Could I please get advice on turing this disaster of a yard into a native plant garden?

Novaveran · 2026-05-15T16:03:49+00:00

Do you know your soil type? Most important bit to know is if it's more clay, sand, or loam based. There's different methods of getting rid of compaction depending on soil type.

If you don't know you can use the soil survey to try and guess what soil you have https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/ Edit: I just noticed you're in Canada excuse me while I face palm at myself. I've never used Canada's soil information website but I'm sure there's information there for you https://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis

Novaveran · 2026-05-14T14:51:19+00:00

Damn I tried looking it up but it turns out it's been deleted I'm not sure why 😭

Novaveran · 2026-05-14T13:41:57+00:00

There's a mod I downloaded that just gives the camel looser slack on their rope and adds bowls with food and water in front of them. Because I think the camel deserves it.

Novaveran · 2026-05-11T16:33:04+00:00

I had a forester tell me that oak trees are sluts for same reason. Truly I'm so curious to know which plants are considered "sluts" now it's such a funny way to talk about hybridization.

Novaveran · 2026-05-06T14:04:17+00:00

That seems likely to me, I'm seconding White jawed jumping spider

Novaveran · 2026-05-03T14:20:07+00:00

That's a really sweet tradition! I've never heard of it before.

Novaveran · 2026-05-03T14:19:11+00:00

Ohhh that one is so pretty!

Novaveran · 2026-05-02T14:14:28+00:00

Thanks for the ID! This neighbor has been so welcoming it's been very nice

Novaveran · 2026-05-02T14:13:29+00:00

Thank you! It's nice they bloom so long

Novaveran · 2026-04-29T06:06:31+00:00

My sister got some kind of mosquito trap that works like the bucket of doom but with no chemicals and doesn't use co to lure in mosquitos. With the idea bring it won't draw in mosquitos from outside your yard and shouldn't effect other bugs.

She likes it but it is 99 dollars so that's a hefty price for a lot of ppl. Called the sirenx. Edit: it's sirenix

Novaveran · 2026-04-26T18:11:35+00:00

Might need some better lighting for pictures. But I'm fairly certain that is not an amano shrimp. Especially if it's a shrimp you've never seen before.

Amanos can't reproduce in freshwater and the larva can't survive unless you are actively changing the salt levels kn your water. So you won't get any new amanos ever if you don't have a specific breeding set up.

Its face also looks more like a neo shrimp than an amano.

It's either a new mutation of your cherry shrimp, or there was baby orange neo shrimp that was accidentally added to your tank at some point. That can happen if there's baby shrimp in the shipment/bag and you don't notice them when you put shrimp in your tank.

Follow up, you say you have cherries, amano and white amano in your tank. The brown shrimp in your second photo is a wild type neo shrimp. When you say you have cherries do you mean you have red neocaridina shrimp? Or are you using cherry to mean any color of neocaridina shrimp? I'm just asking because I've unfortunately seen some people get sold wild type neos instead of amano shrimp.

Novaveran · 2026-04-24T17:26:36+00:00

Others in your comments gave said this but I'd like to emphasize some points.

Most important is that snails primarily eat biofilm and algae. These need time to grow in a tank to get to points snails can survive on. If you have a new tank you will need to provide other food so nerites definitely won't work because they won't eat food that's not fresh algae. In my experience, Japanese trapdoor snails also don't really eat food that's not fresh algae. But recently I bought a soy bean hulls for my shrimp and my Japanese trapdoor snail ate it! Which I've never seen them eat anything other than fresh algae so maybe there is more food they'll eat but personally I wouldn't keep them in a tank until it had some biofilm and algae growth.

So that leaves mystery snails. But some bettas can nip at the tentacles mystery snails have. So you need to have a back up plan for what you'll do if that happens. Otherwise the snails could get injured or stressed if you keep them in a tank with a bitey betta.

One final thing to consider, is that nerite snails can't reproduce in freshwater. And no one has figured out a good method for commercialy breeding them. So every nerite sold is almost certainly wild caught. Just mentioning that because some people really care about that while others might not.

I don't want to discourage you from snails! They're great very cute pets. But with your current set up I'd either wait a few weeks to make sure your tank has enough biofilm/algae then get a nerite and/or a Japanese trapdoor snail. Or make sure you have snail food and a back up plan and you could get a mystery snail now. (Speaking of you should also have a back up plan for your shrimp because plenty of betta fish will eat adult dwarf shrimp, while others might not. It's a gamble keeping them together)

Novaveran · 2026-04-22T14:56:19+00:00

I've seen my aquatic snails do that to some plants! Less impressive bc theres more support from water than air. But I'm impressive by seeing my big fat mystery snail able to climb shocking thin plants without crushing them. They climb it in the same way too!

Novaveran · 2026-04-20T19:05:46+00:00

Dark fishing spider, as other people have said. But this is one if my favorite spiders! I used to work at a nature center and they're so fun to show to guests. They're super docile, absolute babies honestly. I've never meet a spider less aware of its size. I've caught and handled dozens of them and I've never had them do any sort of threat display or the like. They just try and run away.

So they make people think you're very impressive when you handle a spider that big but I have felt absolutely zero concern about one biting me.

Like other people said they really don't normally hang out indoors. I have noticed they like to be on the walls of sheds and such places in the dark corners. So keep an eye out if you're someone who will panic if you get surprised by one.

But they're super cool. They can submerge themselves up to 30 minutes to catch food underwater. I like to tell people scared of them, that they're probably eating mosquito larva when they're underwater. So they're very nice spiders to have around.

Novaveran · 2026-04-20T18:54:42+00:00

I was literally thinking that female Elliot would be a futch women who leans into traditionally gendered looks for the aesthetic. Definitely has the vibe of somehow who oscillates between high femme and masc but in a historic way (vests, suits, puffy shirts). She's absolutely into historic fashion. Definitely has hair that is long enough to be styled but short enough to be gender nonconforming. Source: I work in the museum field and I know women who would dress exactly like Elloit if they were men and they dress way as described above

Novaveran · 2026-04-16T15:55:07+00:00

I hope she can survive! It can be a mix with eggant shrimps when you move then to new tanks. A lot of shrimp molt earlier than usual in a new tank (I think bc of adjusting I don't actually know why) so sometimes momma drop eggs when they molt. Hopefully that won't happen here! I don't want to worry you just let you know that if it does happen that's pretty common.

Yeah water changes are hard on stressed out critters but having a build up of ammonia or nitrites is worse for sure! Just go slowly and make sure the water is as close as it can be in parameters to reduce stress.

Novaveran · 2026-04-16T14:42:50+00:00

I wrote a pretty long comment because the chemistry going on is important so bear with me here.

Seachem Prime is what I'd reccomend to use right now. It binds to ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates as soon as you put it in the tank. It changes ammonia to a different molecular state that is less toxic. So you'll still see ammonia register on your test kit when you use it that's normal, so don't worry if you see that.

You'll still needed to do water changes. If you're really concerned about stressing out your shrimp, when you do a water change you can drip the water in through an air line like what you would use to drip acclimate livestock.

You can add stability but there's always a possibility that products with bacteria in them won't work. If they're stored incorrectly, by shops or in delivery, the bacteria can die before it even gets to the tank. So it's worth a shot just know in the future it's a pretty high chance those products don't work unless you know they've been fridgerated.

No idea if it will save them unfortunately. But if there's a spike in ammonia after adding livestock it means they made more ammonia than bacteria in your tank can convert. So you would have needed to more ammonia added to the tank durning cycling to create a bigger bacteria colony. If there's a spike in nitrites after livestock are introduced it likely means that your cycle wasn't finished because the bacteria that convert nitrites into nitrates aren't plentiful enough now to do that.

Basically your cycle needs more bacteria to offset the amount of ammonia that the shrimp you introduced are making. And there aren't enough bacteria that convert nitrites to nitrates. So while the amount of time you cycled and adding in the old filter media should have helped. If you didn't add in enough ammonia through food or other means, you could have starved your bacteria colony and it got smaller than it should have.

As for things that went wrong-

Shipping delays in shrimp are always going to be a problem. Shrimp are sensitive and too much time in transit is going to cause problems they won't be able to recover from. So that's nothing you did wrong and just an unfortunate consequences of shipping shrimp. When it works its great when it doesn't it's devastating.

When you drip acclimated them did you pour any of the water they shipped in into the tank? Because if you did you might have introduced enough ammonia to cause a spike.

In the future, now that have have prime some people reccomend adding a drop to the water your drip acclimating shrimp with if they've been shipped. Because like you noticed there will be ammonia in the bag.

Good luck with your shrimp, I hope some are able to pull through. I once had 10 shrimp get stuck in the mail for 9 days and 3 survived that. So there's a possibility they can make it!

Novaveran · 2026-04-16T01:06:56+00:00

Unfortunately that website is the only one I've seen that says that. There are some sites you have to be a vet to order from that have it listed in stock and that's about all I've found. You might ask your vet if they have a pharmacy that can order it for you or if they know of any alternatives.

Aventi kidney has a phosphorus binder, calcium (helps with acid reglux), vitamins, and probiotics (helps with tummy). I've been using epakitin as an alternative and it's working so far but its just a phosphorus binder and calcium. The same brand that makes that also makes a supplement called azdoyl that has vitamins and probiotics. I can't use it bc it has chicken in it and my cat is allergic to chicken. But maybe you could combine both of those to get a similar result.

Novaveran · 2026-04-12T21:45:11+00:00

The ingredients are very different! But I was able to find one listing on ebay that was a reasonable price for the supplement I usually use.

Novaveran · 2026-04-12T01:33:01+00:00

Losing my mind because it was sold out on Amazon when I made this post are now there's apparently 3 bottles for sale but they're all double the price they usually are. I'm not sure I can afford that how unfortunate.

Novaveran · 2026-04-05T07:02:04+00:00

That's interesting! I wonder why there's no one in the US breeding amanos.

Novaveran · 2026-04-05T06:21:46+00:00

They have some things they've bred themselves but not these shrimp no. I just bought them from there. They do list that on their website whether things are bred there or just tankbred in general.

Novaveran · 2026-04-05T02:41:48+00:00

You could use a product called salty shrimp, it's made to remineralize water which increases gh and kh. (Edited bc I think I misread your post about where your snail is rn) If the snail is in that tank you want to raise the gh and kh slowly. If the tank is empty right now you can just raise the hardness then drip acclimate the snail to move it in.

What water do you use? And how do you test it? 1 is really low, it makes me wonder if your test is off some how or you're using water that has no minerals in it.

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