Benny

Should be good now, thanks.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I will look for least killifish in my LFS. If they don't have them, I pry will just do a shrimp tank. I doubt my store will carry these, but I wish they would! Very stunning fish.

I would agree it looks most like staghorn. Was able to snap a picture of one of them, finally.

Hey folks! There is some kind of algae growing off the leaves of plants that looks exactly like a white, branching out root. I thought at first some kind of plant was growing on top of the leaves, but the algae only continued to grow. Sadly, my camera refused to focus on them, making it basically impossible to see. Light is on 11 hrs a day (the lights are lower power). Nitrates at 30 Dosing Easy Green 1.5 doses a week.

Hey all! Putting together a 3.5 gallon tank I happened to have on hand. Never kept chillis before, so wondering if this is an okay size for them. It will be fairly heavily planted and water changed as needed. Minimal hardscape so as to not get in the way of swimming space. Plus, any advice on specific / less than obvious requirements are more than welcome.

Hey all. What's the ideal amount of male / females to start a colony of guppies? Obviously you don't want to do a trio because inbreeding would be guaranteed, but what is the ideal amount to start with to keep inbreeding to a minimum?

Got some ghost shrimp about a week ago to see how they would do. I am doing this to see how shrimp would react to my tank because my plan is to get some neos once I am confident in shrimp-keeping. However, I just noticed today that the shrimp are having trouble getting around. Their legs seem to be flimsy and can barely support their weight. They are still trying to be active, but their legs are almost useless and they sometimes fall on their sides. My best guess is a calcium deficiency, but the snails are doing fine. Nitrates are at 20, ammonia and nitrite is 0. Kind of hard to see in the picture, but the shrimp basically have to lay on their belly to remain upright.

Hey all! Just thought I would throw out and say that the tank finished cycling! I did nothing to my water (no WC's, no testing) for over a week, just to give it some time. A watched pot doesn't boil! I was prompted to test the water when my last remaining snail perked up. Sadly, the other two didn't make the cycling process. Apparently mystery snails don't handle ammonia very well at all. Now I get to make the exciting decisions on my stocking choice. Anyway, ammonia and nitrates are zero since I have it so heavily planted. I greatly appreciate the help you all gave me.

I'm up in northern Cali!

Got it. Thanks folks! I'll update this thread when I end up getting nitrates!

I skim the tank once a week. Is that possibly taking a large amount of bacteria with it? I am planning on doing fish that can handle sub neutral PH. I hear that I can raise the PH by adding baking soda, but I don't want to add another variable to screw up 😅.

I looked into that website. That article was a bit too advanced for my liking, but I will definitely use other articles on it. That's what I had thought. I looked through this forum to see what people's opinion of bottled bacteria was, and many had thought it worked. I have 3 mystery snails, plus some driftwood. I'll try cutting back on the changes, but I can't stop them completely sadly.

Sorry if I didn't convey it all correctly. I haven't gotten the cycle to start converting ammonia to nitrites to nitrates yet. Excessive nitrates aren't a concern. Currently all the stats I am getting is ammonia. It fluctuates with every waterchange, but I am trying to keep it below .25 ppm.

Evening, I have had my 10 gal running since about January 8th-ish. My nitrites and nitrates are still at 0. I can't figure out why this would be happening. I have added bacteria, and introduced some more by buying plants. I have had a few snails in it since the start, so there is a consistent source of ammonia for the bacteria. The snails aren't handling it too well (I know fish-in cycling is not ideal), probably due to the fact that my water is slightly too acidic (6.7). All of my plants are doing quite well. I water change 2 times a week, 40% changes. I dose Easy Green once a week. I can't find anything outstanding as to why the cycle hasn't at least started. Is there anything that could cause the bacteria to just die? I appreciate all answers.

So my original thought process was that, since shrimp are more sensitive to spikes in parameters it would be best for them to be the final bio load added to the tank. No, it's been running for about 1 month. Just trying to map out the future stocking plans with it. I guess I'll do the puffer last. I understand that there is a chance the shrimp can evade him, but shrimp in my area are expensive ($5 a pop), so I'm quite hesitant to taking the chance of adding the pea puffer first. Thanks for the helpful advice everyone!

Hey folks! I was looking to stock a 10 gallon aquarium with a colony of cherry shrimp and a pea puffer. However, I am not sure if I should get the pea puffer first or the cherry shrimp. If I did the pea puffer first, would it be able to pick off enough young shrimp to kill off the first spawning? If I had a fairly established colony of shrimp, the puffer shouldn't be able to kill off enough shrimp to drive them to extinction, right? Maybe I am overthinking this, but since pea puffers are hardcore carnivores I thought I would throw out the question. Thanks!

It has just some mystery snails until the tank has some seasoning on it. It is pretty heavily planted with java fern, anubias (congensis...?), hydrocotle tripartita, rotala rotundofolia, java moss, and what looks like micro swords. For floaters I have frogbit and a bit of salvinia. I have plans to turn it into a shrimp tank after it runs for another month or two. And my plan is that, if I am successful in getting a colony started, I could toss in a centerpiece fish to pull everything together. Was looking at a single pea puffer, as they seem like they would be one of the least detrimental to shrimp (also they are just so darn cute!).

Hey all! Glad to now become part of the forum! Big fan of Aquarium Co-op, and you all seem like very knowledgeable people. I only have a 10 gallon right now, but hopefully getting another tank sometime soon. Very addicting hobby, and I am looking for a place (like this) to help answer my random questions, as the only fish-stores I have near me are Petco, Petsmart, and a pet store that primarily carries dog / cat supplies, but has more knowledgeable aquarium people than the latter.