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My all time favourite fish are Rams.. this sweet GBR curiosity got the best of him.

@Cesar I'm raising Bolivian fry as we speak. They colour up beautifully when spawning. In with Pepper Cory's... the parents put the chase on them! I've moved the dozen fry that are left into a quarantine tank for rearing. They all have fat little pink bellies filled with live baby brine shrimp. ?

That’s one big fat loach!

Looking great ?

I'm using RO water with Salty GH/KH+ because my water is very hard, but I'm currently having trouble with my PH. Adding salty GH/KH+ to my RO water, should it give me the same PH everytime? I did a test with 10lts tonight and I got a PH of around 7.3.

Thank you Jayc, I'm ordering a few plants this evening. I'll keep a close eye on the water, especially pH and see how it goes.

Awesome! I remember the first time I saw GBR's at the LFS... I had to have them... I ended up picking a male and a female by chance... At first I was worried, they both settled in a corner, I thought maybe they were stressed and I was going to lose them... Then the male started picking up pebbles and moving them creating a crater in the corner of the tank, next morning I had eggs and the man did they guard their corner well! That was a long time ago, thanks for bringing back that memory!

A character in my Loach Tank

Thank you for your kind words. Trish

I haven't fed my shrimp cucumber for a very long time . Do you think they like it?

It should be close, but not necessarily the same, since adding a bit more or less will impact the reading. pH 7.3 from Salty Shrimp GH/KH+ sounds about right. If you don't want pH to increase, than you need Salty Shrimp GH+. Not the GH/KH+, which increases KH as well as GH. KH increases raises pH.

My first venture was keeping Amano's. They have pretty well been trouble free. 29 gallon long.

You have been getting some solid advise from Simon. To answer your question above.... if you are cycling the tank, there is no need to change water in the tank daily (if there are no inhabitants) , not until the pH reaches below 6.5. If you can keep it at pH7.0 during the entire cycle process, then the bacteria will grow at an optimal rate. The time when cycling is complete, is the time you start adjusting water parameters to suit your selected shrimp. The cycling process will naturally reduce pH, so that is why you want to keep an eye on the readings during the process. Don't let it drop too low. There is also no reason to NOT add your plants now.

Thank you, I am retired and have the time to work with my tanks daily as they give me great enjoyment. A 50, 40 breeder, 29 long, and 10 gallon shrimp tank. He has a face only a mother could love!

@ineke good to see you drop into SKF

@unofficialzoo generally just the skin is left. It does have some nutritional value. Snow flake in itself may not be nutritious but it's the bacteria that ends up on it that makes it a good food. I generally leave a large piece of snowflake in the tank and leave it's until gone. The shrimp do eat the snowflake as well . Their all time favourite food for my shrimp has always been mulberry leaves. The plants are easily propagated- just stick a thin branch in some soil and keep it moist- the shrimp get the leaves and I eat the mulberries!! The leaves can be blanched and fed - again i leave the leaf in until there are only veins left - even the babies can be seen munching out on the leaves as they soften. You can also dry them- i use a clean pillow case and hang the leaves on the clothes line in the pillow case to allow airflow until they are dry- no mould build up this way- then the leaves can be fed without blanching. i also pulverise the leaves to add to my dry baby food mix.

Endlers are thriving, so I assume it was just a little graze, not a disease, but I lost all my rockets unfortunately. Doing my substrate fix on cup day hopefully.