OnlyGenusCaps

I am having a bit of an existential crisis with this tank, brought on, at least in part, by @eatyourpeas's box of salty wonders. Obviously, I put this tank together because I wanted something that looks like a saltwater tank, but with less work. The thing is, there is no way to get this tank on an automatic water changer, so I still need to change out water negating some of the maintenance savings. Plus, I've always loved cnidarians, and that's a piece I just can't replace with this "pseudo" setup. So what to do? Pros: The tank is a nice acrylic 42 gal bowfront which would make a nice little SW tank It is located somewhere in my house I can genuinely appreciate it, as opposed to most of my tanks It is already plumbed with an overflow and a sump It already has SW appropriate rock and substrate Cons: I've never done a SW tank before - so there will be many failures I am sure The learning curve seems fairly steep leading to more of the above point I'd still need to buy some expensive equipment to make this happen I would need to cut out the walls on the sump and reconfigure it I know @Zenzo tried out SW for a bit and then got rid of the tank. And, I'll be honest, I'm a bit concerned that will happen here. My guess is it is a lot easier to convert to SW than to go back again - though I am not sure that is true. Ideally, I would want to start FO and slowly convert to reef, but I just don't know. I don't even really know why I am posting this. I don't know that I am asking for advice, as I recognize that nobody can make this choice for me. I suppose I just needed to get my conundrum out there.

Glad the gobies are settling in for you. Tunnels might mean eggs soon... !!! I'm not surprised about the pipette. They are not shy and kind of puppy-dog like in their enthusiasm. So, I've not seen them eat snails, but I had them in with snails that could specifically stand up to fish harassment. It would up their caché if they ate snails. Were it not a biotope, I'd suggest Thiara winteri snails. They express spikes as a phenotypic plastic response to fish disturbing them, so they would get really spiky with those gobies.

Snail shell growth is really interesting! I have a serious desire to import and hopefully breed a few of the Lake Tanganyika species. Not serious enough to start gathering permits yet mind you, but I've inquired around about potential exporters to some friends in Tanzania. One of the big reasons is that they have independently evolved the types of cross layering in their shells that many marine snails species have! How cool is that?! It would be like having a miniature conch in a tank! Okay, these are awesome critters! I am looking forward to the updates, and may be perusing sites to check availability...

He looks like he's already had a few and might be be recovering from said adventure! This tank makes me seriously consider whether the large box I have for water should be a SW box... That one still vexes me.

Totally! This is a big, beautiful, and amazingly diverse nation. I've spent time in 48 of the states, and lived in 7. I'm still astonished at the differences everywhere. When I lived in Arizona without A/C, I did alright, but here in Minnesota where I also don't have it (indeed I've never lived in a house in MN with A/C), it feels like a cruel joke. I've spent at least a little time in most majors cities in Texas (though I've never been to Austin - somehow I've missed the capitol 🤷‍♂️), and I've got to say I think the heat + humidity in SE Texas would break me. I spent a June in and around the Beaumont area and that was all I needed to know that.

What a wonderfully British way to sate that. Love it! Glad you made it through @Flumpweesel, and that your house was a help. Many of the older buildings in Europe have much more substantial walls than our balloon-framed, matchstick houses here. Just might be the saving grace with the changes coming. At least I hope that will help. It's funny, in my experience it's a running gag from nearly all of my European friends that "Americans love their air-conditioning!", said with a nod and a wink. But during the midst of this heatwave, one of my German friends, who I've know since high school, sent me a message out of the blue saying "Okay, now I get it. No more jokes about your precious air-conditioning. It is the greatest invention of all time!" I think it must have been bad over where he is to get him to that point. Glad this one has passed.

Good luck over there. I hope you and those you know are coming through this well.

I love the skin patterning! And I swear you can see the radula in their mouths. Very interesting critters!

That looks like fun! I'll be @Biotope Biologist would be a ringer for ID there.

Interesting... Indeed, tempting. Hmm.... 🤔

Those are stripy and amazing! I love it. Plus the description sounds pretty useful: https://www.aquariumglaser.de/en/fish-archives/taia_naticoides_en/ I could be convinced of these too, especially if they are easier to come by. https://www.aquariumglaser.de/en/fish-archives/filopaludina-siamopaludina-martensi-cambodjensis/ I love all of these snail options you are coming up with, @Guppysnail. Very impressive! Thanks! I also enjoy the livebearing snails, so this is pretty cool.

Nope. Guppy snails for a live bearing snail, it is. And never wee-willy-winkles or whatever other trash name they have been given in the past. I won't stand for it! I will however sit here and have a beer to toast to the long lived future of "guppy snails". 😎

If they do indeed end producing quite a lot of live young, then I think this common name seems appropriate on all levels. We should find a place that will allow you to write an article online about their care (once you have hammered it out) referring to them as "guppy snails" and then link to that to add the common name to Wikipedia. That's about the most "official" way I can think of to get a common name recognized. Also, I'm already intrigued by this species, so I'm excited to see your forthcoming updates on their care. They have fallen into the right hands, that much is clear!

You are doing no such thing. It's been in interesting and informative discussion. As far as I am concerned, you, @Chick-In-Of-TheSea, @Katherine, and anyone else, should feel free to keep right on chatting here. Thanks for the generous input you are always willing to provide to everyone!

Thanks, @_Eric_ and @Guppysnail for the suggestions! 😝 No way, sir! I generally don't like those species, and related to that, I ended up with ramshorn snails last time and they might have been the source of the parasite that killed off all my fish in the tank and then swept into other tanks. So, I am particularly paranoid in this instance. Now that's interesting! I'll admit that in my mind snails should generally be better at taking care of themselves, so your description of the feeding that was necessary was not making mystery snails sound so great (despite my general interest in trying them overall - so many morphs!). But the infusoria thing is interesting, although perhaps worth doing in another tank and then adding it like green water when I have fry... I'll admit, I am still considering rabbit snails... They are so aweful at eating algae, but they seem really good at scrounging for food on their own, to the point they slowly breed that way. Hmm... Conundrums.

As I set up a tank to take another, hopefully more successful, stab at pupfish, I am considering what snail I want in the tank with them. I'd considered using my rabbit snails as all of the information on the net suggest they like the warm (27C) and hard, high pH water they will be in. Part of the appeal of rabbit snails is I have found them woefully unhelpful at controlling hair algae - which I have learned I need in this tank to get breeding success with this species. However, I seem to recall @Tihshho (pardon though if my memory has failed me here) mentioning that by experience they breed better in cooler water. And I have gotten my first baby rabbit snail in an unheated tub in my tank space - further supporting that information. This has me reconsidering using the rabbit snails in this tank. Are there any other snails that don't breed to excess, which can handle the conditions I'm about to throw at them, and are both poor algae eaters as well as gentle on plants? @Guppysnail, and ideas?

Interesting. So, there are many, many hybrids and I've only grown a few species. With hybrids, of course, you can get all sorts of different growth forms, so I can't say with any certainty about what you have specifically. The ones I have grown propagated by vegetative means in two ways: 1. via cormus offsets, and 2. via rhizomes which often get called "suckers" like many similar structures. Here is a page in what I believe is the most common roadside form in the PNW. The bottom two photos on the left column are the ones I'll point you to. The second to last shows the new corm offsets. The one below it, they are calling "roots" includes a few thicker "roots", which are the rhizomes. You can see the internodes pretty clearly on the largest one pointing to the right in the photo. If you severed that and planted it, you'd likely get a new plant, and will get a new corm forming at the end of not also along the nodes. Because this plant has invasive potential, I have to suspect that breeders have been working to either shorten the length of the rhizomes, or eliminating them entirely. It happens in garden plants often to make them more manageable, and easier to create a clean look when planted. So, it's possible yours does not spread in precisely the same way. Also, that could make my example not such a hot one. 🤪

Whoa! The mottling on the body! That doesn't look like Asolene spixii to me. It looks more like the body type and coloration from Viviparus viviparus to me now. Here is a photo from a population that reminds me of your snails. If they lay eggs for you that look like Marisa cornuarietis eggs (or any for that matter) then they are likely to be A. spixii, but live birth suggests V. viviparus. The other thin is that A. spixii will supposedly eat some soft-leaved plants, but V. viviparus is a filter feeder, and feeds on algae. I'll be curious about your continued observations with them. I'm quite curious now! Sorry if it turns out some idiot on the internet [me] caused you to go out an buy snails you don't want by misidentifying them.

Like I am so sort of awful nerdy genie 🧞. 🤣 There are potentially many forms of vegetative propagation that might occur across the genus. I've only grown 4 species of the 70+ out there, so I can only speak from my limited experience. With that caveat, the ones I have grown have given rise to daughter plants via rhizomes. They've all been thin rhizomes to be sure, like those seen in plants such as Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon), or for perhaps a more PNW example, the exotic Crocosmia found at the edges of forests.

Glad I could help erode your will power?

Maybe someone already mentioned this and I missed it above, but have you considered the possibility it might be Asolene spixi? The spiral point is a bit more defined on yours than I am familiar with them being for this species, but an image search suggests they can be more like the one in your photo. The shell patterning is pretty spot on though. Anyhow, I just thought it might be something to consider.

That's a good question without a straightforward answer. It'll depend on species, as you noted with the Anubias, intensity of the light, and the quality of the light, by which I mean the spectra. The spectral issues get complicated with LED lights too. Prior to LED lights we didn't really have the same level of control over the spectra of lights delivered to plants (just in case there are chemists here - yes I know it is possible dope the filaments of metal halides and the phosphorus layer of fluorescents to change the light produced to a decent extent). In fact, I have had long conversations about the prospect of replacing PAR because if it's insensitivity to spectral variations that can be meaningful to plants. Anyhow, I should quit while I am ahead here and start to bore folks to tears. Short answer, hard to say without specifics, but greater intensity will increase plant responses with low light plants being more sensitive. Nothing you didn't know already, I am sure.

I did run some X-mas moss through, which did fine. Yes it was in a sealed container, but they were only in there for about 6ish hours. I wasn't super strict about it being "dark" either, more dim. Tossed a dark towel over it. I saw no damage to the moss, and I am happy to report that months later there is still no sign of the algae it arrived with. Plus unobserved snails were also eliminated.

So, I did read through a bit of the thread for context, but there's a real good chance I'm missing something. Let me know if that's true. I'm gathering that folks are turning their lights off for part of the day as an algae control mechanism, and there is interest in how the plants may respond to the added ambient light from a window during that period. Is that right? Am I even close? Now, I can't say for sure what is happening in a specific case as there are going to be species differences, and conditional issues that will interact to yield the observed outcome. Basically, I'll aim for giving the general overview, but life is complicated. Most plants, especially those which can grow well under lower light conditions are pretty sensitive to even low light availabilities. So, in my house the ambient light during the day in the summer, or in the winter when it is snowy, can be enough to sustain some plants which do not receive direct sunlight. Even sun adapted species have been shown to be responsive under fairly low light conditions. Years ago I read a few studies about trees in parking lots responding to the streetlights that are left on all night. As far as algae goes, the photosynthetic pigments tend to be similar, and I would think they would therefore be similarly activated. However, there may be system level differences that counteract that - like is being observed in the Reverse Respiration thread elsewhere in the forum. In short, if the light coming in though the window is enough, there is certainly a chance it could disrupt a "dark" cycle and negate any favoring of the vascular plants over algae that the cycle may be designed to elicit.

Been forever. I've been busy with... Just stuff. Despite my reduced activity here, I have been up to stuff. So here is a snippet. The desert gobies: Well, my breeding efforts have been chugging along. The first two successful batches of fry have grown enough that they would likely eat the next batch, so they needed a new home. Check out how much they've grown! I remember when they could hide among the sand grains and wrestled vinegar eels to eat them. They grow up so, well, slow in this case. But it's really rewarding! Now they are off into a 20 gal grow out tank. It will give them some more space, and free up the container for the net round of eggs. I really like breeding this species! Now that I have figured out how to breed this rare species, I am going to keep at it. Some of you may recall that I tried my hand at a very rare species of pupfish, and it didn't go well. But, I love those fish, and I am going to try again if I can. I've got a new tank, with a new setup. It still needs substrate, and plants, but it's cycling right now. Still, what do you think of the hardscape? Turns out, I had one thing right last time - these fish love algae! I found someone who is quite successful with this entire group and their advice was "grow hair algae; they will thrive and breed". So, I am once again chasing creating a tank full of algae. The good news is as it turns out, I can grow hair algae and have a local supply. Behold my Blue Grass tank: This was definitely not what I was shooting for when I set this up. Turns out any tank I put this light on, and toss a few nutrients at, magically grows hair algae. I think all I need to do is pop this light on the other thank, and presto, I should have the hair algae mess that will make my pupfish happy! Then I need to clean up this one, but that's all part of the deal. And of course, the egregious dart frog photo because they are right next door to these tanks: