OMG!! What a day! I could use some advice, please.

[Salukie]

OMG!! There's something else in there! It's like a little tiny millipede swimming around! It was about 5mm long and about half a mm wide. It was kinda reddish in colour.

It swam around and then burrowed itself into the gravel. Weird!

Fresh2o, I will look up all those things you said you have in your tank. I don't know what they are. Lol.

Reefdiver, pond snails are the annoying ones that no one likes, eh? Oh well. I still like it. I named him peep. Haha.

I'm not sure if I'm naming the millipede, though. That thing freaked me out.

 

[reefdiver]

Aside from nerites you can pretty much say they all are a pain as they will multiply. Thing to remember is not to over feed and they will stay somewhat under control.

 

[Salukie]

I also have FW limpets and on occasion have seen seed shrimp, Copepods, detritus worms and hydra.

Limpets: interesting
Seed shrimp: weird
Copepods: OMG! Cute!
Detritus worm: aaaahhhhh!!! Gross!!!!
Hydra: freaky!!

Nope, my millipede doesn't look like any of those.

 

[reefdiver]

I really would like to see the milipede. I'm always curious of strange things.

 

[Salukie]

I just spotted a second snail. I tried taking a picture but it's too small. It just comes out as a blurry blob.

I'd love to get a pic of the worm thing but its gone, I don't know where.

I managed to grab a pic of Joe and Marley, though.

 

[KPhilly]

This has become quite the story! Haha! Looks like you bought way more than intended!

 

[Salukie]

Here's another picture of Marley. Joe is too active! All his pics are blurry. Lol.

 

[Salukie]

Bloodworm!! That's what my millipede is, I'm pretty sure. It must have come off the hornwort too!

Bloodworm Article

 

[Salukie]

Huh!! Well, I'll be darned!

I cleaned up my cycling ten gallon today. It's cycling so I know I really shouldn't be fiddling with it too much but I couldn't help myself. The water was DARK with tannins, I wasn't happy with the way I put the plants, and there was tons o hornwort needles all over the place.

Not to mention the rotting slimy shrimp chunks all over the place.

So I changed about 50% of the water, I put the shrimp chunks in a filter mesh bag, I rearranged the driftwood and the plants, and I cleaned up the hornwort best I could.

Now, before doing all this, my tank parameters were: ammonia - 2.5ppm, nitrites - 3ppm, and nitrate - 0.

And the water smells like sewage!! It's disgusting.

Correct me if I'm wrong but this water should be pretty toxic to living things.

Well, I turn the tank light back on an what do I see? Not one, not two, but THREE snails! They're tiny. About three mm long.

And that was just on the front glass. There are probably more.

This looks like a pond snail infestation in the making, but I'm kinda excited! Yay!

Thing is, do you guys think they'll die before my tank's cycle is done? I thought snails were sensitive to nitrite.

Any thoughts?

The shrimp cube is doing well, by the way. Joe and Marley say hi!

 

[Salukie]

Here's my ten gallon.

 

[Salukie]

From the side.

 

[Salukie]

I managed to grab a good picture of one of the snails.

What do you guys think? Pond snail?

How tough are these guys? Will they survive a cycle?

 

[Salukie]

Here's another.

 

[MMantelli]

Yup pond snails they are very hardy I had some in a dirted vase with one plant for months and only changed the water a couple times there very hardy.

 

[reefdiver]

I had a tank with just water and some melting wter sprite and surprise there where two of them. The thing is it had no fish and no filter for like six months

 

[MMantelli]

I had a tank with just water and some melting wter sprite and surprise there where two of them. The thing is it had no fish and no filter for like six months

Feeding on the decaying plant matter probablly.

 

[Fresh2o]

Feeding on the decaying plant matter probablly.

I found a pond snail in a plant order in January and dropped it into algae filled vase containing a peace lily. Within a few weeks the algae was gone. I check in on it from time to time when I too off the vase with (tap) water.

The shrimp are looking nice. Not sure if it is supposed to smell as bad as you described. I did my fishless with ammonia and there was no smell. I just remembered that you are using shrimp chunks; I've heard that can get nasty

 

[Salukie]

Wow, sounds like the snails might survive the nitrogen cycle. Cool!

I probably won't be as excited when I'm dealing with a thousand full grown pond snails in my tanks later.

Oh well. Lol!

The params in the cube are:

Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0.5
Nitrate: 0

I'm doing a 50% water change.

I'm gonna test the water in the ten gallon in a minute. I'm curious to see what my cleaning and aquascaping did to my cycle... If anything. Lol.

 

[Salukie]

In the ten gallon:

Ammonia: 1ppm
Nitrite: 3ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm

I'm sure the stinky disgusting rotting shrimp in there will bring the ammonia back up in no time.

I can't wait for some nitraaaaates!!

 

[Fishperson]

It looks like the bb are taking care of some of the ammonia. That's good. I wish I could tell you more about this, but I don't know much about it. I think you can put hydrogen peroxide in the tank to kill some snails, but you should do some research on that, as I don't know much about it. And, assassin snails eat snails, so some of those might help.