NanoNano

Found an online (not auction site) seller that had Xyris in stock and pretty heavily discounted on a "summer sale" ($35 I think) so I took a chance and bought a plant. Details on conditions and care requirements for these plants were missing from the site I bought from and hard to find, so I hoped for the best and put it into one of my well seasoned low tech/No CO2 tanks (tap water PH being used for weekly water changes is around 7.4 right now). Five days in the tank so far, and the plant seems to be doing well (no melting which has started almost immediately with some Eriocaulon species I've tried in the same tank). A couple of quick initial observations: * The plant I received has a root structure similar to most Eriocaulons- lots of short, dense, fine, white hair like roots. I've found that keeping plants with roots like this initially planted can be a challenge especially in Fluval like stratum as it's hard for the roots to get initially anchored, and the fine roots invite snails to borrow in and feed on any that are dying or dead. * The plant that I received is *flat* and 2D looking (and much more green/brown in color than red as well). The leaves are almost perfectly in line with another so viewing the plant "head on" gives a striking "peacock tail" type look, but rotating the plant 90 degrees makes the plant appear pretty much as just a "thin green line". * While the plant leaves are not sharp on the edges, they are rigid and have a pretty finely pointed tip on the end. The potential for a fast moving active fish to get a poke and injury looks to be there, so I would personally be cautious about putting a plant like this in with fish that like to zoom about or will blindly take off in a panic if disturbed. Hope this helps.

Not directed specifically at you 🙂. As a resident of "the murder hornet state" it was more general thinking out loud that as hobbyists we all need to be thoughtful about and responsible for the role we might play in spreading invasive species.

Invasive species in North America and EU...My suspicion is that their nymphs and babies are probably strong enough/protected enough to potentially survive a trip through a municipal sewer and into a freshwater outfall, so I personally would be really thoughtful about where/how I would dispose of water from changes in tanks where these guys are being kept.

In my case the "bad wood" gave off only a slight objectionable odor when it got exposed to air during water changes, the strong odor came from the bucket that I siphoned the waste from the substrate into....which seems to mimic your situation. Spider wood is widely used in the hobby and has basically no reputation for objectionable decay or odor, so that pokes a pretty big hole in my hypothesis. I'd give some of the other suggestions here priority and then try removing the wood maybe as a last resort. Good luck- I know this is an unpleasant situation and makes some of the days in the hobby not as fun as they could be.

Total aside- Not sure if it's still the case, but about 15 years ago I went with a friend to purchase a WA fishing license. The license came with a rule book that was *easily* 50+ pages that stipulated the species of fish, the exact locations they could be caught (by landmark and/or milepost) and days and times that they could be caught. WA has a lot of historical tribal fishing rights/agreements, so in some cases the general public can only catch/keep certain types of fish (salmon and trout) caught in single mile or couple of mile stretch on a single day of the year in a 6-8 hour window. I think it's fair to characterize WA State as *gangster* when it comes to native freshwater fish management.

Two comments: * Mud minnow...How much more of a PNW "grunge" name could you get? * As with any small population/small habitat fish or critter, you definitely want to check and see if there's DNR, Fish and Wildlife, etc. rules on capture and/or relocation of these guys. Case and point- WA State has spent a lot of time and money capturing and helicoptering Mountain Goats back to their native Snohomish/Rainier area from the Olympic Peninsula where they had been artificially introduced and become destructive.

Dumb question time. @Chad Do you have any wood/driftwood features in your tank by chance? I had a situation with a piece of wood that I had purchased slowly starting to decay several months after putting it into a tank. No smell for several months, then a little hint of sulphur at water change time, and then full on "open a window" until I removed the wood and deep cleaned the gravel.

I'd second this analysis and advice. My personal experience is that there's some types of substrate (e.g. the glossy epoxy coated stuff that a lot of chain stores sell as their house brand) that really seem to encourage the conditions for "tank stank". @Warren Peace suggests what has worked for me: 1) Remove as much waste as you can, manually "deep turning" your substrate in the process. My experience has been that anerobic bacteria seem to really like decaying plant matter when it gets into low/no water flow conditions, so keeping up with plant trimming and removing loose/dying/dead leaves and stems will help. 2) Increase aeration/water surface agitation. Adding burrowing snails to your tank will help scavenge additional waste/aerate the gravel as well...but I've needed a pretty large population of them to be effective (which can be unsightly). Good luck!

I've bought from several different sellers on eBay with 95+% good experiences. I can send specific sellers names that I've had good experiences with for snails, shrimp, and plants to anyone interested. My experience has been that the sellers with simple actual pictures of their stock are usually the best as they have limited stick and hand select everything to get a good variation and selection...The sellers with the pro looking storefronts are the "5%ers" that I've run into as they seem to do volume and simply "dip and ship"

I've bought from ebay sellers and both specifically chosen one's from different geographic areas and messaged them to explain what I was trying to do (just incase they we're getting their stock from a common breeder). So far, every seller I've messaged has been supportive (given details of where their stock came from, how long they'd been breeding the same stock, etc.) and accommodating. Lots of good people in the hobby out there.

Freshwater tank keeper here that's battled my share of blue green Cyano. I've had super good luck eradicating freshwater Cyano with a saltwater product called Chemiclean. My LFS expert was adamant that you *must* follow the dosage directions exactly (you can overdose with it) and that you must provide additional aeration while treating. My experience has been that the treatment is slow acting- usually not much noticeable change after treatment days 1 or 2. Avoid the urge to second dose immediately. It may take as long as 5 days before all the Cyano is gone and it will frequently cause Cyano to completely disappear from some surfaces while leaving other nearby surfaces looking untouched while it "does it's work". I have yet to have a reoccurrence in a tank after treating with this product. Hope this helps.

Can I get sued for posting a bad online review? Wise to have some policies in place to avoid enabling the poking of this bear.

A change in water parameters/condition is a frequent "trigger" for most freshwater shirmp to molt. Two things to be on the lookout for when shrimp are molting: * The newly exposed shells on the shrimp are soft and take a couple hours to harden. If you have aggressive/inquisitive/not respecting of personal space tank mates, hiding place decor/moss beds are super helpful protection. * Many female shrimp release a pheromone when they molt that will trigger nearby males to try to mate with them. if you have a multiple males in the vicinity, it can unfortunately turn into a fatal "night at the Roxbury" type scenario.

And patience...Buce gonna do what Buce gonna do on Buce's own timeline. I had a sprig of Godzilla that did absolutely nothing for about 4 months until (without any water routine or care changes) it decided it was time to grow like mad.

One other thing to consider is adding a few snails obtained from a completely different source to try to get some genetic diversity in your population. I've had some inexplicable snail population decimation/extinctions in a couple of my tanks (with the same parameters and maintenance routines as other tanks I had running) where I wonder if (tin foil hat on) an undesirable genetic mutation became dominant as it appeared that the young generations of snails all started to die young while the older mature stock continued to thrive until they aged out and died.

I think this is probably a case where size does matter. I've had Amanos that have matured out to about the same size or slightly larger than Neo shrimp and kept the two together without incident. I've also had Amanos that matured out to absolute hulk-a-zoid monsters that were double or more the size of my Neos and I think the Neos got completely outcompeted for food and eventually became weak and slow enough to become midnight snacks. I never saw a dead one or parts of them, they simply got "disappeared".

You may want to use incognito mode in your browser...My aquarium driven CO2 equipment and water test tool searching gave me the gift of serving a ton of CBD and Tommy Chong sponsored links for awhile there after 🙄.

They will NOT hurt shrimp or bother anything except possibly offend the aesthetic beauty of your tank :). Beneficial and the population should "rightsize" itself once the over abundance of food is consumed/elimnated.

Mine as well...add another vote. Edit- My experience is that Planaria move in a very serpentine fashion- lots of quick "S" type back and forth movement and they tend to "float" over substrate and decor. Rhabdo tend to more in straight lines and adhere to surfaces.

I think there's a couple of different strains and the smell can depend on things like what it's feeding off of...The stuff that I've had has a smell that reminds me kind of sort of like sliced cucumber.

Mollies and Swords can nip at fins- keep a close eye in your Betta for fin damage for the first week or so of introduction into the tank.

In late on this...My experience with Amanos is that they often develop an aggressive pecking order, and a group of 5-6 often works best with a "random scoop" from a store to keep the bully or bullies in check while they work out everyone's social position. If you need/want to supplement their scavenging, they're pretty enthusiastic about sinking algae wafers (e.g. Hikari). I would recommend breaking the wafer into multiple small pieces so that each shrimp gets a chance at some.

Secret time. Not too long ago I too did not quarantine some new Ottos and they ended up bringing Ich into one of my tanks. It happens...not the sign of a terrible fish keeper, just someone that maybe was a little overly trusting of their LFS's hygiene practices. You're on the exact right path with using Ich-X...It alone should be an effective treatment. The most important thing is that you follow the directions for dosing and duration of treatment *exactly*. Ich has a lifecycle where it spends most of its life protected by a shell (those white spots you see on your fish) that protects it from medication. You need to have your treatment consistently in the water for when the parasites emerge from said shell to look for a new host- which will continue to happen for 14 to 21 days as individual "eggs" hatch. Picture below illustrates the lifecycle...the "burst of the tomant" is the only stage where the medication will be effective. Ich-x contains compounds that will help your fish generate slime coat and work as mild topical antiseptics to help stave off secondary infection. Keep treating consistently per the bottle directions, don't stop early, and you should beat Ich.

Super excited to see a healthy Brittle Star. When I moved to the PNW 20 years ago, you'd see starfish of every color and size all over submerged pier pilings and on the beaches at low tide from Everett to Olympia. Then came the wasting disease 😢 and 99% of them disappeared almost overnight. Get that guy/gal a mate and get some Barry White playing stat!

One other thing to investigate is if/how your tap water changes at different points in the year. In my area we get river drawn water (high elevation snow melt) and/or ground water depending on the time of year/demand. Many places are at record low water levels and summer almost always brings algae/bacteriological blooms that both naturally change water chemistry as well as require man made treatments that artificially change water chemistry. You may want to try emailing your local public utility. The head chemist/quality person at my local utility is super knowledgeable and jumps at any opportunity to talk about water.