Katherine's Planted Tank Journal

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 3/27/2022 at 9:40 PM, Katherine said:

I caught a bladder snail using a piece of duckweed as a parachute to get to the bottom of the tank.

That is hysterical 🤣

[Katherine]

My balcony feeder didn't quite work out in it's original form. They pushed the algae wafer over the edge. Here comes version 2. I've fed them this way a few times and the food stays put.

[Katherine]

Here's an updated tank photo, taken yesterday. The water sprite that was added in May finally melted back so all but the new growth was removed on Saturday. My snails had already trimmed the bottom of one stem for me. 😂

I cannot believe how much the mystery snails have grown since I got them. Blue Soul and Goldilocks are probably the size of a large marble, and Penny is getting up toward golf ball size.

It turns out Penny is female and the other two are male. We're attempting to hatch a small clutch of eggs, which I'm journaling about here.

My black phantom tetras are still in QT. We lost one to an undetermined illness last month, so the other 5 got their stay extended. They all look fine so far so if nothing pops up in the next few days they'll get moved to the main tank on Friday or Saturday.

[Katherine]

My QT tetras were still looking good and eating normally, so they got moved over today! They are hiding in a group in the most hidden back corner. They haven't met up with the two that were already in the tank yet. I'm really hoping they help those two become less timid. It was never my intention to only have two.

[Katherine]

I found The Big Snail (our black racer nerite, no longer the biggest snail in the tank, but not allowed to be renamed) sleeping mostly below the gravel line. Which explains why I keep finding him covered in poop.

[Katherine]

@Guppysnail I couldn't remember where we were talking about nerite eating habits, so I figured I'd throw this in here.

As I've had my zebra nerite a little longer I've noticed it spending more time on window washing and other algae/biofilm eating and less time on the food I add in for my mysteries. It does still munch on it sometimes, but not as much as when it was initially added to my tank. I'm thinking maybe it was starving and needed the large amounts of food in one place rather than it's preferred food which requires more work.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/16/2022 at 9:47 PM, Katherine said:

@Guppysnail I couldn't remember where we were talking about nerite eating habits, so I figured I'd throw this in here.

As I've had my zebra nerite a little longer I've noticed it spending more time on window washing and other algae/biofilm eating and less time on the food I add in for my mysteries. It does still munch on it sometimes, but not as much as when it was initially added to my tank. I'm thinking maybe it was starving and needed the large amounts of food in one place rather than it's preferred food which requires more work.

I really wish mine would eat what I offer but she just wants to clean stuff.

[Katherine]

On 7/16/2022 at 8:55 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I really wish mine would eat what I offer but she just wants to clean stuff.

😆 I want mine to clean stuff! That's why I got a second nerite to begin with. Any particular reason you want yours eating the supplemental food?

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/16/2022 at 10:01 PM, Katherine said:

😆 I want mine to clean stuff! That's why I got a second nerite to begin with. Any particular reason you want yours eating the supplemental food?

I just worry she’s not getting all the nutrients she might need. But she looks really healthy. I have hard water so I believe we are good in the calcium department. I keep cuttlebone in there too, and if they don’t eat it, the calcium slowly releases into the water. One time she was sifting through sand. It was incredibly weird, but the forum members said she was getting food out of it. I thought she was dying. But nope, she went right back to cleaning everything afterwards. I think she can pull nutrients she needs out of the driftwood too?

 

[Katherine]

Oh man, buckle up. I went shopping.

First up - 21 zebra danios, currently in quarantine! I went in wanting 20 and when the employee had netted them for me he said there was just one left in the tank, so I took that one too. We wouldn't want to leave it alone, would we? I'm really looking forward to getting these guys through QT and into my tank. I've ended up with only 2 zebra danios, just like I was with the black phantom tetras.

Next up, snails! Because of course. None of them have been named yet, stay tuned to see what the kids come up with.

I got 2 of these nerites. They were listed on the tank as red onion nerites, which is obviously incorrect. I believe they're black racers. Their shells look really good, though one had previously been bedazzled by a fellow nerite and you can see the outline of where the eggs had been. They're much blacker than my original nerite, which was purchased without a type specified, but that I also thought was a black racer. I haven't been able to find any other type with the same shell shape. If anybody knows of one, feel free to chime in!

We got 5 of the pinkest red ramshorn snails they had. My 5yo fell in love with them last trip, but we didn't get any then.

And of course we got another mystery snail! I almost missed this little guy. It was not in the tank with most of the other mystery snails, it was in a fish tank a few down from the danios and I spotted it while they were being netted. I'm not 100% sure if this is a chestnut or a magenta. The old growth definitely doesn't look magenta, but the new growth looks like it could be possible. The shell is in rough shape, but the portion that grew at the LFS looks much better than the previous growth. It stayed shut tight in it's shell the whole time in the bag and the whole time in the acclimation bucket. It came out and slooowly beelined it right past the food for the back corner of the tank right after I put it in. It appears to be sleeping with it's face in the corner.

And then we have plants. I paid for one 'large' narrow leaf water sprite and came out with that plus a small water sprite and 3 mystery tag-alongs. One in the water sprite bag and 2 in the danio bag. Here are my mystery plants. I'll probably also post asking for identification in the plants section of the forum.

This one is a floater, the 3 leaves are connected to each other.

Same plant, roots.

Here's another floater.

Same plant, roots.

This one is currently floating, but I think it might be part of a stem plant?

And underwater. Roots appear to be coming from both ends? Or possibly one end and the middle.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Naturally.. snails!!

You got some beauties there! 😍

On 7/17/2022 at 7:00 PM, Katherine said:

I'm not 100% sure if this is a chestnut or a magenta.

I’ve never seen a shell like that but I don’t think it’s a magenta because @Guppysnail has magentas, and hers’ shells are different.

On 7/17/2022 at 7:00 PM, Katherine said:

We got 5 of the pinkest red ramshorn snails they had. My 5yo fell in love with them last trip, but we didn't get any then

Really neat!!

On 7/17/2022 at 7:00 PM, Katherine said:

I've ended up with only 2 zebra danios, just like I was with the black phantom tetras.

Something like that happened with my black neons. Back before the forum, before I quarantined anything.. there was an ick situation. And I had only 2 left in the school. Then eventually just 1. He ended up schooling with different tetras til I was able to get him some new buddies.

I’m not great with plants but I think the first pic could either be frogbit or red root floaters.

You’ve been busy! What a fun and exciting day!

[Katherine]

And the new mystery snail is named...

Drumroll, please...

...

Moldy.

😂

On 7/17/2022 at 6:31 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I’m not great with plants but I think the first pic could either be frogbit or red root floaters.

Out of those 2 I think it looks more like red root floater. The cluster shape of frogbit is different, I think.

[Katherine]

On 7/17/2022 at 7:03 PM, Katherine said:

And the new mystery snail is named...

Drumroll, please...

...

Moldy.

And now Moldy has been renamed Rusty. Which is too bad, Moldy was kinda growing on me.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Have you had the conversation with the little ones about quantity of fish food to feed? Reason I ask is because I was in a livestream the other night, and in the chat a lady was panicking because her son dumped a whole container of fry food (powder!) in a guppy tank.

[Katherine]

On 7/17/2022 at 8:02 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Have you had the conversation with the little ones about quantity of fish food to feed? Reason I ask is because I was in a livestream the other night, and in the chat a lady was panicking because her son dumped a whole container of fry food (powder!) in a guppy tank.

They know they are not allowed to feed them without me present. And when they do feed I only let them do a little pinch. It's a fairly frequent ongoing conversation.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/17/2022 at 9:05 PM, Katherine said:

They know they are not allowed to feed them without me present. And when they do feed I only let them do a little pinch. It's a fairly frequent ongoing conversation.

What I was thinking the other day, when I was in the livestream, is that households with kids can portion the fish food into the medication organizer. The pillboxes that have the days of the week on them. 

[Guppysnail]

Your little one is a chestnut. Here is magenta’s that size so you can see 

[Katherine]

On 7/17/2022 at 8:36 PM, Guppysnail said:

Your little one is a chestnut.

Honestly, my color differentiation skills are a little below average, I think. And then add trying to match colors over screens, and sometimes mislabeled google images, and it's a recipe for disaster, so thank you!

[Guppysnail]

My last chestnut girl often almost looks magenta. Even when my last old group magenta was beside her as an adult it was hard to tell in different lighting 

[Katherine]

And the new nerites have names! They are Stella and Fudge.

Edit: And I suppose while we're sharing names, I should say that 2 of the fish have names as well. The pink glofish tetra is Meimei and the yellow one is Science.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Katherine

[Katherine]

Rusty has discovered that algae wafers are food!

Aaand so have the tetras.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Tetras are bottomless pits.

[Katherine]

On 7/18/2022 at 4:46 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Tetras are bottomless pits.

So are the danios. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I have to target feed my Bolivian ram with a turkey baster because she likes to eat on the bottom and she wouldn't get anything with them swarming above her.

[Katherine]

The 2 original black phantom tetras are out and about with the new additions! They've been hiding the whole time they've been in this larger tank, only coming out briefly to eat if the light is off.