Solstice_Lacer

Oh to be a shrimp on a log

Good luck, look forward to seeing it

I've used flourite black and dark in a new tank without rinsing them, no issues. Cloudiness cleared in a few days

I saw what I believe are detritus worms chilling in my tank, no major worry. But I also saw more of a short flat guy crawling along. I was worried it was planaria but for the life of me I couldn't see a trademark planaria head on it. It also bumped into a little bladder snail and recoiled in horror. After doing some searching it seems to look like a rhabdocoela, which are apparently not harmful? I couldn't get a very good pic but it looked like a semi translucent grain of rice, with like 3 or 4 white dots inside it. I couldn't notice a head or eyes.

Micro sword begins the march to victory

So without much experience I tried growing terrestrial moss in my tank. I started with a patch (still in some rich dark soil) stuck in a crack on a floating stick. It began growing after a week or two. So I decided to grab a couple more patches (also still in their soil) and put them straight in the bottom of the tank. They began growing tall and bushy, and I have since added a couple more patches, both on rocks and the substrate. I guess I got lucky but I think part of the key as mentioned by others was treating the moss like sod and laying down patches with some of its rich native soil still attached. The background moss pictured here is from the backyard (in a naturally wet area) about a month in the tank. It started at barely a quarter inch tall. The foreground moss is newer from a lfs. There's more pics of my tank in my signature link. Just my two cents if anyone wants to try (knowing it might fail and ruin everything as others have noted).

Thanks. I measured it out to 25" x 25" and found a similar volume calculator that said 27 gallons. So I'll treat it as about 25

My camera decided to focus for once

Anyone have experience/opinions on which is easier to keep? Also if one is more peaceful with inverts like shrimp and mystery snails

Nibbling on some shrimp food

He hitchhiked on my first plants from the lfs, and I have maybe seen him twice in 6 weeks. I got her about a month ago and see her pretty often. They're in a decently planted 29 gallon and seem to do a solid job controlling the bladder snails. They are not completely wiped out but they're not all over the place, and I like having some around.

I officially saw both my assassins today. The first one came as a free plant hitchhiker when I first set up my tank, but I never saw him after that. I got the second to keep my other pond snail hitchhikers from going too crazy. She seems to be much more outgoing. I picked her out while she was crawling on a java fern at the lfs. I'm assuming they're different genders because one has been laying eggs around the tank, which I'm guessing is the slightly larger more outgoing one. In any case I'm glad they are both still hanging out in there. I couldn't get a picture of the presumed male because he was half buried in the substrate under some moss, but he was moving while the female was chilling nearby

Tank acquired. I was told it was a 20 gallon but my friend and I think it might be 30? It is just over two feet tall, just over two feet long, and just over a foot deep at the widest point of the bow, which appears to be a perfect half circle. Any math whizzes able to calculate that?

Babies learning to graze and being watched over by their elders

2 shrimp molts, an assassin snail egg, and a juvenile cherry shrimp all lurking at the base of some java fern

I'm sorry your snail's not feeling well, but glad she has friends. Here's my girl making her way down town. She's an assassin but she's still sweet and seems to be pretty active during the day

You're all convincing me to get a mystery snail or two for my next tank

It seems every time I look at this floating piece of wood there is a shrimp on it

A lot of local fish stores have standard red cherry shrimp. If you want a different color (blue, green, orange) you might have to look online. They will have the same care requirements if they are neocaridina davidi, they are just selectively bred for different color lines.

I will definitely end up with some corydoras

Cherry shrimp and other dwarf shrimp (neocaridina) are awesome and add almost no bio load. They can have their own diseases but are generally considered hardy. I might worry about them with your larger/bolder fish, unless they have a lot of hiding places, but I've personally never kept them together so I can't comment first hand. Amano shrimp have similar care and are slightly bigger (and better at algae eating). But they can't breed in freshwater like cherry shrimp. Bamboo shrimp/wood shrimp are considerably bigger and are filter feeders rather than bottom scavengers. They need a decent water flow and places to sit where they won't get picked on. And they need higher temps (above 75 F) than the other shrimp mentioned. Mystery snails, nerite snails, Ramshorn snails, trumpet snails are all pretty commonly kept. Mystery snails are arguably the most "pet like" but do the least cleaning for the amount of waste they produce. The others eat more algae and have less bio load. People do have stories of snails breeding out of control. There's assassin snails to prevent such things, but they shouldn't be mixed unless you're really overrun with other snails. Assassin snails kill and eat other snails. But they can be fed a protien bottom feeder food if you want to keep them as cool pets with no other snails. They won't hurt fish or shrimp from my understanding/ experience (unless the snail is particularly ornery or the thing it ate was already weak/sick/dead). There's also fish that eat snails but you said you don't want any more fish.

Would apistograms and zebra danios play nice or at least avoid each other? Since I think zebras like to stay high up and apistos stay low

I'm looking at picking up a 20 gallon "D" shaped/bow front tank cheap from Craigslist. I'm open to stocking suggestions, but I'd prefer things that can thrive around room temperature. My 29 gallon stays around 73/74 Fahrenheit without a heater for reference. I've seen info saying honey gourami will be ok around that temp, but Idk if it would be too stressful for them. I know there's not a lot of "centerpiece" options without a heater.

Thank you, your link was very helpful

Cool. Maybe I will consider a smallish school when my plants have really grown in