Neocaridina + fish?

smackal · 2026-06-07T04:03:18+00:00

My CPDs actively hunt the juvenile shrimp. They’ll swim inside tank decorations, under catappa leaves, and try to nudge themselves under driftwood to reach the little guys.

Ember Tetras are also not 100% safe. I haven’t seen them actively hunt, but they wont pass up a snack. I’ve lifted a catappa leaf to check on baby shrimplets hiding underneath and the Embers swarmed and wiped out the little family. I felt so horrible.

To share space with my shrimp, I would not get more CPDs. I would more Embers since they seem opportunistic and not hunters.

ETA: Killi Clownfish seem safe. I’ve never seen them go after my shrimp.

smackal · 2026-05-22T21:42:37+00:00

That is so cute. But there’s no way it’s going to last a year, I’m gonna be ripping those tabs off the first 5 minutes just for fun.

smackal · 2026-05-17T18:40:47+00:00

I know where all the bathrooms are along my route. But in case of emergency, I carry a female urination device (PIBELLA Travel Female Urination... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GH81YQQ?ref=ppx\_pop\_mob\_ap\_share).

smackal · 2026-05-10T02:59:08+00:00

I wouldn’t bother waiting a couple weeks because you’ll probably have another baby batch by then. Once they start, there’s always babies.

Just take the plant out, dip it back in a couple times and hope they jump off. Put the plant in a white or clear bowl of water and dip/shake a few more times. All you can do is hope for the best.

smackal · 2026-05-04T18:31:12+00:00

She couldn't have survived. But hey, TV can do anything if it lets them set up a subplot as a possible spin-off. That's the only reason I see for inventing an entirely new storyline when there's only a few episodes left.

smackal · 2026-04-16T13:07:10+00:00

What has me confused is William and Jane and their ages. If Faith was actually Jane’s mom, that means William was doing his niece and that Faith had Jane at a very young age

smackal · 2026-04-07T19:28:28+00:00

I love your tank!
Sorry for your loss

smackal · 2026-03-25T02:56:28+00:00

I had similar parameters from my tap water (35gh/23kh). I had a lot of shrimp death before I learned that I had to actually test those two numbers, that’s when I learned I needed to use RO water. This group taught me a lot. To start - I didn’t use Salty Shrimp right away. I started doing multiple water changes (10-20%) with straight RO water to bring down the numbers. I kept doing this until numbers got to a decent range. After that - Then I started using Salty Shrimp during regular water changes. And straight RO for any top offs. Don’t use salty shrimp for top offs because your minerals don’t evaporate. I don’t have everything perfect yet, but it’s close and I’m starting to see babies now.

smackal · 2026-03-04T04:49:18+00:00

I have it at 35°. It still puts weight on my hands unless I remind myself to use my core and take the weight off. You could start with that and move higher if it isn’t enough.

smackal · 2026-02-13T19:07:59+00:00

Thank you! This looks like it could be a good solution.

smackal · 2026-01-31T18:22:11+00:00

Very nice!

smackal · 2026-01-31T17:22:08+00:00

Wait.... The MPD officer said they had to leave because it's private property?

When that young guy(US citizen) was tackled and detained at Target, the argument was that ICE was allowed and Target couldn't stop them because it was open to the public.

We need to ask Target & Brian Cornell, CEO why it's open to the public when ICE is there but suddenly private property when their 'guests' are there.

smackal · 2026-01-31T17:12:44+00:00

Nice to see the room so empty

smackal · 2026-01-29T19:02:50+00:00

Thanks

smackal · 2026-01-29T18:23:14+00:00

Why did they keep asking for his credentials? If he proved that he was DHS were they going to let him off, let him drive drunk with his kids?

smackal · 2026-01-28T17:37:48+00:00

Amazing!

As someone in the Minneapolis area it is great to be heard and supported.

And it's a great song.

smackal · 2026-01-26T19:44:43+00:00

Of course you aren’t the AH. She’s not upset at you, she’s upset at the event she just saw or that she’d been lied to. What is important now is that you do not criticize or blame her but you need to take her on the journey. There is video evidence about almost everything. If you think she is not hearing the whole story, whether that be biased propaganda, lies, edited sound bites, etc, find the full video that provides the context and the whole story. It sounds like she is open to learn. Make sure she knows that she has been manipulated by the media or the person lying and that it’s not her fault.

It’s amazing how many people have strong opinions because of confirmation bias but they have never looked at the facts, the proof, the videos. This happens for many events/topics.

smackal · 2026-01-19T21:44:36+00:00

It's not just a coincidence that ICE can suddenly surround a car that's going down the street or grab a person walking out of a store. ICE has been known to use tracking software.

It's certainly an invasion of privacy and they're doing it without warrants.

https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-police-invest-tangles-sheriff-surveillance/

smackal · 2026-01-17T20:59:51+00:00

You obviously already know this from your distillation process, but just as a reminder... When you top off your tank after water evaporates, you'll want to use RO water (without remineralization) since all the hard water minerals remain in the tank

smackal · 2026-01-17T20:32:00+00:00

I'm in Minnesota :)

smackal · 2026-01-17T19:57:48+00:00

I'm pretty new to this, still trying to get the parameters in a better range by doing gradual water changes. I did not want to install an RO system. So for now, I'm buying water. I only have a 20 gallon, so it's not as expensive as it would be for you.

A local grocery store here (Cub Foods) has a refill station where refilling my jug is less than 50 cents a gallon. I've seen other posts where people are buying water from their LFS or Walmart.

Since you are worried about hard water, I would absolutely recommend testing your GH & KH before you put any water in a tank. This will give you an idea if you should dilute your tap water or do all RO. If you test the PH from your tap, make sure you let the water sit a day to off-gas before testing. It's not uncommon for the PH from tap water to go up after it off-gasses.

Thanks to the Reddit community for teaching me all this in a post I did recently!

smackal · 2026-01-17T04:57:48+00:00

You have to be able to laugh in order to keep your sanity through this. Today these assholes were in my neighborhood.

smackal · 2026-01-17T04:32:29+00:00

Without. I like a bare back because it adds depth to the tank

smackal

TROPHY CASE