Mystery snail eggs & inverts journal

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Button has the green bean all to himself (for now)

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

What in tarnation is even going on??  I don’t even know what to say. I am STUNNED by what came up on a routine water test of the 5g shrimp tank. It is not overstocked (I don’t think?) and the shrimps are the only things in there besides microfauna. I did a 15% water change last week with siphoning. Oh, I did accidentally uncover the stuff from ONE root tab during the siphoning. That one and only root tab couldn’t have caused this.. could it? (When I had planted that root tab I found it had popped up onto the substrate later).
 

And I had found one dead shrimp during that maintenance, pretty intact..

Test strip. Looked sus.

Liquid test 1:

Liquid test 2 using NEW test kit, right out of the box. 

Stocking level (water change in progress)

They’ve been eating spinach and green beans lately. The green beans can take 2 days to consume. They get, say, 1/8 of a green bean when I feed, or 1 spinach leaf. One day I fed kind of a lot of shrimp cuisine but they ate it all within the day and it was in the feeding dish. And there has been a detritus worm situation, just within the past few days. Also I had dose a half mil of Easy Green one week ago.

10g shrimp tank for comparison:

Tap water

One other anomaly to report is that I forgot to plug the heater back in so they were at 71 for a few days (vs 74).

Idk why this nitrate is so cattywampus.

Much to the shrimps’ delight they have hornwort now. 
 

Edited September 3, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/3/2023 at 5:45 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Much to the shrimps’ delight they have hornwort now. 

Awesome idea. I'm sure they loooooove it. The shrimpies still have no heater here yet.

It happens. I'm afraid to check mine now because I have been feeding and there's not a ton of plants.

You might be getting the reading from ferts?

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/3/2023 at 10:33 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Awesome idea. I'm sure they loooooove it. The shrimpies still have no heater here yet.

It happens. I'm afraid to check mine now because I have been feeding and there's not a ton of plants.

You might be getting the reading from ferts?

I really think the root tab popping up is to blame. The tanks gets the same treatment with feeding and maintenance but the root tab was the difference. I just can’t believe it would throw the reading that much. Then again, I dosed the Easy green too so that didn’t help things.

Some of the hornwort has some algae (shrimp food), so, bonus for them. One shrimp was immediately on the hornwort as soon as it hit the water. ☺️

On 9/3/2023 at 10:33 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

The shrimpies still have no heater here yet

I don’t think it matters much. Some people keep them outside in tubs during the winter and stuff.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Like 40-80 nitrates on the shrimp tank. Progress! Another water change. Will keep checking daily.

I lost another elderly snail today. Wow, so soon after the other. Such a sad day. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Snail merry-go-round

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Siblings

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Babies soon

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Everything has settled with the nitrate issue that was going on in the 5.5g shrimp tank. It’s at about a 10 now and took a couple water changes to correct. I haven’t seen the detritus worms since the nitrates dropped.

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

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/12/2023 at 3:00 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Everything has settled with the nitrate issue that was going on in the 5.5g shrimp tank. It’s at about a 10 now and took a couple water changes to correct. I haven’t seen the detritus worms since the nitrates dropped.

Good to hear. I spent some time last night watching the worms on the glass in my tank 😞

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I guess studying isn’t all bad. I think I own stock in this corporation. Lemme check…

P.S. Notice Snail Corp failed to file on time.  It’s slow… 🐌

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Folks, today I rehomed about half my blue dream colony, which involved only a 20 minute drive to a friend’s house. She had readied a tank

about a month and a half ago to prepare for her new colony. They were drip acclimated

for 2 hours while we watched a movie. They are exploring their new world. They have floating plants now!

 

I gave her some water lettuce from my Walstad Jar, and her Bloody Mary shrimp immediately took to it. (Different tank than the blue dreams)

Her dwarf gourami loved nibbling at it in the other tank as well. 

Some random photos I took. You know how tube socks have the 2 stripes? So does this ramshorn, so I named him Socks.

And here is one of @Guppysnail’s magenta babies!

 

 

She gave me some fern pups but said they are not Java Fern. We will see what they do.

And she brought back this snail on the right for me, from a Maine local artist.

 

Lastly, earlier today I was contending with a bacterial bloom in the 29. No one had died and there was no ammonia. Nitrates were a bit high. I did a water change and got some extra air going because I saw some fish going to the surface for air. Also the water I removed smelled like a sewer, and 2 Java ferns had melted in the tank and made a mess. I tried to remove what I could, but I will do another water change tomorrow to get more plant matter out. As well as withhold feeding.

Any tips for dealing with bacterial blooms, let me know?

Edited September 16, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/15/2023 at 7:59 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Any tips for dealing with bacterial blooms, let me know?

Congratulations on finding a home for the shrimp. Hopefully they continue to thrive and do well!

For blooms I think it's just water changes, clean filters, and time. If it lingers, I just tend to add some ceramic media or lava rock or something to the tank.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

This is how the tank looks. Not so cloudy anymore, which means the dead plant matter was the cause. And overfeeding, no doubt. #notorious #guiltyascharged (I think it’s easy to overfeed snails. It’s simpler to throttle quantity back when feeding fish.)

Nevertheless, I did a water change because it is not completely clear when viewing the tank in person.

Kratos the burrower is on the move. Look at how dirty he is, lol. He is the laziest snail on the planet.

The anubias looks awful so I am RRing it in a tall vase.

This driftwood has been looking awful too and doesn’t want to come clean with a toothbrush or baster.

I simply flipped it over. I don’t care about the moss. 

The fish were looking frantically for cover in the middle since I removed the Java fern and anubias, so I gave them the most natural looking fake plant I have. One leaf has a hole in it where the cat bit it. That makes it all the more real-seeming, no?

The fish immediately went into the fake plant. They feel secure now. By dinner time the anubias should be done with RR.

Edited September 16, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

On 9/16/2023 at 7:44 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

notorious #guiltyascharged

Hi.  My name is Kerry.  I am an over feeder.

🤣

I love that woods structure. You just gave me motivation to break out power tools today and cut down some of my larger spider wood. 🤗 That tank is so pretty. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/16/2023 at 8:02 AM, Guppysnail said:

Hi.  My name is Kerry.  I am an over feeder.

🤣

I love that woods structure. You just gave me motivation to break out power tools today and cut down some of my larger spider wood. 🤗 That tank is so pretty. 

Thank you! It’s not so good for closeup photos as you can tell. But I’m working on it 🤪

[Lennie]

On 9/16/2023 at 5:59 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Folks, today I rehomed about half my blue dream colony, which involved only a 20 minute drive to a friend’s house. She had readied a tank

Your friend is an interesting person just like me.

I keep my black roses on black aquasoil. She keeps her blues on a blue gravel 😄😄 

 

We are special

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/16/2023 at 8:18 AM, Lennie said:

She keeps her blues on a blue gravel 😄😄 

Oh I razzed her about that. I said be careful during tank maintenance not to clean the gravel that moves. 😂

Edited September 17, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/16/2023 at 4:44 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

(I think it’s easy to overfeed snails. It’s simpler to throttle quantity back when feeding fish.)

Can confirm, it's very easy to overfeed the fish too. 😂

Tank looks good though, so clear!

On 9/16/2023 at 4:44 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

This driftwood has been looking awful too and doesn’t want to come clean with a toothbrush or baster.

Try this method.... obviously modify the method because you don't need to drain+fill the tank, but the brush and peroxide method works pretty well.

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I've done it folks - I've secured mystery snail babies from my own brood, via the hobbyist I adopted about 20 snails out to last year.  She just hatched a clutch and they are 2 weeks old.  I will take 4 when they are large enough to transport.  2 for me, and 2 for my friend.  Keeping the bioload in check, enjoying snails, and each snail will have a buddy.

It would be magical to hatch my own again, but I am not home enough to do it right now.  I will though, eventually.

Edited September 16, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

The anubias had their RR. Looking better.

 

 

 

The shrimps are enjoying the green bean.

 

 

Berried wild shrimp.

 

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea
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[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Everyone is enjoying the food that was magically provided (just add light!)

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

The shrimps got a rosette sword from the Walstad jar. First I tossed it into the tank temporarily until I got a chance to plant it. I returned to the tank and it looked like this. 
 

Ok, everybody disembark!  Time to plant it.

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea