Mystery snail eggs & inverts journal

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/31/2023 at 4:23 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Your question earlier....

Paraguard:

Paracleanse: Active ingredient: Metronidazole and Praziquantel

Ich-X: Dosage produces concentration of 0.5 mg/L of malachite green and 15 mg/L of formalia ~5.55 mg/L of Formaldehyde.

if you have the third one on the list there it should be equivalent.

This is the MSDS for Paraguard ^^

  

On 6/5/2023 at 4:12 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

So guys I did the magnifying glass test this AM. One female has a worm that is retracting down into her head, she looks at a glance like she’s not a host, then it comes out, and a few others have it too. So now I want opinions since I have not bought meds yet and have a choice. PraziPro or Paraguard? Paraguard was in Rachel O’Leary’s article; she says it’s very mild on the shrimp. @Torrey has good experience with PraziPro. I’m inexperienced with this illness and have different information from different sources and just need a weigh-in?

I would dose in salt + ich-X (or paraguard) and Prazi.  (all for different things)  see method at the end of the post, not all at once!

I don't know what the salt dose would be.  If it were me, I'd probably do the 1/3 cup per 10G ratio and hope it goes well.

Per the Hikari website:
Use Prazi, then follow with Ich-X

Quote

Highly Effective & Safe Too!

• Treates flukes, tapeworms, flatworms, and turbellarians
• Proven active ingredient with a long safety history
• Easy to use, fully homogeneous formula
• Won't negatively impact biological filtration
• Can be used as a preventative
• Excellent when used before Ich-X^®(as a separate treatment following a large water change)

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by nabokovfan87
added details.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Going to give this a read

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/aquaticanimals/2022/0/2022_AA2022-1/_pdf/-char/en

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

The shrimp feeding dish arrives at a good time. This can help me with “crowd control”.

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/6/2023 at 2:49 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Going to give this a read

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/aquaticanimals/2022/0/2022_AA2022-1/_pdf/-char/en

First page and I'm already worried about import shrimp. 😞

Quote

Recently, Maciaszek et al. (2021) reported the invasion of S. japonica into Poland, Europe, which is likely due to intentional or unintentional releases of infected ornamental shrimp Neocaridina davidi (Bouvier, 1904). Used as fishing bait and ornamental shrimp, N. davidi have spread across the world (Englund and Cai 1999; Niwa 2010; Klotz et al. 2013; Jabłońska et al. 2018; Weiperth et al. 2019).

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 6/6/2023 at 6:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

First page and I'm already worried about import shrimp. 😞

 

Rachel O’Leary talks about it. Super common in neos. Also says they usually look fine but with macro lens or magnifying glass is where symptoms can be seen.

Prepping tank for treatment.

I have to get the sand as clean as possible. Waste = carbon = less effective meds. I removed waste turkey baster by turkey baster because the airline kept clogging. These repetitive motions killed my back but I got 2/3 of the tank done. I used a white dish pan. I was not able to get the paint strainer yet. It never fails - shrimplets never move until I go outside to pour the water on the garden. No matter how much I use a flashlight and stir mulm with a skewer, if I’m indoors they are perfectly still within the mulm. 😐 Well ok, ONE I saw. Then 2 were rescued after going outside. I left the mulm water to sit overnight and will check again in the morning.

I’m exhausted. I had the eye doctor and the dentist today as well. Eyes required dilation so I was out of commission for awhile and couldn’t do much or read things because I couldn’t see well. So I relaxed and watched @TheSwissAquarist ‘s recommendation The Great Escape. Very good. 👍👍

P.S. the shrimps like the stuff I stirred up. They are having a great time. & I found a baby and an adult MTS and they went into a bucket with the plants. They were given a flower pot of delicious sand from the tank.

Edited June 7, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Button was unfazed by his drip acclimation to the 29g and immediately found a food dish and made a friend.

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Qt (no meds) setup. Nibbles and the other MTS added today. Nibbles got his catappa and after a minute to gain his bearings, latched on. The MTS seem to have cleaned the sand I put in there already, and my flower pot holding the sand was dumped because I couldn’t move it around without sand flowing out of the hole on the bottom, which I forgot to seal. Lastly I dosed this “tank” with bacter Ae.

Oh, and found a shrimplet in there. No doubt came out of the sponge filter. I didn’t really clean the sponge filter when I added it a week ago. I thought this was just a plant holding area at the time. Returned shrimplet to the colony.

 

 

Check out the snoot on this gal. She’s like a mini rabbit snail.

Edited June 8, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[TheSwissAquarist]

Snailtastic! What’s the QT for? 
 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 6/8/2023 at 8:16 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Snailtastic! What’s the QT for? 
 

I have to treat the shrimp tank but the meds are not safe for my snail friends.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Welp, Button has met Hampshire already. You could say they are attached at the hip.

 

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

The scutariella japonica treatment will take ~1 month to complete and will be started on Sunday, as I'm diving tomorrow and won't be home to monitor wellbeing or pull molts.  Medicine must be diluted with tank water and dripped in while monitoring shrimp for signs of stress, at which point the drip can be paused.  An extra airstone is also required for this treatment due to the viscosity of the medication.  Driftwood must also be pulled as it has a tendency to absorb or lessen the effectiveness of this med. Plants may or may not be ok with this, so they have been pulled. Also plants hide shrimp and molts... I will let some sprigs float around though for grazing and a sense of security.

(7 days Prazi-Pro + 3 days rest) x 3

3 cycles are needed to account for flatworms laying eggs within the carapace, and eggs being released into the tank or consumed by other shrimp after molting.  Molts will be pulled daily to prevent consumption.

The 5g has been set up with a seeded sponge and tank water to prepare for treatment of the wild shrimp.  I still need to catch them from the Walstad jar and the 29g.  The 29g is not going to be treated and will remain without shrimp for at least 2 months, to allow flatworms/eggs/new flatworms to die out without the presence of hosts.  I need to confirm 2 months is enough time; I haven't had time to verify the life cycle yet, but once I have the shrimp out of the tank, I will have more time to research.

Just trying to take things a day at a time.

I am under the wing of a very excellent mentor, @Torrey who has dealt with SJ several times prior and proactively quarantines now for prevention.  They shared some experiences, good and bad, (ie: how not diluting & dripping in meds, and how not adding extra air, can cause losses).

Edited June 9, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

It’s been a busy afternoon. I’d say there’s about 30 wilds. At least. 

 

[TheSwissAquarist]

Sorry that this has happened 😢

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/9/2023 at 3:20 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I’d say there’s about 30 wilds. At least. 

It's good to see the growth and the consistency in coloration.  It's been a process. 

The last video I sent gave a technique for salt treating the entire tank! Really useful and is likely how I handle things if I ever have to duel with this stuff. 

One day at a time.  Hopefully your dive was amazing and you brought back some fun photos for us of the adventures 🙂 .

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Ok. The medicine is in. I tried to create a drip system for med dilution and administration. 

The cup is the stand. The skewer is to shove in next to the bottle to keep it upright. It didn’t really work. Idk if because the med is thick or, more likely, the bottle needed a relief hole bc the stuff kept wanting to retract back up. Anyway, I took the valve off and just shook the bottle (tank water/meds) and squished it in, through the tubing, in intervals, above the sponge filter. Shake bottle, release meds, shake bottle, release meds. This med needs a lot of shaking/dilution; it’s thick. At the end I filled the bottle again with tank water and repeated the shake/add process.

I expected the shrimp to go nuts but they really didn’t. They are foraging around as usual. I used Magnifier on the shrimplets, and they are doing the same. I am pushing a bunch of air in there with this air bar. You can see the foaming, which the med bottle confirms will happen. Really bad glare, sorry.

The air bar doesn’t want to lay flat so, whatever. I don’t want to reach in the medicated water. I will be doing that tomorrow to get molts out though. I did a bit of an underdose, just a touch, due to medication syringe not specific enough. I’m told the treatment will still work fine at a 2mL dose.

I’m not doing the wild tank yet because I don’t want them to be on the same water change schedule. Plus I need to still add the Walstad jar shrimp to that tank. I did lose a shrimp in the wild tank. It was very clear it was a molting issue. Not a failed molt though. The shell was extremely loose. I think just the molt stress plus the tank move stress combined. I also notice that shrimp tend to harass molting shrimp. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/11/2023 at 8:42 AM, Lennie said:

@nabokovfan87 keeps liking snail pics. Even pest ones!

Not all. Some.

On 6/11/2023 at 7:58 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

They are foraging around as usual. I used Magnifier on the shrimplets, and they are doing the same. I am pushing a bunch of air in there with this air bar.

By "the same" you mean the SJ is still there?

The shrimp wanted me to ask if they could have the air bar in there for keeps. They like the tiny bubbles! It'll be interesting to see if you notice them hanging around it.

Best of luck with everything. Hoping for success for you and them!!!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 6/11/2023 at 12:22 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

By "the same" you mean

…that their behavior hasn’t changed and they are foraging and doing shrimpy things, just like the adults.

The SJ is there for sure. I was watching that slithery grossness earlier on Magnifier. I haven’t seen it on shrimplets. Only adults. Then again shrimplets are too tiny to see any detail.

On 6/11/2023 at 12:22 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The shrimp wanted me to ask if they could have the air bar in there for keeps. They like the tiny bubbles! It'll be interesting to see if you notice them hanging around it.

Ha. I saw one daredevil take a ride up on the bubbles. I don’t mind keeping it, but I’d try to get a green one or hide this one behind stuff.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/11/2023 at 9:55 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Ha. I saw one daredevil take a ride up on the bubbles.

😂 They can be like corydoras for sure. The male shrimp love to do that. In my tank the baby shrimp are usually around the air or directly behind it on the glass.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

The shrimp are doing well. They are very active this morning, swimming all around.  I hope that they are just telling me they are hungry and not that they are stressed.  Even the little shrimplets are doing just fine, walking around/foraging, which is a blessing. I gave them a green bean today. They had a huge meal of shrimp cuisine yesterday. Yes, even after my diligent tank cleaning.  I admit, I was guilt feeding them because I knew I was about to medicate them. 😳 I used their little dish so the tank didn't get too messed up.   Molts removed this morning.  I plan to do the inspection later today to check for signs/changes with the SJ.  

Edited June 12, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

a clear wild type

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Yesterday I had a situation where a contaminant got into the wild shrimp tank and many of the shrimp were twitching and jumping. I feared I would lose all inhabitants. I did a water change and ran carbon with a hob. This was a bit too much current for the tank, and I’m sure it created stress. I only ran the HOB for 30 min at which point hardly anyone was twitching anymore. Then I dropped the media bag of carbon in the tank next to the sponge filter and went to bed. I was too upset to study or eat or anything and I just kinda shut down from anxiety and guilt.

This morning I dreaded to look in the tank. But I did. Everyone is fine. Everyone. Thank God.

Here are 2 of the gang 

Edited June 13, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

I’m glad your shrimpy kids are ok. 

[nabokovfan87]

They have those strong wild genes! 🙂

I'm glad they are ok.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Happy to report a baby MTS surfaced and is alive despite the Prazi-Pro. So I added it to the bucket with Nibbles and the other MTS friends. I don’t really have a way to check on Nibbles. All the decor, driftwood, and plants are in that bucket as well while the treatment is in the tank, and Nibbles is so small. Maybe during the 3 day rest period between courses I can move the stuff back to the tank and check more thoroughly. I did see an adult MTS at the bottom in the little bit of sand that is there. I swirled in some Repashy powder for everybody.

I have a feeling my detritus worm friends (only had a few, which I stirred up when siphoning) are likely not going to make it in the tank. Or the limpets. I don’t know about the Hydra, ostracods, copepods. The main thing is we are removing the parasite and getting the shrimps healthy. Also they keep molting in their food dish and then trying to eat it. I remove it asap when I see it, but guys, please - stop eating the molts!

I did another water change on the wild tank. As well as rinsed the lid under the tap. I really love those clear shrimp. I think I only have 2.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/13/2023 at 5:29 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I have a feeling my detritus worm friends (only had a few, which I stirred up when siphoning) are likely not going to make it in the tank. Or the limpets. I don’t know about the Hydra, ostracods, copepods. The main thing is we are removing the parasite and getting the shrimps healthy. Also they keep molting in their food dish and then trying to eat it. I remove it asap when I see it, but guys, please - stop eating the molts!

Oh they'll be there.  I've got em all.  The only one I do not know is hydra.