herpetology!

What is a sponge filter? What is WC? Thanks.

Hey, I am planning on buying at least 10 ghost shrimp, but they are about 1/2 to 3/4 grown. A few questions: -does it need filtration if I do frequent (ie up to ever other day) water changes? -How much heating is best? -How many can I put in a 2.5 gallon with some good topography (rocks and etc)? I'd like to maximize this opportunity and ghost shrimp seem rare where I am (haven't seen them in a year), but I don't have a lot of money to pull of a nursery tank. Ideally, since I expect some die-off (sadly), I'd like to have about 5 in total in my 33 gallon newt tank, after they take their initial toll. Ghost shrimp have a yearlong survivability (well, so far 15 months) in this tank, if they get through the first 48 hours. They DO need to get bigger, they need to be about max size or they will be sniped too easily. What are your suggestions? Thanks!!!

Sorry for the double post, but it would be nice to chat about this some more. I'm not sold on adding more fish, I just want to know what my limited options may be. Can someone suggest a specific type of Killi, for example, that doesn't mind slightly cooler temperatures? I'm really just theory-tanking, I find it's an interesting topic. Please grace me with your wisdom!!

I added more tiger barbs and the one I had chased the others to exhaustion and the newts picked them off. For some reason this barb is meaner than any other I've seen. Basically the newts themselves don't come off the bottom at all except to get gulps of air. The black shark has thrived in this tank, as has my ghost shrimp, flower shrimp in the past and even the one tiger barb. The paddletails are actually max size right now, so I'm well aware of their overall bulk. From my experience, Cyprinids tend to do well in these kinds of tanks. Is there a species that prefers to stay off the bottom? I have had everything from jewel cichlids to Rainbows suggested. I'm trying to be careful at which species I add, as there is definite room near the upper water column. Thanks for your comments guys, I do appreciate it.

Do you think that it might be overstocking my tank, given what I have, to have 6 hatchets? I only fill it 5/6 of the way full. I can fill it more quite easily, though, it's just for the newts and they are all so comfy they don't go on the land...ever. Will the hatchets be alright in 20 degrees? How often do they need to eat? This is a tank kind of mimicking the low resource streams where the newts come from, but I am down with feeding floating food to fish. Sorry I know the rule is "1 inch per gallon" roughly dependent on type of fish. I don't know how much the newts count for this, because they only eat once every 3-4 days and really that is a treat for low nutrient streams. They are all fat enough that their costal grooves are kinda disappearing. Also, for a surface fish, I do have a floating island that takes up about 1/5 of the surface. They may use it for cover, which is good, but my filter is also located in the middle of the tank. Should I move it to the side with these guys, or do they care? Edit: Sorry for asking these strange questions. The tank is an experiment and I am pushing myself to see how I can manage, I have a decade of experience with reptiles and amphibians with some scattered decent experience in fish. Also, I have tried two species of snail to help with algae- trapdoors get so big that they almost killed one of my newts by clamping on their face. Mystery snails tend to just clamp up and die. I've tried zebra and tiretrack but they died very fast. ALSO! I am trying to add some ghost shrimp. How many is appropriate for a 33 gallon? They have a good survival rate (other than one being sniped first night, this one has lasted a year and I only bought 2) and I really like them. The newts only tend to eat sick and dying shrimp, at least ones this big. I was thinking 4 ghost shrimp total, so adding three. What do you think about this? How do shrimp effect the carrying capacity of the tank?

Like I said, they have been fine with the one barb and the black shark. They also tend to not eat guppies very rapidly. They also don't hunt near the surface. Can you tell me more about hatchets? The tiger I have is insanely aggressive, he even challenges the newts sometimes. Anything that swims would have to deal with him- the guppies that are alive strangely have gone ignored for months. Is there any reason to believe that some more attractive guppies may work as well? (I lost about 15/20 of the guppies I fed)

Hey! I have a 33 gallon with 3 adult paddletail newts. I have experimented with various animals to keep with them and am looking for some advice on others to add. I currently don't heat the water so it's at about 20C give or take. Here is what it is stocked with: 3 paddletail newts 1 ghost shrimp 1 tiger barb 1 black shark 3-4 feeder guppies that won't die. Now, I've had success with flower shrimp but they croweded the bottom and the tiger barb dispatched them during sheds. The tiger barb also chased down 2 other tiger barbs to exhaustion, allowing the newts to finish them off. The black shark is only aggressive towards the tiger barb. I have had some limited success with dwarf mexican crayfish, but they get torn apart during shed. Other than this and the odd newt battle, things are relatively peaceful. Goldfish are out of the question as the newts rip them apart, they are a favorite food apparently. I'm mainly looking for fish to flesh out the upper echelons of the tank- so top dwellers or at least middle dwellers. I want things to stay off the bottom in my tank that is dominated by bottom dwellers. They need to be durable (no heater), fast and able to deal with aggression. They need to be of the dimensions that a paddletail couldn't snipe them, so about 3 times the size of an adult guppy. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks!

looks like an albino to me...if that be the case, I'd say there's a likelyhood some have been around in the wild but they likely get picked off rather fast by predators.

It's not that one, sorry. It's looked alot like a rainbow shark or a red tail shark but it's got white fins. It's more black and it is blue, really. Here's a picture: The mouth is terminal/inferiorish. It's not fully downfacing and not 100% terminal, if that helps.

My white fin blue shark (scientific name unknown) is growing too big. We were told upon purchase that it would stay a few inches max but now hear that it will be 6 inches...this is too big for a fin nipper in our tank. He'll eat everything! For IDing, which would be nice: is blueish black in color, has some black on anal fin. Large dorsal fin that is white like all the other fins, except caudal fin which is reddish. At the base of the caudal fin there is a black diamond with white towards the body. The scales are visible but not shiney, they are rather small and soft looking. It has some of the little whiskers, looks like 4 but two of them are VERY short and the other two are pretty short too. Stays near the bottom and LOVES to chase fish but only ever bites one of the tetra. Snuggles with the yo yo loach in a hollowed out ornament. Anyways, assuming this fish DOES get as big as the pet store now claims it will, can someone take it from us?