#and my ramshorn snails and amano shrimp

[geraskier]

read all about it! very shy snail hides all day, contemplates and declines to take outdoor expedition next day

[image description: a white mystery snail with a brown striped shell in a pineapple house aquarium decoration. in the first image, the snail hangs upside down in the doorway with its long antennae curled up by its eyestalks. in the second, the snail has moved further into the decoration. in the third image, one of the snail's antenna is sticking out of an upper window of the house.]

[shrimpapalooza]

Hi! Any tips for algea control in a planted tank?

I will be dead honest, I've given up on controlling algae in any tank. It's just a given. If you are having a MASSIVE algae outbreak there's a few things to think about:

are you doing enough water changes? Water changes will lower all the levels of stuff that algae thrives on (very technical I know, sorry, but that's the basics of it).

Are you fertilizing? If yes, your ferts may need to be uh, recalibrated. Might be too much phosphates, or too much nitrates, or it might be a combo of the ferts plus your lighting schedule. Algae monopolizes ferts and light as it grows faster than most aquarium plants, and sometimes shortening your light time and adjusting your ferts will help you control the algae while still allowing your tank plants to grow well.

Is it something really annoying like BBA or the slimy stuff? Or, ugh, hair algae? Staghorn? Many of these are both prolific and really really difficult to get rid of. Most algae eating aquarium denizens won't touch them, or won't be able to put a dent in them. In that case, you'll need to look up the specifics of fighting that algae off. Doing the one- or two-day blackouts, using hydrogen peroxide on a spot by spot basis (using syringes or eye droppers or turkey basters), and possibly other algaecide measures (altho those are not recommended to use in tank since they can harm your plants) are some of the things you can do.

One thing you SHOULDN'T do is introduce more fish/shrimp/snails into your tank for the sole purpose of getting rid of algae. That's not fair to them and you won't get the result you want. If you wanted Otos or Amano shrimp or Nerites or Ramshorn snails then yeah go for it and they'll help with algae issues. But getting tank denizens you weren't planning to get just to try and control algae never works out the way you want.

Anyways, personally I've lowered my fertilization schedule, shortened the photoperiod, and I have So Many Ramshorn snails right now that they literally don't have enough to eat it looks like (it's a little sad how many shells there are on the bottom of the tank, I need to supplement with more food if I want to keep more alive longer). So right now I don't have what I'd call 'issues' with algae. I do have some algae here and there but that's a natural part of having an aquarium.

[arcaneboner]

Just had a coworker say that she's looking to get rid of a 10 gallon tank~ every tank I get I'll need a contingency plan for if there's a power outage, sure. But tanks will be pretty easy it's extension cords for the battery generator that'll be hard.

A 10 gallon is PERFECT for adfs! I don't even have to lower the water levell!!!

Sooo that leads to the new plan,

5 gallon: invertabrate tank, ramshorns, cherry shrimp, ghost shrimp, and/or cpo crayfish

10 gallon: african dwarf frogs!!!! Maybe amano shrimp or snails with them. Not too many I'm all about low stocking options now.

20 gallon: pea puffer maybe a trio if I'm willing to chance there being too many males. And see how my kuhli loaches do with them

20 gallon: betta and a snail and maybe some amano shrimp. Weirdly enough, amano shrimp are cheaper and easier to come by than dwarf varieties that breed faster

[kedreeva]

went to petco today to look for some rosies, but apparently there’s a fucking??? rosie??? shortage??? anyway they had a FUCKTON of trumpet snails all over in their tanks and I was like ??? how much for those pests and the dude was like “rabbit snails are $9″ and I was like no those aren’t rabbit snails, and I showed him the rabbit snails and he called a manager and the manager was like “those are pest snails” and I said “Yes I know, how much are they?” and he said “you can have them free, they are *pest* snails. You do know they will breed out of control and get into your filter and-” yes yes, I’m aware!! give me as many as you can reasonably fit into a bag!! those fuckers are like $0.10-$1 anywhere else and my stupid fucking crayfish think they are fine dining. I’ve bought them like 6 times because they like to stir up gravel which is really good for a tank but I can’t keep them alive in a tank because mr. and mrs. snail hoover over here eat them all in short order. Anyway they gave me 100 of them.

[rural-siren]

Here's some pictures of my new betta, in chronological order. Store purchase, during acclimation to tank water, the whole tank, in-tank at night, and the last one is from today, which is day 3. He's a very active and hungry boy, trying to eat everything, but he's quickly learning what is not food and who the giver of food is. He still needs a name, too... The shrimp are very scared of him and hiding a lot, but he hasn't gone after them beyond looking and I see a few of them at a time when I put food in. These plants are growing very slowly. I wonder if I should get more? Might help them feel more at ease.

[nurgletwh]

@buglife, here are a few photos of my over abundance of cherry shrimp. I don’t do anything to select for the truly red ones or anything, so they run the gamut from nearly wild-type to solid red.

Also, a token couple of photos of one of the Amano shrimp still kicking around; I have five if my count the other night was accurate. For whatever reason, the Amanos all had the zoomies (but not the cherries).

And a baby rabbit snail! They are adorable, and durable. I have what may be an over-abundance of them as well, but since they breed slowly (once every 4-5 weeks) they aren’t going quite as bonkers. I only have ten or twelve of them. xD But! If you look them up and think one would work in your tank, I can include one of the babies. They get to around 3” long when fully grown, although they take quite a while to get there. This one is about ½”. I like their snoots.

Oh, and a fair warning, the odds are that if I send the shrimp with the java moss they love, you’ll end up with a selection of my rather sad ramshorn snails as well as probably some malaysian trumpet snails. Neither of them are bad, but some people don’t like either of them. I still have to look up how to ship the little dudes, although I’m certain the first bullet point will be something like ‘don’t ship on Friday.’ xD

[discothebetta]

My New Paludarium Project

Hey all! I know I’ve mentioned starting a new project a few times, and some of you are excited to see it. I usually do a project over the summer. Last year I set up the cube, and this year I’m going to be transforming my ten gallon into a paludarium! This is going to be Wendigo’s new home, as well as possibly a few other creatures.

Originally this was a betta biotope project, but evolved into this. The water portion will probably be very similar to a betta’s natural habitat, but the terrestrial portion is up in the air at this point.

I am planning on using most of the equipment I have now, but I’m going to be building a custom filter for this tank so I can build a waterfall under the output. I’m also going to see if I can find a used plant light at an upcoming fish expo near me.

Here are some possible designs that I have come up with:

Of course I’m going to have Wendigo in the water portion. Other inhabitants that I’m considering include CPOs, Amano Shrimp, Nerites, Mystery Snails, Blue or Pink Ramshorn Snails, or a small school of ember tetras (obviously I wouldn’t be adding all of these, probably just one of two). I’d love to have something living in the terrestrial portion but I’m not sure what, if anything, would work. From what I’ve read praying mantis and poison dart frogs could be options, but again, I’m not sure.

I’m going to be slowly collecting things over the next few months, and I’ll probably start building the hardscape and setting up the scape in June. I’m considering filming the entire process. If you’d like to see videos of this, let me know!

If anyone would like the see and/or comment on my project notes, they are here.

[hella-free-space]

Hello, I have a male betta fish, named Blue. I have no other tank mates for him, yet, but may wish to get a sand for his ten gallon tank that I have him in. Do you know if white sand is safe if I plan on getting marimo plants? Or should I keep the gravel I have now. He's been in the tank alone for three months now since I've had him, and hes much better since the cup he came home in. Do you recommend sand, tank mates, or marimo plants? I hope to upgrade his home and am slightly nervous.

Hey there @creepylupaboi ! :DDo you know if white sand is safe if I plan on getting marimo plants?White sand is safe for any plants, fish, inverts, etc. As long as its made for aquariums, you shouldn’t have to worry about anything leaching into the water :p I hear you can also use blasting sand and pool filter sand but I haven’t personally used either. I have the Imagitarium brand sand in 2 of my tanks (black and white) and I like it so far :) Sometimes when I roll my marimos over or move them around the tank, they pick up a little bit of sand, but the sand I have doesn’t stick to them if I shake them off :pOr should I keep the gravel I have now.Marimos can be kept on any substrate ^-^ gravel, large stones, small stones, river rocks, sand, shells (don’t put real shells in a betta aquarium tho), or barebottom :pDo you recommend sand, Substrate is a matter of personal preference! Pick whatever you think looks good :) Some fish require sand or bare bottom tanks (like cories or goldfish), but bettas do well with any substrate :)tank mates,I personally think that a tank with just one betta looks a little empty (personal preference, nothing wrong with a 1-betta-only tank :D) so I put snails in all of my betta tanks ^-^ Shrimp and snails are the best choices for smaller betta setups, but in a 10-20+ gallon tank you could do some fish as well if you wanted to, and since you mentioned you wanted to upgrade your bettas home, I’d say you could definitely have 1-2 schools/shoals of fish if your betta is chill and doesn’t becomes stressed in a community-tank type setting :D Here’s an excerpt from my betta care guide regarding tankmates:

I’ll preface this section by stating that bettas don’t need tankmates! :) Tankmates are more for you than for your fish, and should be chosen carefully.

Tankmates in General:-please remember to make sure that your tank is suitable for the tank mates you wish to house; you wouldn’t keep your betta in a 1 gallon unfiltered/unheated tank, so don’t do the equivalent to your betta’s tankmates  your fish are all equal, so please, please, please make sure that you put in the same amount of research and care for the tankmates that you do for your betta! make sure your tank mates have the same requirements are your betta, and their temperament won’t put your betta at risk.-ALWAYS DO RESEARCH ON THE SPECIES YOURE CONSIDERING BEFORE PURCHASING!! :)-always have a backup plan in case your tankmates don’t get along with your betta, or your betta doesn’t get along with his tankmates -a 20 gallon is the best minimum choice for a community-style betta tank, as it opens up more options and gives your betta and his/her tankmates plenty of space!-be prepared to separate/rehome/etc. “problem fish” or a “problem betta”. if your betta isn’t really the community type, don’t try to force him/her to be; it won’t work out well for anyone. Get that betta an individual setup as soon as possible, or if your tank is large enough, divide it so that your betta has his/her own space. Corydoras:shoaling, 6+ to a group - keeping them in groups smaller than this will stress them to death…literally sometimes10+ gallons (dwarf/pygmy), 20+ gallons (regular)tropical, lots of species to choose fromsand/barebottom is a MUST - p they have soft bellies and sensitive barbels, and gravel can scratch up their bellies (which leads to stress or infection) or damage their barbels o.o also, they sift through sand to find little bits of food naturally, so sand lets them display this natural behavior and you get to see it too!Rasboras:schooling, 6+ to a school – keeping them in schools smaller than this will stress out the fish10-20+ gallons – depending on the speciestropical, lots of species to choose fromnote: “galaxy rasboras” are NOT rasboras (true rasboras belong to the boraras genus). Galaxy rasboras are actually a species of danio (other common name: celestial pearl danio) and are not tropical.Snails:under 10 gallons: nerites, ramshorns, horned nerites, and other small snails10+ gallons: mystery snails & other snails listed above – mystery snails get quite large and have a bioload as large, if not larger, than your betta’s, so a mystery snail is more suited to living in a 10 gallon tank than in something smallershrimp:not all bettas are “shrimp-safe”, meaning that if you want to try shrimp, you should be prepared for the worst case scenario: your betta eats them! if youre okay with the possibility that you may lose some shrimp, then i suggest starting out with a few shrimp.Amano shrimp are larger, great for algae, should be kept in groups of at least 3-5cherry shrimp (and other neocardinia sp.) are hardy, but small (most likely to be a tasty snack). They are super colorful/many variations to choose from tho!ghost shrimp can actually be nippy, so I’d recommend against them, even though they’re pretty cheap~putting shrimp in a 2.5 gallon tank is doable, but a 5 gallon tank would be much better since it would give you more space to provide lots of hiding places for the shrimp :)otocinclus:do best in groups, 3+ - they’re not traditional shoaling or schooling fish, but are still social20+ gallons - otos are sensitive to water qualityif your tank doesn’t have a ton of algae for them to eat, then I suggest supplementing their diet with cucumbers/zucchini/algae wafers/etc. 　plecos:tank size depends completely on the species your considering, there are a ton!! Even the smaller species of pleco have minimums of 30-40+ gallons, so keep that in mind :) I suggest supplementing their diet with cucumbers/zucchini/algae wafers/etc. ember tetras:schooling, 6+ to a school – keeping the in schools smaller than this will stress out the fish10+ gallons – they do ok in a 10, but would prefer a 15 (long) or a 20 gallon! 

or marimo plants?I love marimos! I have a TON :D I definitely recommend them ^-^ when looking for places to buy from, though, do your best to purchase healthy ones~ I’m not too good at reviving/saving the ones that have started to brown, so I try to look for ones with little to no brown spots and a bright green color :D

I hope to upgrade his home and am slightly nervous.It’s great that you’re looking to upgrade and I’m glad that Blue is doing much better since he’s come home with you! :D Don’t be nervous about upgrading, it’s a good thing! /* If anyone has any changes/corrections/suggestions to make, feel free to reblog/comment/let me know :) */

[sethmcfartin]

The first shrimp have landed. Have a single amano in there and 2 cherries for the moment :) Also an assassin snail to clear out the many ramshorns in here. Hopefully now the anubias will bounch back, they always get hurt pretty bad by hair algae. Also my scape looks better from the side lol

[witchyfishyfun]

How many fish do you have?

UhhhhhhhhhhhWell I personally have three betta: Archer (M), Spyro (M), and Cynder (F)Then I have a 33 gallon long with a mixed school of long finned leopard and zebra danio. I think there's more than twenty but they move so quickly.... and a dwarf neon gourami, Graverobber (M).Then my roommate has two more betta Oscar 1 and Oscar 2, both male.A 46g bowfront with a parrot cichlid and a school of 9 giant danioAnd a 29g with a school of 11 skirt tetra.Additionally, I have 8 amano shrimp and 2 golden snails and many assassin and ramshorn snails. And then 8 hermit crabs.Ya yay petttssssssssss c:

[geraskier]

fish update:

shrimp tank is thriving after the move. i drained about half the water out into a bucket with a tight lid, and drove bucket and tank over to my new house. both the hanging and sponge filters were sitting in tank water. set the tank down, poured the bucket water back in, and plugged in filters + lights (no heater in this tank). i've seen multiple amanos and the ghost shrimp, and no pinkish corpses so i think we still have everyone! BEAUTIFUL copper and bronze ramshorns.

i moved colgate toothpaste's tank the same way. he's still very active, eats, pesters his snails, etc. manicured his plants to give him more wiggle room. his fins are growing back well from when he tore them a while ago. metallic brown ramshorns.

steve rogers is...well. he got fin rot, and i started treating him, but i feel guilty i didn't notice fast enough bc he lost a bit of his tail fins :( he swims around more now, he seems more responsive to his environment. however he's having some kind of buoyancy issue where he can't swim downward much. he doesn't *appear* bloated, but i'm hesitant to cut back on food bc he seems to have pepped up after eating more. gonna buy some daphnia and soak it in garlic guard and cross my fingers. i think i culled the ramshorns??? there are only bladder snails and a nerite in this tank.

clive barker is SOOOO lively!!! i swear i saw him trying to blow bubbles earlier. he's a tiny lil man but he loves flaring at his ramshorn snails for no reason. always poking his head around every corner of the tank, coloring looks great, definitely recovered from the fungal infection he had earlier in the year. ramshorns are brown + heavily dappled with white.

haven't been as attentive to my 10 gal fish lately. i maintain the tank, obvi, but i haven't kept up with the behavioral quirks of the platies and endlers like i do with the bettas. i have 2 platies and 4 endlers now; one day one of the yellow endlers disappeared and i never found the body. :/ tiny lil SOBs. the ramshorns in this one are bronze-brown, some with spots.

everyone is the 29 gal is healthy and happy!! the cories and b.n. pleco are chubby and frisky, ember tetras are good, danios are zippy and nippy, but their attention is divided between all 6 tetras, and there's a lovely understory of cryptocorynes and hygrophila for hiding spots. again i haven't kept up with the fertilizer schedule so i lost some tiger lotus + sword leaves, and i've given up on getting the lloydiella to look right. the impeller in the 90 dollar u.v. HOB filter is jacked up and i don't have the patience to fix it rn so i got a penguin filter on sale. when i have the energy after it's moved i need to do a deep clean of the plants cause the dwarf hygro is choking out everything else. shimmery brown with dark brown spots re: ramshorns? there aren't as many as you'd think; my theory is the rabbit snails have a monopoly on snail food supply, and there's also 6 bottom feeding fish to consider.

[kedreeva]

what animals do you all have?! I just saw your shrimp post. So you have chickens, peafowl, mice, shrimp... do you breed them all? or is chicken just for eggs and sweetness?

Most of the chickens currently at my house are rescues, we don’t mean to have them. I have 5 chickens I meant to have (Sour, Starburst, Dottie, Tanner, and Wilma), and four of them are just pets (they lay eggs, but we mostly don’t even eat them). Tanner will be bred once I have some appropriate hens for him, but that will only be 2-3 of them. We’ll probably end up keeping a few of the new rescue hens, but they’ll be just pets, too.

As for the rest, we have cats (Lenore and Aislynn), peafowl (Aurora, Stan, Artemis, Orion, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Eclipse, Aris, Helios, Arcana, Io, and Callisto), a turkey (Joslin), quail (pet bobwhites that we’re working on licensing to breed), mice (siamese and mallowmese), fish (guppies and plecos), shrimp (amano and neocaridina), snails (ramshorn, bladder, mystery, and malaysian trumpet), and crayfish (one wild-caught rusty and her baby, and a blue marbled one in a separate tank).

We’ve had a lot of plans put on hold for the fish tanks since the pandemic started, and a lot of house and bird pen plans halted as well, while we wait to schedule getting work done. We plan to get the quail into a bigger pen for breeding (after we get out permit for breed and release, since they’re a native species... right now we can only legally hold  <12 as pets), and turn one of our bedrooms into a brooding and rodent room, and then get the crayfish into the lowboy tank so they’ll have floor space (although tbh, they might like where they are at better, so the plecos and shrimp might get the lowboy since they won’t climb out...).

You can always find info on all of my pets in the “/my pets” tag on my blog.

[hella-free-space]

Hello! I have a couple questions I was hoping you could help with, I keep getting really mixed answers online. How do I feed my betta frozen food from the little blister pack things that have bloodworms or mysis shrimp? Also, do you have any recommendations for stocking a 10 or 20 g? I want to get another tank besides my betta but I want to try and expand because I've had many bettas in the past. Thank you!

Hi there anon! thanks for the ask :D hopefully I can be of some help to you ^-^How do I feed my betta frozen food from the little blister pack things that have bloodworms or mysis shrimp?I actually had to ask this question myself a few weeks ago :p the most helpful answer that I got was: pop out a whole cube from the pack, take a hot knife and cut off a small piece of the cube. Put the rest of the frozen cube back in the little blister pack (put the whole pack of food in a baggie of some sort) and put that back in the freezer. Then take that little bit that you cut off and defrost it in dechlorinated water, and feed the worms of shrimp to your fish! :p i used some tongs to feed mine and my fish loved it! :D

Also, do you have any recommendations for stocking a 10 or 20 g? I want to get another tank besides my betta but I want to try and expand because I’ve had many bettas in the past. Thank you!You’re welcome!! :) this ask also helped me to compile a list of things that I might wanna stock in a 10 or a 20 since that’s the size of aquarium I’ll most likely be getting when I am able to (i have 3 and 5 gallon tanks rn since I move at least 1x a year…and moving larger tanks is more work!) :p so thank YOU anon :)The stock I list below (for both 10 and 20 gallon tanks) are not necessarily all compatible with each other. Some of these fish are much hardier, and therefore easier to keep, than other fish. Some require schools, some require a species-only tank, others require tropical or temperate waters. Please research thoroughly any species you are interested in keeping before purchasing! :D

Stocking a 10 Gallon:– FISH –- ember tetras- micro rasboras- most rasboras- white cloud mountain minnows- celestial pearl danios (aka ‘galaxy rasboras’)- guppies- endlers- least killifish- lyretail killifish- clown killifish- dwarf pencilfish- german rams (golden, electric blue, etc. if you want to add other species, a 30+ gallon is required)- pea puffer (aka dwarf puffer, pygmy puffer, indian pea puffer)- gold neon dwarf goby (either one or a pair only, a group requires 30+ gal)- scarlet badis- bumble bee goby- peacock goby- sparkling gourami- hara jerdoni (asian stone mini catfish)- pygmy corydoras (aka dwarf corydoras)- african dwarf frog (not a fish, but still super cute; not to be confused with african clawed frog)– INVERTEBRATES –- neocardinia shrimp- cardinia shrimp- Singapore flower shrimp - amano shrimp- ghost shrimp- dwarf crayfish- thai micro crabs- horned nerite snails- nerite snails- mystery snail (one or two)- ramshorn snails

Stocking a 20 Gallon:–FISH–- all fish mentioned above- most smaller, slim-bodied tetras (neons, cardinals, pristella, etc.)- most smaller 2-3″ barbs (tiger, cherry, etc.)- zebra danios- most regular cordora species (some larger species require 30+ gal)- dwarf chain loaches- kuhli loaches (i love these noodles so much - dwarf gouramis (pearl, blue, sunset, etc.)- apistogramma cacatuoides–INVERTEBRATES–- all invertebrates mentioned above- vampire shrimp- panther crabsThat’s all my brain has got for you Anon! :p hopefully this helped you out some ^-^ Feel free to add onto this stock list or make corrections :)