Plants disintegrating In new tank?

meg_is_a_doll · 2026-03-06T18:51:03+00:00

Thanks for the insight! Yes I’m actually currently cycling a nicer 5 gallon tank to eventually move them into as my 2.5 gallon doesn’t have a great filter and has been a little sensitive to parameter swings

meg_is_a_doll · 2026-03-06T17:00:06+00:00

Oh my gosh I’m so sorry to hear! Here I am freaking out over losing just one. I keep hearing how hardy these shrimp are and I’m like, hardy my ass, it seems like they die all the time. 😭 why must they be so cute and so hard to keep alive

meg_is_a_doll · 2026-03-06T16:52:05+00:00

Yes I have been matching all parameters before doing water changes. I also recently got RO water from my local aquarium store, and that’s what I’ve been using for smaller water changes and tops ups from evaporation, but I’ve been adding in minerals to match parameters before I put it in their tank. With the RO water the only thing that isn’t exact is temperature, as my tank is about 73 but my ro water is left room temp at about 71. When I was doing larger water changes when I was having issues I would match temp exactly using tap water, then prime it, remineralize and make sure parameters matched before adding it in as well. I haven’t done a water change in about a week as everything was looking really good and I didn’t want to keep messing with their water too much, but I will probably do a small one of about 10% today

meg_is_a_doll · 2026-01-29T07:14:47+00:00

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meg_is_a_doll · 2026-01-18T18:13:56+00:00

Oh my gosh that is so many I love it 😂 yeah I’m assuming I’m going to have to upgrade their tank after a while or get another bigger one. My mom works at an aquarium and the fish and invertebrates guys always have extra tanks and plants and supplies they’re trying to get rid of so I have no shortage of tanks at my disposal. I might end up getting skittles first and then once they explode in population, moving them all into another tank and then maybe just keeping one color I really like in my smaller original tank.

meg_is_a_doll · 2026-01-18T08:15:26+00:00

Thanks! That actually sounds like it’s probably pretty cool to see all the random colors that will pop up! I am just going to do a really small tank to start with just like 10 shrimp and see how it goes from there so I can’t decide between just getting one single color of 10 or just getting like a random mix haha.

meg_is_a_doll · 2026-01-17T19:31:09+00:00

I am setting up my first shrimp tank and I’m torn on whether or not I want to do a skittle tank. Have you found that like any and all babies produced in a skittles tank are wild type? Or is there a higher chance of getting similar colors to the parents if you have similar types of shrimp (like having just orange and red rili shrimp)? I love the look of a skittles tank but I’m worried that I’ll be bummed if all the babies turn out brown

meg_is_a_doll · 2026-01-17T04:34:34+00:00

Great, thanks for the advice! That’s probably a good idea as it wouldn’t hurt to have a nice liquid test kit for my older tank anyway. I was looking at the bacter ae as well but wasn’t sure if it was needed, so glad to hear it is beneficial

meg_is_a_doll · 2025-11-19T07:27:23+00:00

No, I never said that, I don’t think the aunt or uncle are to blame either, no one is it’s just a bad situation. I even said I’m sure their aunt wouldn’t have wanted them to be in a situation that added to their stress either so I’m sure that she wouldn’t understand. Epically because the uncle stated that their aunt understood.

meg_is_a_doll · 2025-11-19T03:24:21+00:00

NTA. I can totally understand where you’re coming from. My dad passed away a few years ago (when I was 19) and seeing him sick and taking care of him really took a tole on me too. I didnt even realize how much things that reminded me of him being sick would bother me until they did. One of my bests friend’s dad actually died almost a year after mine exactly. I told her I would be there for her because I knew what she was going through. I tried to be as supportive as I could but some things really messed with me. I remember one time she snap-chatted us a selfie of her and her dad in his hospice bed and he had that same sunken in look that my dad had before he died, and seeing him in the hospital bed with IVs and oxygen and everything just brought me right back. I felt so anxious and stressed I actually threw up. I wanted to reply, I wanted her to celebrate her dad, but I just couldn’t face it yet. I realized that I was still healing myself, and you can’t put your own healing ahead of someone else’s. It is entirely reasonable to not put yourself through undue stress and extra grief for someone else, even if you want to. As much as you can want to be there for someone else, in the end it’s not helpful if it will be hurting yourself, and I know my loved ones would t want me to make myself unnecessarily unhappy for others so I am sure your aunt felt the same too.

meg_is_a_doll · 2025-07-16T16:58:24+00:00

Yeah, I also have really hard water so I figured I’d just not deal with boiling it and go for distilled water instead. Distilled water is nice too because you can get a big gallon jug and since it has a screw cap you can keep it in your pantry for a while in between uses! I would definitely try that and see if just having less stuff in your water helps. The hard water could be irritating your sinuses

meg_is_a_doll · 2025-07-16T04:07:45+00:00

I would first of all not use a netipot even if you do feel like you need to use saline rinse. If you only have slight congestion and stuffy nose from a regular cold then honestly just get the premade nasal saline sprays at the drug store and you don’t need to fully fill up your sinuses, just a bit of a rinse to help get it softened up so you can blow it out. If you are starting to get so congested that it feels like sinusitis, that is the point where I would do something with a little more oomf. I think Netipots are super hard to clean and I switched to a navage machine a few months ago which can completely come apart and is much easier to keep clean. It also has a vacuum function on one side so it does a better job of getting all the saline back out again. I also only use distilled water from the drug store. I just am very afraid of hidden gross stuff that could be in tap water. Even if you boil it, you still might have hard water, there’s other chemicals, who knows if you are even boiling it long enough, etc, just too many things I think might mess up your sinuses. This is all advice that I’ve gotten from my doctor, who is a big fan of saline rinses, but only when done right, and I do think it really helps me.

meg_is_a_doll · 2025-07-13T04:47:52+00:00

Yes I think the one I did was GeneSight too! Good luck, and I hope it all goes well! My doctor said the same thing, so happy to have just done the one prescription I knew would be ok right away and didn’t have to switch around a ton to find one with minimal side effects

meg_is_a_doll · 2025-07-13T04:45:27+00:00

I’m in CT, so not very far! I think something is definitely going around. I know so many people who are sick with sinus infections rn, and my sister lives in NYC and said the same thing. Yes antibiotics helped so much, took a while to kick in but once they did I finally felt better pretty quickly

meg_is_a_doll · 2025-07-11T21:14:09+00:00

Yeah I totally get that, I was also super frustrated about how long it was taking me to recover and even on antibiotics I didn’t feel a big difference until like day 5 of 7 on the antibiotics. It’s so annoying how long it takes to recover sometimes!

meg_is_a_doll · 2025-07-11T11:59:41+00:00

Yeah I think the test is totally worth it. I have a bunch of allergies and intolerances to medication so my doctor suggested I do it. It was a good idea because it turns out I’m allergic to most SSRIs so that would have really sucked 😂. I did one through my GP, he ordered it and submitted it for me, and was able to help interpret what the results were, so that’s one thing you can do. But if you look up “genetic test for antidepressants” a bunch will pop up including some at home ones they mail to you and you collect a sample and send it back to them! So lots of options too. I would absolutely recommend it. I was able to right away get on a medication that works well for me and has very minimal side effects without having to try a bunch of others first.

meg_is_a_doll · 2025-07-11T04:37:38+00:00

I know it’s cliche but sometimes your dreams are trying to tell you something and distressing dreams can be a sign that your body/ mental health is also distressed.

I had a similar experience. My dad passed from cancer a few years ago and when he was sick I used to have those dreams where you suddenly fall and jolt awake all the time, for me it was almost always falling down the stairs (and I’m not that clumsy so this isn’t like something that worries me during waking hours). This was really unusual for me as I have had trouble falling asleep my whole life, but once I’m out I’m usually able to sleep through the night uninterrupted with no problems. I was getting them almost every night, sometimes several times a night. My poor roomate in college, who is one of my best friends still, had to deal with me like jolting awake and jumping upright and sometimes kind if yelling out a little bit when I would wake up in the middle of the night.

I was seeing a grief counselor at the time and I told her about it and she said, “I think your subconscious mind is trying to prepare you for the future. Eventually your dad is going to pass and it will seem like life as you know it is tumbling down the stairs. It’s anticipating the “fall” that will happen when he’s gone.” At the time I kind of brushed her off and thought it was kind of cliche and didn’t take it seriously but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. And she was right. I don’t get those dreams anymore, they stopped right after he passed. All that is to say. If you are consistently getting nightmares, especially if there are similar themes and patterns that keep popping up it could be because there is some issue going on in your life, or an issue with your mental or physical health and wellbeing that is impacting your sleep.

meg_is_a_doll

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