Katherine's Planted Tank Journal

[Katherine]

I have val touching the top of the tank! I cannot overstate how excited I am about this! 😍

[Guppysnail]

I tried for year to grow Val. Nothing. It pretended to be plastic for months then die consistently. I remember my husband came rushing to the fish room because I actually squealed the first time it grew to the top. Congratulations 🥳

[Katherine]

On 2/20/2023 at 4:57 PM, Guppysnail said:

I tried for year to grow Val. Nothing. It pretended to be plastic for months then die consistently. I remember my husband came rushing to the fish room because I actually squealed the first time it grew to the top. Congratulations 🥳

When I was using the light that came with the tank it was just barely not dying. It really likes the coop light.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

It’s so happy!! 💚

[Katherine]

I might have to convince my kids to put the water sprite in their tank like they originally wanted and just have a huge patch of val there.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/20/2023 at 8:11 PM, Katherine said:

I might have to convince my kids to put the water sprite in their tank like they originally wanted and just have a huge patch of val there.

Phrase it like, “do you want a free plant for your fish tank?”

[Katherine]

On 2/20/2023 at 7:12 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Phrase it like, “do you want a free plant for your fish tank?”

It's been offered. They originally said they wanted it. Then one wanted it and the other didn't, so it didn't go in.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Hey how are your mysteries? Did you adopt any out or are they all livin the dream in the 75?

The teddy bear in your signature is so cute.

[Katherine]

On 2/22/2023 at 5:01 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Hey how are your mysteries? Did you adopt any out or are they all livin the dream in the 75?

I did not adopt any out. None of the stores around me seemed to be feeding them enough in the store, always tons of empty shells in the tank, so I didn't even try there. I gave it a half-hearted try to adopt some out to local hobbyists and got no bites. 

I lost several during my PH crash from not being able to get to the tank in the fall. And I'm losing 1-3 a month since getting that back under control. I think it may have done permanent damage to some of them. The ones doing well are doing really well, the ones not doing well are slowly declining.

On 2/22/2023 at 5:01 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

The teddy bear in your signature is so cute.

I spent way too long trying to decide what emoji to put there.

One of the dads is absolutely huge.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/22/2023 at 6:05 PM, Katherine said:

I did not adopt any out. None of the stores around me seemed to be feeding them enough in the store, always tons of empty shells in the tank, so I didn't even try there. I gave it a half-hearted try to adopt some out to local hobbyists and got no bites. 

I lost several during my PH crash from not being able to get to the tank in the fall. And I'm losing 1-3 a month since getting that back under control. I think it may have done permanent damage to some of them. The ones doing well are doing really well, the ones not doing well are slowly declining.

I spent way too long trying to decide what emoji to put there.

I’ve been experiencing the same thing with a lot of the stores. Empty shells, inactive snails, it’s like they just dump them in a tank and they’re an afterthought. It bums me out. I used the Nextdoor app to post to my neighbors about the snails I was adopting out. One couple with major MTS came twice and got 10 each time. They have like 10 tanks, one is a 160 gal.

Sorry you lost some snails. Life threw you a curveball. ☹️

Edited February 22, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Katherine]

I'm glad I tried raising them once, I really enjoyed the experience, and I'm enjoying them while I have them, but I don't plan to do it again.

I've been thinking over what I want to add to the tank when the snail load is lower. They probably have about 30x the bio load of my fish. There are more of them than the fish to start, and they're larger than my fish as well.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/22/2023 at 6:05 PM, Katherine said:

One of the dads is absolutely huge

Yeah he is! Bit of pitting there on the shell. Is your water on the softer side?

[Katherine]

On 2/22/2023 at 5:12 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Yeah he is! Bit of pitting there on the shell. Is your water on the softer side?

That's from when my PH crashed. They all have some. New growth looks so much better.

GH is off the test strip high. KH is lowish, but stable now.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/22/2023 at 6:11 PM, Katherine said:

They probably have about 30x the bio load of my fish. There are more of them than the fish to start, and they're larger than my fish as well

I believe it! I think it’s officially 5x the bioload of fish but I get it- it seems like so much more, especially since you have so many. I had to evacuate the two that were in the shrimp tank. Mostly for that reason but also because I didn’t want them bulldozing little shrimplets.

Another thing I think @Guppysnail told me one time- if there are a lot of snails in the tank the calcium gets depleted quickly?

@Bev C uses liquid calcium. I wonder if that would be helpful.

Edited February 22, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Katherine]

On 2/22/2023 at 5:12 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Yeah he is! Bit of pitting there on the shell. Is your water on the softer side?

The ones I bought from a store also pitted much worse during the crash than the ones I raised. I'm thinking that has something to do with nutrition early on in life.

On 2/22/2023 at 5:14 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Another thing I think @Guppysnail told me one time- if there are a lot of snails in the tank the calcium gets depleted quickly?

That could be. I don't know the proportion of calcium to magnesium in my GH, but it was still over 300 after my longest time without a water change.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/22/2023 at 6:16 PM, Katherine said:

The ones I bought from a store also pitted much worse during the crash than the ones I raised. I'm thinking that has something to do with nutrition early on in life.

I would agree. But the dad snail shell still looks thick, so that is good.

[Katherine]

The snails got algae wafers this afternoon. One of them grabbed a whole wafer and carried it about 6 inches, half or more of that over the top of a bunch of other mystery snails, without dropping it. I'm impressed.

[Katherine]

For some reason I feel compelled to document whenever I see one of these nerites. I have 2 and I see them almost never. It's good to know at least one is still alive in there.

[Katherine]

What are the odds I'd see them both in one week?

[Katherine]

Here's what my crypt spiralis has melted down to. I think I've lost a few of them. This may end up with the PSO back here, but I'm giving it more time to see what happens. 

My horned nerites are about twice the size they were when I got them, but I don't have a photo of that right now.

My mystery snail losses have also slowed significantly. I think it's been a month at least since I lost any.

What is their lifespan normally? Google says a year, but they say the same for nerites and I've got one that we've had for 3.5 years now. Anybody with a lot of experience with them have a more accurate answer?

[Guppysnail]

A year and a half is normal. Some of mine live to 2.5. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I have a plant like the crypt spiralis. It’s called a crinum. Not a happy plant. I threw it in the back of the shrimp tank. It looks nothing like its glorious self at time of purchase. 😐

Edited March 28, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Hi @Katherine

How are you?

[Katherine]

On 9/5/2023 at 4:50 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Hi @Katherine

How are you?

Busy, mostly. Although I've had some setbacks with my hand on and off. It's much better now. Most things don't hurt to do, though I still have to write without my pointer finger. I'm spending some time today trying to get my tank back to looking nice.

Thanks for thinking of me!

[Katherine]

Hey everybody! I don't know if anyone will read this after I've been awol so long, but here's an update anyway.

I never quite seemed to have time to figure out what went wrong with the water in the tank we had set up for the kids, so we ended up getting some of what they wanted for my tank.

The new additions are several guppies (who have not been around long enough for babies yet, and I'm not sure babies won't all get eaten, but we'll see), 2 mystery snails (all the ones I had before have passed, we will not be hatching eggs this time), and three hillstream loaches.

We bought the snails and loaches the day before Thanksgiving and they've settled in nicely.

The snails have about doubled in size and are around an inch front to back. This is Penny, named after the previous white mystery snail. We also got a blue one, who has not been named yet and was hiding when I took photos earlier.

The hillstream loaches have been out in the open a lot more than I was expecting, which is super cool. They really like the anubias and the fake wood it's attached to. I have seen them eating flake food, guppy pellets, algae wafers, and a locally made bottom feeder pellet.

They had been in a very small tank, less than 5 gallons at the store with at least 6 other hillstream loaches plus a few fish, and they were very excited to have more room. They were zooming around the tank the whole evening when we brought them home.

I was unable to get a decent photo of the guppies.

And just when I was beginning to think The Big Snail, our original nerite, who we've had for over 4 years now, had died in the gravel somewhere here he is, chilling on the front glass! I go months at a time without seeing him.

My other two black racers hide a lot as well, but not as long as this guy. My two horned nerites are almost always easily visible, and I can catch a view of my red onion at least a few times a week. (That one is now bigger than The Big Snail.)

Edited December 5, 2023 by Katherine