[Pleco poop]

I wonder if a steady diet of the pleco wafers are causing the excessive poop.  I have two or three bristle nose plecos is my community tanks (55, 29 and 20 gallon tanks.  The plecos eat the same food as the fish (flake and pelleted).  I do add some algae wafers a twice a week and blanched zucchini weekly (plecos love their zucchini.  I have mystery snails in each tank and cherry shrimp in two of them

[10 gallon shrimp tank filter]

I have 6-8 shrimp tanks that run all the time. Some  run HOBs. with intake filters.  I hot rod the filters by using three sponges in each one rather than the junk that comes with them.  I also have sponge filters in some of them.  Both work well as long as they are cleaned monthly in water from the aquarium.

[Easy Carbon and Black beard Algae]

I use Flourish Excel to get rid of BBA. 

I first trim back the plants that have algae on them.  Too much light is a factor as well.  Keep your lights off while treating the algae and then cut back by 50% when you start using them again. 

Flourish Excel not only kills black beard algae, but it will improve the growth of the other plants in your aquarium. This will be especially noticeable if you don’t already inject CO2.

Using it is simple. Just follow the instructions. In my last tank, it took just a few days before I began to notice the black beard algae wither and die.

Ensure that your water flow is adequate to deliver the Excel to every corner of your tank.

If you don’t notice a change, double dosing may be required. When I double dose it I treat every other day for three treatments.  I change 30-40% of the water after every treatment.  Alternatively, you can try spot dosing. 

[Converting from HOB to Sponge Filter]

In new tank I install the sponge filter and squeeze out a couple dirty sponge filters into the water.  

 

[Which shrimp should I get? Let me see your shrimp tanks!]

On 12/20/2021 at 1:14 PM, Maggie said:

I've had yellow shrimp and currently have blue dreams. Most of these are still not full grown yet. 

I have six colors of neocaridina shrimp that I breed.  All survive well if kept in the proper water conditions.  My best luck and breeding them have been the Red Cherry, Bloody Mary, Orange and White.  Lesser luck with my Blues and Greens.

[Shrimp Tank - DI Water Questions]

On 12/20/2021 at 1:01 PM, RonBFree said:

As per Flip Aquatics the preferred Parameters are 

Tank Parameters

Ph: 7.0 to 7.6
Gh: 7 to 15
Kh:  2 to 8
TDS: 180 to 400
Temp: 68 to 72

When setting up a new tank I start with RO water and remineralizer with Shrimp Mineral GH/KH+ to a TDS of 200-250.  However I find that my GH and KA will be higher than recommended when I reach that TDS.  When I asked Flip Aquatics about that they said to mainly focus on the TDS.  I get all my shrimp from them.  They (as well as Aquarium COOP) have several good videos on shrimp care and breeding.  Any more questions please ask.  Glad to help out.

[Shrimp Tank - DI Water Questions]

The most important things with shrimp.

Find out the water parameters of the place you are getting your shrimp from and try to mimic that.

Be sure to acclimate your shrimp to your tank water

Shrimp don't like changes in water parameters

Never change water more than 10-15% at a time.  I change mine once a month.  I always top off my tank with RO water if I find the water's TDS is increasing higher than desired.

I don't think Easy Green will change your water parameters at the recommended dosage.  But I would check with Aquarium Coop to be sure.

[Shrimp Tank - DI Water Questions]

As per Flip Aquatics the preferred Parameters are 

Tank Parameters

Ph: 7.0 to 7.6
Gh: 7 to 15
Kh:  2 to 8
TDS: 180 to 400
Temp: 68 to 72

[Problem with livebearers.]

Yes water parameters are the same in all three tanks

[Problem with livebearers.]

I have a intake sponge on the intake pipe of my HOB filter. Yes I have a lid on the tank  

[Problem with livebearers.]

All were adult size

 

Yes I assume they were eaten by the other fish.  I am wondering if they were killed by the clown loaches or Rose line Sharks.  I doubt that it's the Roselines as I was having this problem before I got them 

[Problem with livebearers.]

I have three community tanks (a 55 and two 29's).  I have had all three for 4 years or so.  I do 50% water changes twice monthly.  pH is about 7.  Ammonia and Nitrites are zero, TDS about 300.  Nitrate usually about 20.  The 29's have  a mix of tetras, rasboras, platys, angelfish, cory catfish and a pleco. The two 29 gallon tanks do fine with livebearers (platys) but whenever I put platys or swordtails in the 55 they die.  The only difference in the types of fish I have in the tanks is the 55 has two clown loaches about 6 inches long and two Roseline Sharks (Denison Barbs) about four inches long.  I bought a school of 5 platys and put them in the 55.  One by one they all disappeared.  Same with a school of five swordtails. They all looked healthy when they were alive.  They would be there in the evening when I fed the tank but where gone the next morning. I could find no dead bodies so I assumed the dead bodies where eaten by the other fish.  What do you think is going on?

[Problem with Endlers...]

9 endlers in a tank that size is nothing.  I have over a hundred in my endler breeding tank (heavily planted) and they do just fine.  It is easy to tell a male (smaller and brightly colored) from a female (bigger little to no color) which looks like a female guppy. 

Oops, I meant 12.

[Cleaning a sponge filter in which baby cherry shrimp reside: Can it be done without killing the babies?]

I have hang on the back filters with intake filters on my shrimp tanks.  When I clean the intake filters I shake them out several times in a bowl of the aquarium water to dislodge the baby shrimp.  I think this should work as well with your sponge filters

[Platys being bullied by Endlers, don’t know what to do]

My experience in my community tanks is any male livebearer with harras other females live bears to the point that they wear out and die.  Thus i only add female livebearers to my community tanks.

[Choosing Females for Male Endlers]

Anywhere from 1:1 to 3:1 purchased from a reputable breeder if you want them to breed true.

[Endlers and Inverts]

My general rule of them is to never have any type of fish in your shrimp tank if you want to breed them.  That being said I do keep some adult shrimp in my endler breeding tank to help feed on the algea

[Endler dying after 24 hours]

My guess is you water parameters were different than the supplier.  The other factor is how you acclimate the new arrivals to the new tank.  It is not enough to just float the bag in the tank for awhile to even out the temperature.  I would suggest using the drip method on the new arrivals.  They other method I use is to place the new fish in a shallow bucket with an air stone and every hour add 1/4 quarter cup on your tank water to them until you have doubled the amount of water.  After a few hours then I flout them in a bag to even out the temperature.  A few hours later I feed baby brine shrimp and continue to do for about 5 days.  No scientific data to support my method.  It's just what I find works for me.

[Endlers dying. Can't tell why.]

I don't recommend keeping endlers with anything but nano size fish.  Any fish with a mouth big enough to eat a endler will eat them.

[How easy to offload endler females?]

I raise black bar and scarlet endlers.  I trade them to local aquarium stores for store credit.  I bring them to the stores as pairs (male and female).  Since some customers only want the males I have an agreement with the stores to take back any females that don't sell.

[Which shrimp is least sensitive to water changes?]

I am breeding 6 different colors of neo shrimp.  I change 10-20% of water every couple weeks to keep nitrates at reasonable level.  I have never felt water changes affected mortality.