How in the heck do you gravel-vac that tank?
you dont stick the vac in the sand, you skim it over the top. it helps to stick your hand in and shoo everyone out of the way first. the other tip is to just use tubing instead of an actual vac. anyone that gets sucked into the bucket you can net back out
at 78°F ive notice that it takes my cherries about 3 months to become sexually mature, though you can start sexing them at around 2 months (look for tiny saddles). my juvies are about 3 months old, going on 4 and several females have ENORMOUS saddles right now and a few have actually berried.
i have to say, its really fun feeding them now because when you drop food in, there is quite a crowd of shrimp that come RUNNING out of every nook and cranny to eat. they also have little slapping fights over the food