jkh772

@LennieThanks this is very helpful! I didn't count exactly, but rough estimate ratio is approximately what you'd expect with both parents likely carriers of the recessive gene. Interesting how the ivory and blue are so close with just a difference of one dominant/recessive gene even though they look very different. Cool to see science in action. Once they start breeding behavior, I will separate the ivories to see if they breed true as they should if they are homozygous recessive. Thanks!

Thx @TOtrees That's a pretty big difference and probably explains why they like the canned beans so much more. Blanching the frozen beans before seems like a lot of work since i'm looking for something easy but i may try. I'm alittle worried about the amount of salt in canned beans. Thanks!

Forgot the pictures.

Greetings fish tank friends, I am growing out a clutch of mystery snails- they were labelled as "jade" when i got them from my LFS but to me they looked like blue mystery snails. Most of the clutch is growing in a really nice blue, but a handful appear to be albino. When I search online they also look like some pictures I've found of Ivory snails. Do snails change color over time as they grow out? Do the albino/ivory breed out more albino/ivory or revert back to parental colors? The albino/ivory ones are pretty cool so I may separate them out to breed more. Thanks!

Greetings Fish tank friends, Quick question- is there a major difference between feeding frozen vs. canned green beans? I am raising up a clutch of snails and they LOVE canned green beans- they can devour handfuls of canned beans. I can get frozen green beans way cheaper so I am experimenting but they do not like them nearly as much. Usually there is a frenzy when I throw some in but with the thawed frozen beans there are only a couple grazing at a time. Does anyone have similar experience? Is there something else I could do to make the frozen beans more tasty? I let them thaw in the fridge so they are not frozen when i throw them in. Thanks!

Thanks everyone! I'm not planning on any award willing fish/plants I'm just trying to keep my fish/shrimp/snails alive! I didn't think about the stability of parameters or minerals for the plants. I only have frogbit and wisteria which seem to be powering through but good to know. My goal is to not have not have to micrormanage the parameters so for me the answer is to avoid overstocking and to test more frequently to not let things get so out of hand.

@Pepere thanks! Since these tanks have tank mates (shrimp/guppies) who I'm worried about the parameter swing, I've decided to just start pulling out a lot of the baby snails to reduce the bio-load and hopefully stabilize parameters so as not to risk losing everyone. Even with 30% changes daily this week, the KH zeros out by the next day! i acknowledge perhaps was futile to try to hatch out a full clutch of mystery snails in a 10g, but they were so cool to see grow! i thought the 20gal would have been reasonable to grow out but perhaps not with the number of snails that survived. Now most of the snails are moved to the outdoor tub for grow out. @PepereWhy don't you like crushed coral? @Cory talks about it a lot so i was trying it, but as it hasn't done much with my tanks. I used a couple bags of crushed coral in my 55 gal cichlid tank which had dropping kH/pH a couple months ago- it took a while but finally stabilized. I'm guessing now because my water is already really hard so the cc takes even longer to buffer, or maybe i just have too much bio load. Thanks!

I'm sure i put this on myself with hatching out my snail clutches. the tank was very stable until they started to really grow and increase their eating. @Pepere I don't really mind water changes but how quickly the tank went from very stable to huge pH drop took me by surprise. I was looking for other solutions that don't require daily water changes (that's what I've been doing this week to keep pH > 6.5) or getting rid of my baby snails! I've found a lot of info about nitrogen cycle and monitoring ammonia/nitrite/nitrate to determine timing of water changes but those have been very stable (I presume thanks to my plants) but not so much info about pH/KH monitoring other than adding crushed coral (which is what I was doing but wasn't working). I was previously only checking nitrates to determine timing to change water but if not for the test strips I would have totally missed my pH drop! Thanks everyone!

Any recommendation on potassium carbonate products? I didn't see a branded aquarium K2C02 product and i'm nervous about just adding straight K2C02 powder into the tank- its been too many years from high school chemistry to calculate my dose! flourish potassium is K20 so i don't think it will buffer the same way.

Thanks everyone- the obvious issue is the increasing bioload from my growing snails. I'm looking to rehouse them in another tank. i was just surprised how quickly they caused the kh to drop! This is my first time raising snails and I am paranoid about having enough calcium for their shells so I was erring on being heavy with calcium supplement. @Mmiller2001 I'm not a chemist, but i guess because my calcium is already high, the CC/calcium carbonate doesn't release the carbonate to act as a buffer and thats why its not working? That actually makes sense! I'll give the Potassium carbonate a try. I was hoping there was an easier way than water changes. I've been timing my changes just based on nitrates but i guess i'll have to go back to daily testing- hopefully will stabilize soon or the K2C02 helps. Thanks!

Thanks for the comments: The pH has dropped below 6.4 and KH have dropped to zero. the GH has stayed high, nitrate 0 and nitrate 10-20 (using the ACO test strips). I also confirmed with an API master kit which were about the same. Tap is pH 7> 7.5, GH 300+, KH 80-120. I usually test weekly with aco test strips. I do water changes based on the parameters, usually do a 20-30% water change every 3-4 weeks when the nitrates get > 50. last change was 2 weeks ago. the smaller 10g shrimp tank I do only 10-20% changes. The pH has been very stable until recently. @Mmiller2001- I thought that was supposed to help raise pH/KH? I just added more! Thanks!

Greetings fish tank friends, I think i know the answer but i wanted to see if there are other solutions. i have a 20g guppy and mystery snail tank and 10g cherry shrimp/mystery snail tank, both planted w/ wisteria and floating frogbit. Previously parameters were stable- ph 7.7-7.8, no ammonium, 0 nitrites, 10-20 nitrates (w/ easy green for the plants), GH300+, kH80-120. Both tanks have been seasoned for >8mo, good amount of mulm and film on algie on the substrate/back glass. these parameters are similar to local tap parameters. I've recently hatched out a clutch of snails into each tank a few weeks ago. In the past week the kH went to zero and my pH dropped down to < 6.5. No spike in ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. Only change is the snail babies are growing fast and i've been increasing feeding (repashy/greenbeans) and added some wondershells. The babies are growing well but i did recently lose one adult snail so i am worried they are not happy with the pH drop. I already have 1-2 lbs of crushed coral in each tank. Any other recommendations to boost my KH and stabilize the pH? I've just done a good sized water change, but i don't want to overdue it since i thought shrimp don't like big flucatuations. Thanks!

Thanks @CoryWithAKatana . I'm hoping she just needs a break but wanted to make sure if there was anything else to worry about. Its been about 4 days with barely any movement- she is usually cruising around the walls and rocks. fingers crossed! Thanks!

I've been feeding rapashy bottom scratcher which the snails seem to love. KH ~120/GH >300. Thanks!

Greetings fish friends, One of mystery snails has been laying on the ground half out of her shell for the past few days. She's not dead- I've seen her extend her breathing tube out and will slightly pull into her shell if i reach in the tank. I've had her a few months and she has been super active until recently. The mystery snails have been doing some heavy breeding lately- i think she is the one who's laid 3 clutches in the past 3 weeks (two have hatched!). Tank: - 20 gal planted (amazon frogbit/ floating water wisteria) a few hillstream loaches and a couple guppies. everyone else appears health. - no ammonium/nitrites/nitrates. pH 7.6 The other snails are all acting/eating normal. Not sure if there is anything i can/should do. I saw her extending her breathing tube so pulled her out into a shallow bowl and i saw her take some breaths, but then she just curled back into her shell. Wasn't sure if it was better for her to stay in her tank or keep her in a more shallow bowl so she could breath when she wanted to. Thanks!