Snail issues...

[Lonewolfblue]

Well, the 10G that I had running for a couple months now with Wisteria and a couple other plants has tons of snails, lol. I put in a few on purpose, but never expected this. Must be a thousand babies, lol. The front glass is speckled with them, and they are tiny, lol. I'm just wondering what they are surviving on. It's just a planted tank, no fish, and no feeding. I just dose on a regular basis, and still no aqlgae issues either. The bulbs are 2 20W bulbs, and no CO2 currently, as I haven't fixed my leaks and the CO2 fizzled out and is not producing. Maybe I'll get time to fix the leak, and redo my solution. But what gets me is a ton of snails and no feeding. They are the regular pest snails. I also put a few ramshorns in, and haven't seen any new ones of them yet.

 

[fish_4_all]

Dead plant matter. Maybe some algae that is blooming but never gets ahold enough to be seen because the snails eat it. Their waste could be culturing food for them.

Anyway, your plants grow so fast that you would never see a few leaves missing anyway

You are talking about the pond type ramshorns aren't you? If you want some more, I will have enough to spare in a couple weeks.

You said you are dosing everything with no fish. Have you ever noticed if the plants or the substrate has ever had a slime on them or maybe a slight sheen? There could be some slime algae or some other bacterial bloom that they could be eating that may go completely unnoticed.

 

[Zezmo]

You can knock back the population some by tossing in algae wafers. Scoop out the snails that swarm them.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Actually, I want the snails in there. I was just commenting on how many snails there are, and I don't have fish or put food in the tank, lol. All the plants look healthy too, no dead leaves anywhere. The wisteria has taken the whole length of the tank and the left and right sides, leaving the front open, which i have 2 other plants. And with my dosing, no algae so far.

 

[Billsgate]

Actually, I want the snails in there. I was just commenting on how many snails there are, and I don't have fish or put food in the tank, lol. All the plants look healthy too, no dead leaves anywhere. The wisteria has taken the whole length of the tank and the left and right sides, leaving the front open, which i have 2 other plants. And with my dosing, no algae so far.

If you get too many snails you may try to feed them to your cichlids. My keyholes ate my entire population of snails in a matter of days once they found out they were tasty ...But in heavily planted tanks enough might get away and reproduce very rapidly, so be carefull!

 

[Zagz]

Where are the pics? LOL.
Keep in mind though that when you go to transplant these plants into other tanks, you will transfer tons of snails. I used to be amazed at how quickly snails could multiply but not anymore. I just keep removing them and removing them.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Can't see all the snails, but you can see some......

 

[Zagz]

Ahh that's better. I can see them. My 10g looked the same for a while, minus plants. But moving really helped cut down on the snail poplulation. So now it is much easier to keep control of.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Not really on the topic, but what do you think of my painted background? It's supposed to be black hammered metal, but only looks that way on the outside, lol. On the inside, it looks like black gun metal. Kind of makes the water look cloudy when it isn't, lol. Gonna be hard to get used to, lol.

 

[WaterPond]

I like the background, looks very good IMO. I dont think it makes the water look cloudy at all.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

In the pic it doesn't, but in real life, with the screw-in 20W bulbs, it does, lol.

 

[Purrbox]

I think the background looks pretty good. It would look even better if it were speckled or not quite such a matte finish.

 

[Peyton]

I really like the look of that tank. Pretty cool how the wisteria spread like that.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

When it spreads along the bottom, it sends roots down into the substrate, and will eventually grow up from there. I like how it's growing too. And the plants in front of it are starting to get crowded a little, lol.