u/shrimpalasteph

Not sure if this is a snail that needs saving from a cycling tank or like bladder snails that don’t seem to care what I do with them.

Trying to break up line of sight for the fish and create some nooks and crannies for the shrimp. Still not sure how to feed the snails and shrimp their calcium tablets where the fish won’t injure themselves to get to it. Tucking it between rocks or under driftwood ain’t workin, lol, the platies are relentless

*second pic is a “before” shot though it cuts off the left side of the tank

The 3 platies have been in this formerly invertebrate tank since Tuesday last week. I’m still vibing out how they look after feeding but I feel like there’s a weird goldilocks game going in on.

The concerns are:
Does the Ken have intestinal parasites?
Does Bruce have a swim bladder problem developing?

Ken, big red tuxedo, never really eats a lot and mostly guards the food. He always looks fairly sleek after feedings, never pleasantly plump or bloated. At feedings, he is spirited, and he was the first to correlate me with food.

The second biggest, an unnamed marigold, eats so well and is not just fast but perceptive. Every meal, he eats the most and looks pleasantly full- except the one time he got 5/6 bloodworms I was trying to feed to everyone. He was rotund (and thrilled) but he slimmed right down by the next morning. We should call this guy Goldilocks cus he’s doing just right.

The smallest platy, a black/gold juvenile we call Bruce, started looking plumper after every meal. He managed to fit in the spot I hid a calcium tablet for the inverts and the three of them demolished it. I fed part of an algae wafer after soaking and dried algae the following two days. After feeding a small amount of Bug Bites today he had a long, thick chalky stool as well as some brown normal stools after. The snails ate his poop right away, it gone.

Bruce’s growing plumpness, however, remains problematic. Last night, I saw him trying to escape the back corner between a plant, the bubbler, and the glass. He kinda stuck in the bubbler and tossed around for a moment so I intervened by sweeping the water away from the bubbler. He was swept free and seemed dazed but fully righted himself. Then I cleared the corner a bit. Lil guy is doing me a big concern.

Honestly, until I get the vibe of things, I’m just not gonna be chill. Any info is greatly welcomed and appreciated!

TLDR: had 3 platies for 1 week.
Biggest platy isn’t eating well and stays slim but not looking thin, shows interest in food and seems to eat- parasites?
Smallest platy eats great but always stays bloated. Everyone into a calcium tablet 2 days ago, fed plant matter for 2 days and smallest platy passed chalky stools followed by brown, still bloated- swim bladder?

The racer was a little inactive and I was starting to worry since his tank looks a bit too clean. I read about cultivating algae on rocks for otocinclus and tried it for the snails. The first time I put an algae rock in their tanks, it was cleaned spotless by the shrimp in 5 minutes 🙄 The nerites never even saw it.

I tested things out in a cup and success! The racer nerite popped right out and snacked. So I put them in a tiny tank overnight with their own rocks and returned them to their tanks this morning. Not sure how well this strategy will keep them fed but at least I know the racer has had something to eat and seems to be active this morning.

Edit: Added the how, sorry the link doesn’t really cover it! I must have read about this somewhere else 😬

I placed landscaping pond rocks in a container on the porch (picture 3). I drop in some fertilizer and a tiny bit of food or dirty tank water to feed. This was my first time seeing if the nerite snails would eat and this arrangement has issues I wanna troubleshoot since it was successful.

Water temp above 85F slows or kills algae
- larger container volume
- move to a spot with 4 hours of morning light
Evaporation
- top off with rainwater/distilled/RO
- again, larger container volume
- cover with a vented lid
Possible mosquito larvae in standing water
- cover opening/lid with mesh
- add a bubbler (already have an air-pump for the 15 gal patio pond)

This strategy is easier to maintain indoors with a clear container of rocks in a window that gets 4-8 hours of light. Top off with distilled/RO and do partial water changes weekly with liquid fertilizer. You can jazz it up with plant cuttings so it’s aesthetic but the algae wants tons of light and nutrients. If you add cuttings, go with slow growers like a variegated pothos so the algae doesn’t have compete.

They didn’t ask me if I wanted to farm them but the blood worms already started showing up in the tanks since some midge flies got inside and frikked all over the house. The platies hunted down most of the ones they could find in their tank, which is nice!

But I found some fat, live bloodworms in the bowl of rocks I’m growing algae on. So I thought, why not? They already get a wild source of bloodworms right in their substrate, whether I like it or not. And I do love to feed the fish! They’re learning about tongs so not everyone was brave enough this round. The marigold sure was fast though. No matter how hard I tried to stop that him, dude ate 5. The red tuxedo got 1, and the little black and gold guy got a big fat none 😂

I am trying some strategies to make sure the smallest platy eats and he’s a plump boy after feeding but by far the smallest and least likely to get the good stuff.

“More shrimp babies? Who, me?” 👉👈
She’s with another female but she does all the reproductive lifting alone 😂 her second batch took 25 days from molt to fry hatch yesterday, which seems to be consistent with her first round.

There’s one unviable egg still stuck in the gluey stuff that holds them between the pleopods. Everything will be shed with her next molt. Then she’ll probably saddle up for round 3 so we can race to see what I’ll do with all of the babies from her first batch. There are 25 juveniles with the 3 adults in a 3 gal (realistically 2.5 gal volume).

And now, however many fry 😳

I removed the blue platy that was harassing his tank-mates non-stop.

I wasn’t even planning on fish for this 10 gallon invertebrate tank and I’ve never kept fish before. I went to the LFS for mosquito fish to put in our patio pond and they caught me a mix of 5 different colored fish from the tank labeled Gambusia mosquito fish. The males were black/gold and sunset orange, the females were soft peach to gray.

I thought it was awesome that mosquito fish came in cool color morphs but I hadn’t really looked into much beyond their basic care and temperature tolerance. I wasn’t going to be able to see them in the pond beneath the floaters- why would I search for cool color morphs? And with how many hobbyists have started their own breeding experiments, it made sense to me that someone somewhere had bred mosquito fish for specific traits.

All of that to say, once I realized they were platy fish- a few hours after dripping them into the pond and trying to read about mosquito fish varieties online- I made an impulsive decision. Since they couldn’t stay outdoors year round here, I would take them all back except the cutest and spunkiest one. The resources I read advised keeping a male platy solo would be better than keeping just 2-3 but 4 platies would be ideal, socially. The 10 gallon felt big for the 1 young platy but 4 seemed like too many. A male and females was out of the question in a 10 gallon.

The next day, I caught the little black/gold male and dripped him into my 10 gallon. He began hunting and eating tiny fauna through the tank and exploring, like he had in the pond with the others. So, I packed up his buddies to go back to the LFS.

When I returned (with actual mosquito fish), the little dude was distraught. I immediately tested the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate which were all 0. I recalled that he was zipping along the glass by the side of the tank where he could see the other platies packed to return to the LFS. It gave me pause but I thought perhaps these guys acclimate to solo living in time.

After hours of seeing him glass surf in distress, I was getting stressed. I went to the Petco 15 minutes before they closed and got 3 more platies. Two were much larger but the blue platy was just about his size. Upon joining the tank, all 4 hid when I would observe so I left them alone for an hour.

When I came back, the OG black/gold guy was in hiding, resting on the heater. That made me uncomfortable so I raised it up and he hid down below it. The blue platy was tailing the larger marigold like they were best friends which seemed cute at first. Then it became constant nipping and chasing the smallest guy any time he tried to come out and graze. The red tuxedo didn’t seem to get grief from anyone and has been so calm the whole time.

I just don’t think there are enough plants and sight line breaks for a 10 gallon to work with a bully. I’m also concerned about filtration with so many fish added at once. I have a 15 gallon cube to set up that I guess I’ll be building around their needs so I can get the blue platy back inside before temps drop to 60F. In the mean time, the two female mosquito fish should be better at managing his pestering.

Sorry to blather, it’s just been a lot to process since Monday and Tuesday was my birthday 😮‍💨 🥳

There was a case of mistaken identity at the LFS and through a series of impulsive events following, I added 4 male platys to this 10 gallon invertebrate tank of cherry shrimp, amano, and snails. The silver platy has bullied the smallest guy into hiding and now seems to be on an escalating mission of violence against the marigold. There was a hot 15 minutes a bit after this video where he was so persistent that I considered removing him.

Tank is 10 gal standard, lightly dirted, thin sand cap, and root tabs. Variety of plants, two air stones, aqueon hob filter with their filter cartridge, biomedia, and sponge. Driftwood and almond leaves are leaching tannins. Tank is by windows with lots of light- shades are lowered and curtains closed while they acclimate. Grow light is a cheap little aqueon with blue and white leds. The tank has some good meiofauna, including tubifex and bloodworms, but algae green hydra that I previously managed with feeding strategies. Water is remineralized ro/di, I have salty shrimp, both GH and GH/KH+, as well as seachem alkaline buffer.

Parameters are:
NH₃/NH₄⁺ = 0
NO₂⁻ = 0
NO₃⁻ = 0
GH = 6
KH = 6
pH = 8.0

Is the murder platy just doing normal platy things? The others seem pretty cute and mellow but the silver guy has been high energy/borderline neurotic.

On an aside, is GH too low? And I may have overfed on their first feeding and I didn’t pre-soak the flakes but I read that I should. Not sure how managing the hydra will go now, with the way these guys eat.

The males are frantically searching for a saddled female who consequently hasn’t been able to graze for a while. There are two berried females and five males chasing the last female. Yesterday, I went by the LFS and they managed to scrounge up 3 more blue females from their skittles tank- one of which seemed a little listless but was alive after a nice long acclimation. That makes the adult male/female ratio about 2:1 in the tank, with a total of 15 adults I think 😭 This blue dream colony was purchased from a local hobbyist so they were basically fry still when I got them and things have ended up lopsided af

Would you:
Let it ride? (Lol, cus saddles, y’know? Sorry, I’ll see myself out)
Cull undesirable males? (LFS takes them for store credit)
A third secret option I don’t know about?

I lost 3 berried females after moving their tank to a new (badly needed) shelf last night. This came after resolving a week of pH issues from adding too many almond leaves at once. The other 20+ shrimp tolerated the transition well and the last berried female is thriving (pic 6 of 9).

The blues produced one odd baby. Try to spot the orange-headed step child in the last pic- it shouldn’t be hard 😂

I was trying to offer the nerite some algae/biofilm from a bowl I use for cleaning and holding plants or substrate. The water came from tap but it’s been sitting out for days (hence the algae). The nerite wasn’t having my nonsense when offered the green slime in a cup with tank water. It seemed happier with whatever was on the tank’s leaf litter when I released him from my torment.

But the shrimp? Fuggggin yom. I became entranced watching one eat the bright green bits. So now I’m farming this stuff like I mean it- added rocks for the film to grow on and pop them in the tank once they’re green, rotating them back out to the bowl as they get cleaned up to keep some available on demand. Ramshorn snails were super into it as well- just got these silvery babies from my best friend 😊

Saw her contemplating evolution and tried to offer her a helping pinky.

My proud, fertile parents of about 10 new fry delivered July 15th. She molted a week later, saddled up a couple days ago, and here we are today 😂 Lady, take a break, it’s just a 3 gallon tank! At this rate, she’ll be reproducing about every 30 days 😅 I do have plans for a 15 gallon community tank for the time when the yellow sakura finally succumbs to a male’s charms and the population explosion begins in earnest. Maybe she’ll set her sights on one of the fry since these two adults I purchased with her have never warmed up to her. Ahhh, these are the days of our shrimp.

This little guy was seen in my 10 gallon planted tank. Substrate is small amount of soil sourced from my yard capped with sand. Floaters came from my 15 gallon patio pond- also dirted and planted.
Inhabitants are bladder snails, 3 adult ramshorns and some offspring, 1 MTS, 1 nerite, 2 Amano, 12 Neocaridina, and midge fly larvae (aka bloodworms).

The nerite is newest addition. It came from the LFS, added to the tank a week or two ago. I haven’t quarantined anything before adding to the tank so “surprises” like this aren’t new. There’s plenty of meiofauna, the most noxious being some green hydra that I managed with reduced feedings. TIA for any helpful information!

Feeling optimistic that there are enough live fry for me to spot 3 of these babies- just 24 hours after release!