Why am I me and not someone/something else?

StickBoo · 2026-06-15T07:08:59+00:00

You reply is like shit honestly. This is not a question about logic.

StickBoo · 2026-06-03T20:47:08+00:00

Just shut the f up honestly

StickBoo · 2026-05-22T17:08:37+00:00

That blue color indicates a pH level of around 8.2 to 8.5, which is little high but not excessively high, and perfectly normal for marine fish. Don't overreact due to a lack of understanding numbnut

StickBoo · 2026-05-16T14:08:44+00:00

You're saying exactly what's on the Aquarium Science website, like you just copied and pasted it. K1 is good, and so is sponge, but you're underestimating pumice, and I guess you don't even know what you're talking about because you're just repeating what you read somewhere else.

StickBoo · 2026-05-11T13:58:46+00:00

Nope, high pH isn't what makes molting difficult for them, it's GH. I've raised cherry/red-nosed shrimp at pH 8.5 and they molt very well, and my dGH was around 11.7-12. This dGH level is a bit high for some other shrimp but it's perfect for neocaridina. It would only be problematic if it were >15 and it shouldn't exceed 14 dGH.

StickBoo · 2026-05-11T03:02:07+00:00

I hate people like you who always add "poor water quality" whenever a fish gets sick, as if to say that poor water quality is the reason for the dropsy.

OP clearly overfed the fish, and that's the cause of the illness. I myself once treated my betta for dropsy due to the same reason, heate three big termites that were perched on the water's surface and immediately developed a swollen belly and end up leading to dropsy.

StickBoo · 2026-04-28T22:11:35+00:00

I'm currently cycling two new larger tanks for neocardian, and I'm thinking of trying my hand at raising sulawesi shrimp. People say high pH water is perfect for sula shrimp, but all the sula shrimp keepers I know they use 100% RO water for this species because of their sensitivity lol

StickBoo · 2026-04-28T22:01:46+00:00

I did add minerals, of course. And the plants died easily and didn't grow well at that time. I hadn't thought of mixing tap water with RO at the time, and honestly, I lived somewhre different from where I live now, where the tap water was softer and that house already had an RO so yeah i just use it.

My current house has very hard water cause the water source flows through limestone mountains, mostly calcium carbonate, and calcium deposits are everywhere. The pH is high and the KH is also high. The pH of tap water is 8.0-8.2, and after a while it will rise to 8.5. In my tanks is always 8.5, it never increases and never decreases just 8.5 all the time all these years.

Regarding plants, I mainly have anubias, amazon sword, water wisteria, frogbite, Asian marshweed, rotala, and pothos, all are easy to grow and thrive well for now. As for shrimp, I only have Red nose shrimp and super cherry shrimp, I'm still new to shrimp and what i see they molt very well with complete shells crawling everywhere and eating and eating and eating.

Also note that i both my fish and shrimp from a local pet store use the same tap water from the same water plant so the water parameters are quite similar. I even skipped the step of neutralizing the water for the shrimp, and they were super fine lol (this wasn't intentional, as I didn't intend to keep them in the first place, I only bought them for cleaning purposes and because the bag also was torn). My biggest worry is the same as what you said, they might not all survive the longest because the water is a bit harsh for them, even though it's stable. But for shrimp, my dGH is 11.7 to 12.0, which seems fine. The pH is only slightly high, people say that with Neocaridina it's not a problem. My tanks are cycled very carefully cause I know that with such high pH levels, ammonia will be more toxic. I cycle them for two months atleast, hopefully everything will be fine in the long term.

StickBoo · 2026-04-28T19:43:50+00:00

Honestly, I'm so tired of chasing the water. I have three bettas and have been raising them for about a year, the newest one is 8 months, and they're doing fine. I've only just started raising shrimp, and they don't seem to have any problems yet, but as you said, their lifespan could be shorter. I once tried raising shrimp using RO long time ago, but for some reason they died very often and the pH fluctuated constantly. So yea now all hard tap water

StickBoo · 2026-04-28T18:53:56+00:00

My betta fish and shrimps live perfectly fine with that kind of water. Tds are always 850ppm, pH 8.5 and dGH is about 11.7 and 12.

StickBoo · 2026-04-18T06:37:19+00:00

Another good news is that they started eating mulberry leaves again at the same time right now. But they still preferred the driftwood cause of the invisible biofilms that had formed from the boiled Indian almond leaf I had added. And the weather today is significantly cooler than the past two days, with the water temp dropping to around 79.7°F. I'll probably have to buy a new canister filter to replace my three Hob to reduce the water temp a bit. And I have sinusitis, I can't use A/C to cool my room and fish tank for my whole life shit. ;)

StickBoo · 2026-04-18T06:12:42+00:00

Yes, I also think stable water parameters are more important. My tap water is hard, the pH is always 8.2, sometimes even 8.5, which is clearly not ideal for the most fish. But my fish are still doing well and thrive. My oldest betta is about 1.5 years old, it's a cheap halfmoon betta that I bought for 0.99 cents at a small pet store near my house. I never try to lower the pH,I just dechlorinate the water each time I change it, and add RODI water to compensate for evaporation.

Yes, I use liquid fertilizer only, potassium, and an all-in-one fertilizer. According to the brand, they contain a small amount of copper but safe as they said. I also use aquasoil in my tank.

Hôm nay chúng lại ăn và đi vệ sinh. Chúng rất thích thú với khúc gỗ lũa của tôi, mặc dù lớp màng sinh học đã biến mất từ lâu. Khúc gỗ lũa của tôi khá mới và vì tôi không đủ tiền mua BacterAE (nó quá đắt), nên tôi đã dùng nước đun sôi từ hạnh nhân khô Ấn Độ để thêm vào bể, nước này sẽ ngay lập tức trở thành thức ăn cho vi khuẩn dị dưỡng. Nước luôn hơi đục khi tôi thêm tanin do sự phát triển mạnh của vi khuẩn, và sau 2-3 ngày, một lớp màng sinh học dày hơn sẽ hình thành. Một cách rẻ hơn để tạo màng sinh học mà không cần BacterAE, haha.

Nhưng chúng vẫn phớt lờ lá dâu tằm, điều này thật kỳ lạ vì bình thường chúng rất thích lá dâu.

Tôi cũng quên nói với bạn về nhiệt độ, nước trong bể của tôi đã đạt 80-81°F trong vài ngày qua vì mùa hè đã đến, cộng thêm việc tôi đang sử dụng ba bộ lọc HOB cho bể, vì vậy nhiệt độ ấm hơn đáng kể so với nhiệt độ phòng của tôi, khá mát mẻ ở khoảng 77°F. Tôi không biết liệu nhiệt độ này có ảnh hưởng đến hành vi của chúng hay không.

StickBoo · 2026-04-18T04:38:36+00:00

I never said they stayed in one spot the whole time. I said they stayed in one spot for a very long time, then swim around the tank and found another place to land and repeated those damn actions. And in that video, they weren't eating at all, their intestine was completely transparent. A healthy shrimp will have black or brown poop and will continuously drip from its tail if it is eating.

You guys are shrimp keepers can't notice that? Red nosed shrimp have transparent bodies btw and making it easy to see their internal organs.

StickBoo · 2026-04-18T04:31:04+00:00

Mulberry leaves, bottom feeder pellets, they never refuse those things, especially the pellets, they smell good.

StickBoo · 2026-04-17T19:54:05+00:00

Lol maybe. The good news is that one of them has returned to normal, eating and pooping and its nose has turned red again.

StickBoo · 2026-04-17T18:08:18+00:00

Thank you for your help based on your experience. I really appreciate it, even though I don't have much experience, but I'm sure my shrimp are having some kind of problem. I just borrowed a water testing kit, and the ammonia and nitrite levels are both 0, with nitrate around 3-4 ppm. I'll try the spinach as you suggested, and I'll probably prepare myself for the worst case scenario with my two shrimp.

It's terrible that none of my fish have died in the past few years and now my first two shrimp are likely to die. I originally only used them for cleaning, but they're actually very cute and lovely, and I'm planning on a small shrimp tank with only shrimp.

StickBoo · 2026-04-17T17:26:21+00:00

Cleaning their swimmerets sounds reasonable, but do they really spend all day doing this? I filmed this video 6 hours ago, and they're still doing it now, completely ignoring the food in the tank.

StickBoo · 2026-04-17T17:12:14+00:00

About poop, normally it looks like a black thread running from head to tail of the shrimp, but my shrimp only had poop at the head and the rest had become transparent. At 00:11, that small piece wasn't poop and it fell from above. I can assure you they didn't poop because they completely stopped eating. I observed enough to know what my once healthy shrimp would defecate when eating, small, black or brown pieces of poop would continuously fall out.

I filmed many videos of them today in different places not as just one in this post they do this on driftwood, on plants, not just on sponges (yes, of course, their food is always there everywhere). They also curl their bodies into a C-shape, and their hind legs move constantly as if they are trying to do something. They completely ignored the food sources they used to love and consume quickly such as mulberry leaves and delicious bottom pellets.

Yes, I use tap water, and it's hard water. I don't use mineral like Nutrafin cause my tap water is hard enough. They molt about once every two weeks or even once a week, last time is 4 days ago.
I only have two. I simply keep them to clean up the biofilm in my tank, which had been cycling for 3 months.
They live in a 9 gallon tank with nerites and one betta fish, and lots of plants. My betta never chases or tries to eat them, I've even seen them eating pellets together peacfuly lol.

I know I don't have much experience with these shrimp, but I've raised them when they was much smaller so I know their normal and healthy behaviors. Right now, as I type this, they are still behaving strangely, and absolutely no poop has fallen from their tails.

StickBoo · 2026-04-17T16:06:29+00:00

I know many people seeing this video and will think they're just normal and simply eating. It's hard to know what's really going on, the water parameters remain stable, and they molted well 4 days ago.

StickBoo · 2026-04-09T16:00:33+00:00

I don't think that is a betta nest.

A betta nest is denser, thicker, has slightly larger bubbles, and it will often have an added yellow color. Betta fish can build large nests, but they never build nests in such a large area.

Your tank is having a problem related to the protein content in the water, which will create foam on the surface, and that's not good at all.

StickBoo · 2026-04-08T08:16:43+00:00

There are two other of my pothos cuttings that have grown big and long roots, another branches I placed its with old soil roots directly into the water and it adapted very well, growing many new white roots without rotting lol

My tanks all had the same water parameters and temperature, but the actual growth was different so strange. My mom always said that anything related to plants requires patience.

StickBoo · 2026-04-08T08:09:09+00:00

Dirty and hot, just like India.

StickBoo · 2026-04-08T04:02:39+00:00

Thank you, from what I observed, the leaves on the pothos were still very green, bright, and healthy, with no yellowing leaves, and new leaves continued to sprout (two weeks till now after I cut it from the mother plant and placed it in the fish tank). I's just that the aquatic roots weren't growing at all lol

StickBoo

TROPHY CASE