm and poop in the giant pea gravel I had (that I recently covered up because I couldn't plant any plants in it), and from that there were a bunch of small cyclops and copepods, and Im assuming from that, there were a bunch of hydra. About 2 months ago I finally gave in and looked into what it was. I read that it can be treated with Seachem Excel or increasing flow and it was from a lack of CO2. I also heard it can kill Val and Anarchis, both of what I had. I figured I'd do a plant dip, and took out all my regular baby tears, which was barely growing in sand, and parrots feather. It didn't really do much but turn white/gray on me and I decided to cut everything off, and now the Baby Tears just stands out more. From there I watched and learned about balancing your tank (probably the video from Girl Talks Fish was the most concise but anyways..). I just added some plants, covered the gravel and heavily gravel vaccumed (not that much actually, and a lot was in my HOB, which is a Tetra Whisper 40 literally filled to the brim with sponge. Literally. It died down a little and now theres only a wall or 2 covered in it, but I assume theres still a lot in the algae- some I still have in my java fern or whatever else plants. I wanted to add some fish live livebearers (I was already planning to add some platies) but then I figured that since it was a 10 gal, the platies would not let the shrimp at least make a baby or 2. So I figured I would put some shrimp first before the platies. But then I remembered the hydra and it was back to square one. Anything I should do? Also, anyone have experience battling Staghorn Algae and it turning really short and thick, but stringy enough to not look like BBA? Honestly I just want to cut off all of the affected plants, add some new plants and forget about it.

Yeah, really wish I could. But alas, life has dwarven me down to a lowly 10 gallon. Aka my new apartment. Luckily, I know a good friend with a 60 g I could put some of my old fish in to either come back to me one day or live their lives out having the time of their lives. But- I do enjoy 10 gallons purely for the fact they got me interested in pygmy cories. Before I liked the bigger bodied ones and thought the pygmys were just not that good at "being cories" (sifting through the substrate- I know, naive) and not as cute. Until I saw them at my LFS the other day. In that exact moment, I knew I had to have them. And I've been wanting a honey gourami for a while. Anyways, thanks for the advice! And such a quick response too. Love it here. In all honesty, I'm pretty excited because I thought everyone online was going to deeply disapprove of it.

Thought I would ask here, do you guys think I can stock a planted 10 gal with a small honey gourami, some small rasboras (or maybe some neon green tetras? I heard regular neons like a little more space so I'm a bit skeptical.) and a school of pygmy cories? Or would that be too much? I plan to water change a lot btw, however much is necessary without disrupting them too much. Have a Tetra Whisper 40 HOB (which I'm positive probably pumps half the amount of water it advertises) filled to the brim with sponge (quite literally) and a small little sponge filter.