KittenFishMom
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Posts posted by KittenFishMom
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@Chick-In-Of-TheSea That betta have been extra mellow about everything that has ever had in its tank, except the hillstream loaches. He ignored them for about 45 minutes, that decided he hated them even though the were a third of his side. He followed them and would flare so hard he could hardly swim. it was easy to net him and move him to another tank, because he was so obsessed and there were 3 hillstream loaches swimming in different direction. He never even reacted to a mirror that way. He was in a 55 tank when I added the loaches. He is now in a 15 tank. He gets lots of exercise patrolling any tank he is in. He covers the tank top to bottom and end to end. He gets betta food and eats whatever he wants from my feeding the other fish. He seems to nudge the corys away from the food, but never flares at them. I was so surprised at the way he reacted to the hillstream loaches. I think if there was only 1 instead of 3 he would have attacked it. but with the 3 he seemed to get confused.
@Chick-In-Of-TheSea Also all the tanks have booming populations of ramshorn and other snails. If the betta is eating baby snails, There is a huge selection to choose from. I thin the snails out often.
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@Guppysnail Obviously you have been awake longer than I have. Your answer is so logical! Thank you, and the hatchlings thank you too !
(I love you thumbnail new photo. Sometimes I see a lizard looking up to the right, other times a see a very human face. The point of the lizards chin being the other human eye brow and the lizard's lip being the human's nose and the corner of the lizards mouth being the human's mouth. I don't like my cataracts, but I often see things in unusual was.)
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@Guppysnail and @Chick-In-Of-TheSea I could not figure out a good way to transport the hatchlings in the breeder box. My eyesight isn't great, and I am afraid to try vacuuming with a turkey baster. I think their best chance to survive is if I put them in a tank and see if any are big enough to see in 2 months. I have 2 tanks that don't have leeches. One is 15 gallon mostly bare bottom with green waters from the sun light coming in the west sliding door. When the tree leafs out, it would get as much light. The other tank is 15 with sand substrate and more stem plants. and clear water. Both tanks have IALs and java moss and growing cory fry. The bare bottom one has a lot of water lettuce in it and an adult male betta..
Which one would you use for the hatchling snails?
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@Guppysnail and @Chick-In-Of-TheSea I just added an IAL that was in the tank for a few days. It is soft and slippery. Hopefully I can send the hatchlings and the clutches to the breeder on Thursday. I put in some wonder shell chips and java moss last night. I added a little "first bites" last night too. Wish the little guys luck.
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@Goldie Blue I did crumble the clutch in and added some tiny bits of repashy.
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Put a sheet of Styrofoam under the rock. If you don't, a pressure point can cause the bottom of your tank to crack when you least expect it to. It could take a while to make the bottom leak and fall out, but there is never a good time to have that happen.
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@Goldie Blue What are you feeding them? I had a clutch hatch tonight, before I could give it to the person who wanted it. I have them in an HOB style breeder box. I can hardly even see them. (I have old eyes). I put a bit of java moss in. I have no idea what to feed them. I'm not a snail person and was saving the clutches for a breeder. (I posted more details in General discussion)
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I was planning to give some mystery snail egg clutches to someone. One clutched hatch tonight before I could give them to her. I floated the clutch on a bit of bubble wrap in a HOB-breeder box. When most were in the water, I crumbled the clutch into the water and added java moss. I'm not sure what to feed them until she can get them to her tank. I put a piece of coarse filter sponge in the outlet of the box, but they may get through that, they are so tiny. She is in bed by now. I'm open to suggestions. I will probably have them until Thursday (3 days). I would never find them if they get into the tank with everything else.
@Guppysnail and @Chick-In-Of-TheSea and @nabokovfan87 Any ideas on what would be good to feed or keep them from getting into the tank?
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@Marcelo If @colu thinks it is OK, I would add several pieces of IALs to give him a place to hide and feel safe, to reduce the stress level. IALs are also helpful with infections.
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@Biotope Biologist I sometimes wonder if I bought native NY fish from a breeder outside the of NY if it would still count as keeping natives. I had some much fun studying the eating habits of the fish I would catch while fishing. I had 75 perch in the tank at one point in late August. 70+ bullhead fry I netted while the parents were guarding them. That is where the "KittenFishMom" name came from. They were so much fun to raise. I had never had fry before and did a lot of research very quickly to find out how to feed them. In the spring and fall I have the tank full of big bullheads. I was alway adding things from the minnow trap. Lots of fresh plants from the lake filled with little yummy creatures. It was so much fun.
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@Biotope Biologist We have 2 cottages/camps, side by side to sell this summer. They are on the swampy end of Owasco Lake in NY. It is a wonderful place if you know anyone in the looking for a great place to watch wildlife. The Great Blue Herons stand next to my baited minnow traps and pick off the minnows as they approach the traps. The shore is about 20 feet from the front of the cottage we are keeping. If we move too fast inside, they take off.
I am pretty sure flagfish will eat leeches, but they tend to pick on other fish. I got some females shipped from Florida this winter. They kept spoking the peppered corys. I rehomed the flagfish. Now I wish I had had kept them separately.
I don't release things from my tropical tank. I don't want to spread a pathogen to the creatures in the lake have very been exposed to. My first aquarium was 120 gallon for native fish and creatures. I was very careful not to put anything in the tank that didn't come for the lake or the soil around the cottage. In the fall, I rehome some including mudpuppies, to a nature center and others to a DEC display tank. That was when I found out it was illegal to keep native species in NY, so I went tropical. The DEC person wasn't in enforcement, so I didn't get in trouble. He was happy to get the well fed healthy fish.
P.S. The camps are less than half the price of anything else on the lake. The are not showy expensive places, just fun campy places.
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@Biotope Biologist We switched to RO/di system because our tap had way off the scale Mg, no Ca and lots of ammonia. So now I am using equilibrium, but it doesn't last very long with all the plants and livestock and potting soil. We never drank the water here. but now that we have RO/DI, we drink that rather than luggin drinking water in to the cottage. We are at the swampy end of the lake. No one drinks the water here. Wonderful wildlife. Lots of semi floating driftwood so only very minimal slow boat traffic.
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@Biotope Biologist I was planning on emptying the tanks and tossing the substrate and cleaning the tank, while keeping the snails in a bare bottom QT tank to look for leeches. and put everything but the fish and the snails through reverse respiration. You think the leeches will come back anyway?
I could leave all the random snails out for the person who sells them. I have moved healthy snails in to my two temp 15 gallon tanks with the cory fry. I figured those tanks were leech free because I didn't move plants or filters or substrate. If the snails might have been carrying the leeches, then it does look hopeless.
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@Biotope Biologist I don't mind you nerding out (or as I grew up with in college "knirding out").
My half cylinder has neocaridina shrimp and random snails. My 55 has fish and mystery snails and random snails. I have had problems with pH dropping in both tanks. I think from the potting soil, so I was planning it take down the tanks to fix the pH and the leeches at the same time. The tanks have had the leeches for awhile, and have not done a lot of damage, but the shrimp colony is not growing much, and now that I have collected a lot of random snails from the other tank, I am worried the mystery snails might be in danger.
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@Biotope Biologist not a lot of snail deaths. but there are some empty shells. I have been thinning the ramshorns and bladder snails out for someone who sells them to puffer owners. I am wondering if these leeches tending to go after them rather than try to chase down the mystery snails. Now that the ramshorn and bladder snail populations are getting lower, they might seek out the mystery snails. The tank had low calcium for a while, so the snail shells where very weak. That and old age is what I thought might have caused the deaths. One mystery snail looked like it was missing part of a foot for a while. but I haven't noticed it lately.
(The tank kept getting cloudy so I pull a bunch of plants and put the through reverse respiration in hopes of increasing the flow and clear the tank some. That didn't work, so I pulls the drift wood. I haven't seen much of the substrate in ages because of all the plants. Tank is still cloudy, but I think it is improving.)
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@Biotope Biologist Really, you think it is a snail leech? Bummer. So I should take down both tanks and clean them?
I was planning on a salt and vinegar scrub. Do you think that will kill eggs as well as adults?
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@Biotope Biologist Do you want something for scale?
I'm so glad you don't think the are snail leeches. I did pull one off a snail. Maybe it was just hitching a ride.
I could add a few drops of water and see if I can get it out of the curse of the dish and photo the underside.
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It is in a clear plastic dish over my striped shirt. The glare from the lights made it tricky. Want more.
I remember pulling lampreys off of fish as a kid. We took one home so the high schooler next door to take it to science class. Mid 60's on Cayuga Lake in NY. I remember looking at laying on it's back between my feet on the way home and my Dad saying not to damage it with my foot when I got out of the car.
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@Biotope Biologist Thank you. I just caught a very large one. I can put it on a wet paper towel and photograph it if that would be useful. Let me know. It is in the new trash bag I just saw it when I tossed others out.
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@Guppysnail I use reverse respiration on all my plants and have once I heard about it. Those lake plants were gathers in the fall.
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@Guppysnail I do remove the leeches every time I see one. They came for plants I found in the lakes.
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This is what the icthyologisy said:
All leeches are predatory or parasitic. I believe you have a leech in the family Glossiphoniidae-based on the size and coloration. Although a definitive ID requires examination of the mouth and oral disc under a microscope. They are mainly predators of invertebrates see feeding description below.
Here are the photos I sent to the ichthyologist. I can get more photos. I may have more than one type of leech.
the leech:
and the cup for scale:
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I have looked them up. also had an ichthyologist check them out and they look just like the ones in the video Lennie posted. They even drop young it you don't grab the carefully. I just figured they were after the bladder and ramshorm and didn't bother the fish or mystery snails. I find them on the glass, top to bottom. They love hanging out in the plants and between the prefilters and the glass. I think the neon tetras pray on the leeches, they are always looking at the substrate.
If I shake the plants and come back in 10 minutes, there are some on the glass. I find them under the base of sponge filters and rocks. and under anything floating in the tank.
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@Lennie and @Guppysnail I just watched the video Lennie posted above and snail leeches wiping out 8 tanks off mystery snails. I have no mystery snails in the half cylinder tank where I have leeches, but I do have them in my 55 tank, along with ramshorn, bladder and mystery snail and snail leeches just like the video.
ACK, Now what do I do? If I move the mystery snails from the tank with leeches, to a tank without leeches, I might move the leeches too. I have two 15 gallon temp tanks I set up for the cory fry. I believe they are leech free. I used new plants or plants I put through RR. everything else for the tanks was new. I use a flashlight and check those tanks every evening.
I want to round up the mystery snails in the 55 tank and put them someplace safe and see if they have leeches on/in them. I don't know where to put that tank. Oh goodness. I think I am on the edge of a big problem. The mystery snails in the 55 tank have been laying egg clutches all week. I think I have 5 mystery snail egg clutches.
I have a 10 gallon tank with a lid. but I don't know where I can put it.
How bad is green water in a tank? Do I need to buy a UV filter? What should I do?
in General Discussion
Posted · Edited by KittenFishMom
The afternoon sun has started to hit one of my fish tanks. In a few weeks, the tree out front will leave out and the direct sun will no longer hit the tank.
I don't mind living with green water for a while. But how bad is it for the fish and the tank? Do I need to buy a UV filter? I can cover the side of the tank that gets the direct sunlight. I also have a light over the tank to help the water lettuce and java moss. This tank mostly has cory fry that a breeder should be taking soon and some snails and a male betta.
ACO website says blacking out the tank for a week or getting a UV filter. Neither is very appealing to me right now.
What do you advise?