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20H with 6 loaches , 6 bee and 7 blue velvet. only death so far was the 8th velvet got stuck in the filter intake and died shortly after its freed.

Update Indian amond leaf sunk and saw a coupe shrimps nibble at it for a while, should be more appealing a couple days later when it starts decomposing. Bought some hikari algae wafers, soaked in 0.05:4.5ml oregano solution ( the extract is oil and shaking it only creates a emulsion instead of mixing so donno how percise that is) fed to the tank. Some healthy shrimps took a couple bites while the sick one prefered to graze on the driftwood. Loaches also seems interested. Tested GH KH with api and got the following: 5dGH 4dKH Guess I should remove some of the crushed oyster shell I had in the filter. And also a water change probably tomorrow (I didnt do a full 25% only changed 1.25 gallon)

I know our heatwaves are nowhere as bad as you get in Australia, it is all reletive. At least my Betta likes warm water and so he should be ok and the water probably won't get over 30 so even the cherry shrimp should be ok! Thanks for all the cooling tips, aircon is great but working flat out and temperature creeping up as the day progresses, so not really sufficient, but better than not having it at all, so I won't complain too much. At present I don't need to worry about the aquarium(s) thankfully, though if I did have Caridina shrimps I would have had that added stress. I have a small freezer about 6 feet from the chair where I usually sit which is crammed with various ice creams,(Haagen Daz, Ben and Jerry etc), ice cubes and ice lollies. I remember going with friends to see my bother in 'The OC' around february many years ago, we went to Laguna beach in our shorts and teeshirts as it was in the 80 degrees, but when we got there the women were walking dogs and wearing fur coats - my brotheer said 'well it is winter here and only in the 80's' - they must have known we were just tourists, it's what your body gets used to with the weather wherever you live I guess............. Adding the new fish may have caused the ammonia to creep up but hopefully they will survive ok and the tank will quickly cycle again. I have used fish to cycle tanks in the past and none have died, though this method is now a bit contriversial! If you are gettin a couple of tanks from your friend you could use 1 as a quarentine/hospital tank as planned and other for a betta as the tank won't look out of place with the others if you keep the betta (and cull shrimp IF needed) tank somewhere else in the house other than your fish room? I will try looking for the yowie videos on youtube.