NanoNano

Like @Scc1798, I haven't hooked mine up to a pump either. I got the decor off Amazon and it took three tries to get one that wasn't broken into several pieces. The first two times, the seller simply reeused a box from a different product (canned air for cleaning computers on try #1, Ramen noodles on try #2) without adding *any* additional packing so the decor was free to move around in the box. If you buy, check seller feedback on this item carefully.

I had a tank that had persistent issues with Cyanobacteria and the lady at a LFS recommended Boyd Chemiclean- it's made for dealing with red Cyanobacteria in saltwater but she assured me it would work on blue green in freshwater as well. Said lady was *emphatic* to follow the directions (including aeration) exactly and do not overdose. I followed the directions exactly and dosed with fish, shrimp, and snails still in the tank- the product cleared the tank of Cyanobacteria in a little over 4 days and it hasn't returned in about 6 weeks and the fish et al seem no worse for the wear. The product label tells you all the things the product is NOT (e.g. not erythromycin) but, not what it is. It *is* slow acting- for the 2 1/2 days I wasn't sure it was working...but the bad stuff very slowly dissolved away and in the end it did the job.

I keep Neocardina shrimp, Nerites, and Bettas together in multiple tanks (sometimes a Rabbit or Lava snail with them too), so I'm always trying to strike a balance of healthy shells vs healthy shrimp molts/breeding, vs nice fins on Bettas. I've been all over the place in dosing with calcium, trying eggshell and cuttle bone, Wondershells, etc. with different degrees of success in the different critters. The best balance that I've found *so far* for the type of water we both have is to very lightly supplement it (I'm currently adding about a 1/3 of the label recommended dose of Seachem Equilibrium to my tanks every other water change) AND regularly feeding pieces of both green bean/carrot/squash as well as Sera Shrimp pellets. Everyone seems to be doing equally well on this combination. The Sera pellets contain a pretty high level of protein, so the Nerites tend to let them dissolve to "fluff" on the substrate and then will pick their way through them. The one thing that I always keep in the back of my head is that snails aren't "gems"- living and aging takes a toll on them, so a degree of shell changes and erosion over an extended period of time is pretty much inescapable. Hope this helps and good luck!

I think I have the same Stargate decor...What's double awesome is that it has an air line input (which I think OP has hidden under the rock) to it and will function as a bubbler too.

Joey Chestnut doesn't have an account here, does he?

There were a couple of scenes in The Naked Gun movies where Leslie Nielsen's boss practiced "The ancient Japanese art of concealment" where he would disguise himself as a couch or other furnishing and then suddenly reveal himself. Amanos are masters of this same ancient art as well. We had 3 Amanos in a 3 gallon tank that was bare save an epoxy rock with a plastic plant and a moss ball and didn't see a single one of them for a good 6-9 months. I finally persuaded the landlord of the tank to let me drain everything and start over as it seemed to be suffering "Old Tank Syndrome". When I got the water drained down almost even with the gravel, all three appeared from nowhere alive and well.

Bettas are a combination of surface and gill breathers. My experience has been that they can drown if denied access to the surface for too long, so my advice would be to use something like coarse filter foam (you want it to be prickly and not feel good to rub against) and plug any gaps that it looks like he could get stuck in. FWIW- I had a round hollow Fluval prefilter sponge over a filter output to dampen the flow and it ended up floating loose in the tank. I found one of my idiot Bettas completely inside of it and unable to back out one morning not too long ago. Luckily he was unharmed, but had I found him any later, things might not have ended up as well.

With the tank only a month or so old, you're still in the "seasoning" stage with your tank's entire biome still trying to figure out where it's natural equilibrium is. I'd clean with caution as you want the things you do in/to the tank to compliment what the biome is already working towards (albeit on a much different schedule and sequence).

In late and having some problems following where you're at as of now. Are you still having a problem with cyanobacteria?

I'd second @Colu on the opinion that Charlie's on the mend from fin rot. My experience has been that the vast majority of cases of fin rot start with bad water chemistry. Keeping his water parameters all well balanced and in the safe zones as well as having a regular gravel cleaning routine are probably most effective tools to prevent a reoccurrence. Edit- Just reread the original post and saw the"jumped in to the community tank with gouramis" Probably just as good a chance that Charlie's fins got repeatedly nipped by those gangsters. Regardless, the fin healing treatment for being "rot or rolled" is the same. One additional thing I will call out- A lot of male Betta's seem to have the same "I wonder if I can fit in this incredibly tight space?" gene that cats do. If you haven't done so yet, I would take a very critical look at your heater (and your filter intake) and make sure that aren't any gaps where Charlie might be able to squeeze in and get stuck. Good luck to you and Charlie!

I've got these lovable little buggers in a bunch of my tanks. Same experience as @Odd Duck- mine maybe at most reach the size of about a half a grain of dried Jasmine rice. Great janitorial staff and excellent at eating detritus and tough green spot/dust algae (though each limpet eats only a tiny bit, so you need a horde of them to be effective). My experience has been that when you see them moving around comfortably in the light, a population explosion is already in progress. The baby boom generally last 7-10 days, after which their numbers will normalize and they will go back to hiding in the substrate and the underside of plant leaves when there's light. The shells are strong, but very thin, so a) they dissolve in water in a day or less after one of them dies b) if you get completely overrun by them, you *can* apply pressure to the top of their shells while they are on a hard surface and cull them. They're a bit unsightly, but the times I've had a tank biome go wonky, they've rallied and been a big part of getting things back right. I'd rather have them in my tanks than not.

Great to see so much interest in these shrimp. They have an extremely limited natural habitat so, captive keeping/breeding is probably a good insurance policy for the species. One of the things that I've noticed is all of my video watching and reading is that I can't recall ever seeing them with fish- either in their wild habitat or in any of the aquariums. Not sure of that's because of the water parameters not being very "fish friendly" or if they're so darn expensive that people don't want to risk having them eaten...probably both. Regardless, the cardinals are pretty high energy and white on the parts that move a lot (antennae and legs) so they look like they'd attract a lot of attention from anything remotely predatory,

You'll probably need to consult with your financial advisor...they ain't cheap for freshwater fish.

There's been *a lot* of variability in the size, moisture level, and cleanliness of the IALs that I've received from different sellers. To be blunt, I really didn't notice any changes in my Betta's or my Neo shrimps health or behaviors with or without them. In my tanks, the sun dried ones took months to degrade and disappear, leaving a lot of unsightly bits here and there along the way. Fritz dos make an IAL extract which might give you the benefits you're looking for with a more predictable dosing to better control PH swings.

There's a person that I've bought difficult to raise and keep Ericulons from that have been *beautiful*, so I trust their water choices. They have Sulawesi shrimp listed as being raised in these conditions- Ph:8.0 GH7-9 KH 3-4 and TDS 200-250. Looks like the same ball park...maybe even the same level and section. I see people recommending using RO water and then remineralizing it, but the process of remineralizing to 8.0-8.5 seems time consuming and intensive. I can't see any of my LFS going through the drama, so I'd guess this is another indication that your/your LFS's water is close enough- maybe just needs a slight "tweak" of mineralization. I'd ask the store if they're wild bred or tank bred- many people indicate that the wild ones are more territorial and not as robust. One of the consistent experiences that I see is people stating their Sulawesi don't recognize commercial foods as "food" (they're live algae eaters in nature). Many people recommend keeping a species of Neocardina in with them to teach them to eat pellets/wafers/etc. Good luck!

Insert sound of Pac-Man dying here. I appreciate the guidance and frankness @Cory. Time to do a ton more research and soliciting expertise before the credit card gets thrown down. Since there's interest, I'll keep updating this thread with key things as I learn them (until someone tells me to quit it out).

Helpful graphic, but when I look up pictures of nitrifying bacteria, the majority seem to be rod or blob shaped bacteria without flagella (I get that there's multiple types of nitrifying bacteria and there *is* at least one type with flagella). My layman's brain keeps having problems understanding why the bacteria wouldn't colonize all over the interior of the bottles and (like chickens crossing a road) only go free swimming to get to the other side (of the bottle). Are we throwing away the vast majority of the beneficial bacteria we're buying if we simply dump the liquid from the bottle into the tank?

I've been doing a lot of investigation into Sulawesi Cardinal Shrimp of late and seeing a lot of the same things that I saw about Sulawesi Rabbit Snails a few years back- they need 8.0-8.5PH water, they need a special blend of minerals, they need an environment that mimics the lake they came from, they eat plants, etc. As people captive bred Rabbit snails, they were able to acclimate them to plain tap water and densely planted tanks. I'm seeing Sulawesi Cardinal Shrimp sellers claiming that they've done the similar things (there's as WA state seller that claims their stock has been bred in 7.0-7.2PH water), but all of the YouTube and online picture content points to people still all following "old school mimic the lake they were discovered in" methods. Has anyone here tried keeping these shrimp in a more typical aquarium configuration?

The place where I have some trouble wrapping my head around things is that it seems to be generally accepted that nitrifying bacteria colonize on surfaces (substrate, rock, bio rings, etc.) and very little of the bacteria is free swimming in the water column. Having the same bacteria colonized in some liquid suspension that immediately dissolves to nothing when mixed with tank water doesn't seems to jibe with the other info and behavior I'm seeing attributed the bacteria.

I *think* that fiberglass and rockwool use similar production methods (different materials obviously). Both are heavier than water, so the chances that a fish would somehow ingest some or get injured/impaled seem low. I'd echo the advice to: * Give your tanks a good gravel vac to pick up any stray strands. * Wear gloves (maybe multiple pairs if latex). My experience with fiberglass splinters has been that they're extremely difficult to see and locate once in the skin and that unlike wood splinters the body seems much slower to create an infection or swelling around them to force them up and out of skin. Edit- I just remembered that in a former life I learned to do "in the field" fine strand fiber optic splicing. When doing so we were *required* to wear fine chain mail gloves to avoid the possibility of fiber->skin penetration, so be cautious.

One of the thing that I always try to keep in mind is that Mother Nature on her own can be ruthless. Most of us have tanks that are full of creatures that qualify as "low on the food chain". In the wild, their lives are likely to be a constant pressure to mature as quickly as possible, compete for limited food, compete for a mate and have a spawn or two, and then become food for a larger predator (often in a gruesome and painful way). If we can "tip nature's scales" and create environments that "feel natural", remove the risks and stressors, and provide care and treatments when needed...even with the failures, I'd argue that we're doing something to that provides a decent or even better quality life for creatures. @HonourWest If losing creatures is something that's emotionally difficult and you want to participate in the hobby, you may want to consider trying something like a shrimp colony. Once you get one going, you should have a constant cycle of new births and maturing juveniles to soften the losses from age or disease. Food for thought.

Apologies for the water spots- we were having a heated "biting our tail is a no-no" conversation at the time as witnessed by the sheepish expression on someone's face. This was Sagittarius (RIP) who grew about to the size of a King before he contracted dropsy that I wasn't able to effectively treat for him . Another color combination that I haven't seen before or since.

Apologies for the potato focus. This was Solstice (RIP) who had a variety of genetic issues (you can see the rose/feather tail scalloping in his tail and cork screwed pecs) that made him a fragile little guy. He was accident prone and aged at about 3X the speed of every other Betta I've owned, but was a total sweetheart the entire time. The "electric" blue in this pic its a pretty accurate capture of his actual color.

Mars "God of Slumber". A lot of people refer to Betta as "water dogs"...this guy is definitely a "water cat". Wakes up to eat and occasionally show his distain for his neighbor in an adjoining tank...then back to sleep. Another random little cup at a "big box" chain store guy. Note the clown make up like silver triangle under his eye (he has that on both sides of his face). Edit- Forgot to mention that when we got this guy he was a small juvenile and sexed as a Female...he was originally going to be part of a sorority tank...nope.

Found him in a random little cup at a "big box" chain store to boot.