Trip to fish store, new fish, water question

[James_in_MN]

Tetras should leave snails alone.

However, I would like to ask that you please don't buy any more fish until you've completed cycling your tank. You'll just be subjecting them to bad water conditions and possibly kill a large number of them.

 

[jasurf21]

Wow. My intent was completely misunderstood. Bowing out of this thread.

If you're still around and get to this, I wanted to share with you something I've learned the hard way...

Never let anyone's elses water into your tank. Once your tank is cycled and you know your water is in good condition, don't taint it with other's water.

I always used to put new fish into my tanks by dumping the bag with the fish and the LFS store water in it after i acclimated. One time there was Ick (microscopic) in the water and it wiped out a bunch of my beloved fish

Now I always net the fish after acclimation and put just the fish without any water in the tank.

It's worthwhile to fishless cycle your tank and test the parameters so that you know that you have good water. The PWC's will keep your water in good condition. Sorry to see a lot of people talking down to you and being mean that's not cool. My post is a lesson I've learnd and may not be entirely relevant, but don't trust the chinese man's water either!! Trust No One!!

 

[brry]

James,

Didn't plan on adding any fish, just wanted to know what would have been compatible.

Jasurf,

Had heard about not adding the water they came in. And it was just the one person. Have also heard about keeping the new fish by itself for a few days to make sure they aren't sick which sounds like a good idea.

 

[CoyoteWildfire]

The snails were put in their own bowl today because they were being harassed by the nippy guppies. Poor things are still all clamped up in their shells and won't come out. Hope it is not too late, would hate to lose them. Would tetras nip at snails?

I have a Serpae (which I'm told by some is a bit more aggressive, by others the most community Tetra) that has gotten along excellently with two mystery/assorted/apple (haven't been able to confirm which) snails in the tank and a black rabbit snail. I haven't had any problems with the White Skirt Tetra in my tank either.

For what it's worth, I have three glass cats, a zebra stripe danio, the two tetras, a common pleco, a hillstream loach and two ghost shrimp in my tank, and tonight found my first baby snail. So if they're able to reproduce and the offspring live, I think that's a testimony to the creatures in my tank, if you're at all curious.

 

[brry]

Lost a snail. When I put them in their own bowl I noticed he didn't come out for a crawl like the other one did. I gave him some time in case he was traumatized but then a cloud began to develop around him and I suspected he was dead. He was partly out of his shell when I pulled him out and didn't try to clamp back in. He felt very slimy, and slipped right out of my fingers; he hit the floor and broke his shell. D: I hoped he wasn't injured but when I gave the sniff over he smelled very bitter so I guess he was already dead. I has a sad.

I did a partial water change on the guppies using the stores water, they are happy and active as ever. I used a test strip to compare it to my own water and noticed it's very soft and acidic compared to mine. Does this point to any clues as what the problem was in my own water?

 

[CoyoteWildfire]

Sorry to hear about the snail... Nice thing about it is you usually don't have a hard time finding more, if you wish to replace them. Apple snails almost seem to be a pest to some tanks due to infestation. Just got some Amazon Frogbit today and found seven baby snails amongst the leaves, and countless eggs. And honestly, I doubt you killed him... if he was really slimy, there was a cloud, and he didn't pull back in his shell, I can't imagine he was alive by that point.

As for the water... hard water is really rough on fish to begin with. So if you have pretty hard water to begin with, you're not going to have healthy fish. This would probably explain why the fish looked sick and would gulp for air or be motionless.

Most tropical fish I've read about need soft water, though there are some that need hard--best to do your research if you have very hard or very soft water. According to the Wiki, take it for what it's worth, guppies actually prefer a hard water aquarium. Though given their hardiness and ability to exist in saltwater as well, they probably can thrive in soft water too. They also prefer slightly basic water, so that's another thing to keep in mind.

I wouldn't really let all that get to you though. If your guppies are actually swimming around and not displaying the same symptoms as your last number of attempts, why fix what's not broken? I just thought you should know, especially if you wish to expand your tank or get different types of fish.