Anjum

Thanks all! I'm going to go ahead & get the mini heater, just to help a little. Also thanks for all the extra info @Lennie & @Remi de Groot - I did not know a lot of that! I'll dial back my hopes of seeing shrimplets quote so soon & focus on just taking the best care of them. I drip acclimated for over 3 hours yesterday so hopefully they're off to a good start. Our water comes from a creek & we have a lot of blue/gray clay in our soil, so I think that's why I have a little more hardness to my water than the co-op. But pH is around 6.5-7, and nitrates stay 0 in the 5 & 10 gal because of all the plants. I added some crushed coral to the filter & substrate, as well as a little of the nano banquet food blocks which have calcium. I gave them a tiny pinch of repashy last night while they were still in the specimen container & they went right for it.

Big day today! Went to the co-op. Brought them my 2 SAE so I could free up some space in my tanks. Catching them took some patience, but actually wasn't as bad as I feared. Had to take the driftwood out but at least I didn't have the uproot all the plants. The space freed up in the 29 allowed me to get a Sunset Honey Gourami for that tank. Nice to have a centerpiece fish in that tank again. Other big news: I got one of my bucket list species! The Tequila Goodeid, Zoogoneticus tequila. Not the flashiest fish, but it's a conservation species which interests me. These came right from Cory's fish room, via Dean's fish room, which feels pretty special. They're my 1st livebearer (not counting the 3 male guppies) & one of the females is huge, so it probably won't be long until I have fry! I got 2 males (orange stripe on their tail) & 4 females. They're staying pretty well hidden, so hopefully they get comfortable in coming days so I can get better pics Aaand I finally got my shrimp! Blue Velvet Neocaridinas. Looks like one female is already berried, so will hopefully have more of them soon too! I got the new co-op light for the 29 & some new plants: java moss, crypt spiralis, Anubias hastifolia, & red flame sword. Better pics of everything in the coming days!

One of them appears to be a female fanning her swimmerettes so I might have shrimplets very soon!

Went to the co-op today & picked up a 30" light for my 29g! This is only on the 2nd setting & it's about as much light as the 24" finnex stingray was putting out. I haven't turned it all the way up yet only because I just put a new fish in there & I'm letting him get accustomed. But I'm really excited to take this planted tank to the next level! Over time I'll thin out & cut back the water wisteria & pogostemon that's dominating & get some different things growing. Just picked up a red flame sword, so that'll be the 1st to benefit from the new light.

Blue Velvet, from the co-op. Light isn't that good in that pic, better pics to come. I asked for 10, they gave me 12, plus I could see one teeny tiny shrimplet, so I got a baker's dozen 🤗 I'll look for that heater, thanks @TeeJay!

TL;DR: Is 66°F /19°C too cold for neocaridina shrimp to breed prolifically? Well, big day, I went to the co-op! Updates coming soon to my journal. But pressing questions right now about my new SHRIMP! Currently drip acclimating: Things changed since I last made this post & the 10 gal I was going to use for shrimp now has 2 baby Corys & 3 male guppies. So in the interest of maximizing the breeding potential of the shrimp, I've decided they should go in this 5 gal. It's been sitting vacant with just snails & plants for many months. I just trimmed plants out of my other tanks & put them in here along with a mat of java moss I just bought. So it's stuffed, but I think the shrimp would appreciate that, no? My conundrum is heat/no heat? I've had the heat off & it stays about 66°F right now in the winter. I only have a preset mini heater for this tank, which keeps it around 78°F/25°C. I want them to breed a lot so I can farm them out to my other tanks, but I want them to be healthy too & not accelerate their lifespan too much. So what would you do? Or should I just lok for a small heater with a thermostat?

Pics don't do em justice but I feel like the babies are getting so big! Couldn't get a pic of both at the same time. I think the other one is actually slightly larger than this one @KittenFishMom here's the baby paleatus in the 10g half cylinder

@KittenFishMom fwiw I had 2 paleatus corys hatch in my 10g half cylinder & they're doing great. They're now big enough to swim all up & down the water column. I also have ramshorn snails in there & they still managed to hatch & grow.

Great thank you! I'm thinking I'll start with 6 fish & plan on moving them up to the 40b down the line. I'm so excited!!!

@Cory I'm very excited at the prospect of getting the Tequila Goodeids from you! Did your stock come from Greg Sage originally? I have a 20 Long that's been running for 6 months, well planted & stable. It currently only has a SAE & 3 (aging) male guppies. I just emailed the store & they're going to take my SAE off my hands (I've been wanting to rehome them anyway) & I could move the guppies to another tank if need be. Do you think this tank would be sufficient for the Goodeids? I am planning on setting up a 40 breeder that they could move to when ready. Or should they really be in something larger to start? How many fish would be a good number to start with? This is the most recent photo I have on my phone, but it's from 3 months ago. The plants are way more lush now. I could get a new pic tonight.

OMG I've wanted the tequila goodeids for so long!!!! *Scrambles to figure out if I have tank space*

Hey I know that store! That's the closest LFS to me. I've always wondered if they're any good or not. I just don't feel like I know enough to judge. My main concern is they keep their Bettas in cups & the store is generally a bit chilly for them. And last time I was there, there were a few dead/dying. But that said, I haven't had any problems with the fish I've gotten there. Good to have another viewpoint.

Hmm some interesting suggestions. I do have paleatus corys. I did go sit by the 29 last night when I woke up, but I couldn't see anything, it was pitch dark. Guess I'd have to put one of those blue lights on.

What are your favorite nocturnal fish? I'm seriously considering getting some kind of nocturnal fish, as lately I'm having this maddeningly persistent problem of waking up at an ungodly hour & tossing & turning for 2 hours until I fall back to sleep. At which time, it's about time to get up anyways. 😒 Maybe if I just got up & went to watch my aquarium, it would make me feel better about being up at that ungodly hour.

This. Pothos is a beast. You can give the leaves & roots a trim if you don't want to remove it completely. This tank stays at practically 0 nitrates.

Congratulations Invictus, you did it lil buddy! I'm not even gonna lie, I shed a tear. 🥹

The answer no one wants to hear: it depends 😂 I'd be inclined to just leave the apistos where they are since it's only a week. My "it depends" personal experience is with 2 SAE. They were in the same tank but I had to split them up b/c they weren't getting along. The more dominant one went into a temp holding tank & weeks (months?) later, they each went into larger tanks. The dominant one didn't miss a beat in either move. Immediately went to exploring the new tank. The subordinate one hid for 2 weeks after it moved to a bigger tank, even though it had been free from the aggressor for weeks/months.

Mine is a culvert, with a tree growing around it, in a creek on our property where our home's water source comes from. The reservoir is right above this culvert. It's just a neat feature on the property. It's probably been supplying the home with water since the 1940's. Currently, the cold water into the kitchen comes straight from here, no filtration. There's sediment in that water 😅 Probably other stuff too. I fill my tanks with that water. I figure it's "alive".

While surprise Anubias is great, the other side effects are not. Hope the pred helps & you can taper soon! All the best ❤️

Word. 😂 I have 4. 10g half-cylinder, snails & 2 baby Corys. Soon to add neocaridinas. 29g community 20g long, just has 4 fish, still trying to decide what to do with it. 5g snails & plants. Might take it to work & do something interesting with it. I want to do a couple tanks at work (I own a small shop). It has concrete floors, so I could theoretically do something big (goals). I just need to figure out where; there's not a lot of space. I have a 12'x16' shed, all finished out like a tiny home. It's plumbed & wired but not hooked up to water & power currently. When that happens, it will be my "fish room" & I can do as much as I want in there (dreams).

OMG that's awesome!!!!! 🥳 He heard you talking about his planned upgrade & wanted you to know he's here for it 😁

Yeah who knows, it's a mess. But I can see Cory's position. They're so close to having those lights available to sell. He doesn't want to put out a sizable investment in other lighting. It makes more sense for his business to use/display the light he wants to sell. I imagine there's other things that need to be finished too, so why not try & hold out a bit longer on the lights while they finish other things.

I heard Cory mention it on one of the last live streams... A big hold up right now is the delay in their new lights. They want to outfit the new space with the new lights but there's no real ETA on them at this moment. Hopefully that's changing as we speak, as China has just started relaxing their lockdowns.

Yeah I forget the standard recommendation, but I believe it is only for 10° or less of temp raising. That was a learning curve I experienced. I was nervous at first to put way more heating capacity in the tank, but the more I looked into it, I understood that more is better than not enough, as then the heater won't have to work so hard vs having to work constantly. I also much prefer this heater's shape & size, much easier to place correctly in the tank than the long tube heaters.

I would assume the 100w heater would be more than sufficient to raise a 10g as much as you wanted. I put 2× 100w ACO heaters on my 29g last year as I was needing to raise the temp 15-20°F over ambient temps. I probably only needed 150w worth of heating capacity, but the 50w wasn't available yet. Now that we have an adequate heating system, I only need to raise temps about 10° over ambient & one 100w would probably be fine. Once I have another tank to set up, I'll pull one & see how it goes.