Xilonen
Aquarium Advice Newbie
We recently got four mystery snails for our new musk turtle set up. We had the tank up and running (turtle free) for a couple weeks before adding the snails, along with some ghost shrimp and minnows. The turtle had previously lived peacefully with guppies, so we were hopeful he would leave these guys alone. When we added the turtle in a week or so later, he made quick work of one of the snails.
We had stupidly gotten attached to the little guys, so we relocated the remaining three snails to our travel carrier while we tried to figure out a new set up for them. At the same time, the heat bulb in the turtle tank went out, so our bulbs ended up shifted around, and the lamp that we put on the carrier with the snails ended up way too powerful and heated the water well beyond what is reasonable. The few minnows that had been scooped in with them unfortunately died, and since then the snails have been not well.
One has still been fairly active, but the other two have not. One of those had been floating, and I was finally able to get quite a bit of air out of his shell, and now he's on the bottom, still very inactive. Now the active one is intermittently floating, but still moving around. From what I've read, these guys are fairly heat tolerant, and there have been a lot of changes in their lives recently, so I'm not sure if the issue was the heat or something else. They are now in a 10 gal aquarium with filter. They have been given fish flakes, turtle pellets, egg shell, and fresh veggies. I am awaiting bottom feeder pellets (there was plenty to eat in the turtle tank) and test strips which should be delivered this weekend.
Any advice appreciated. I've had the turtle for a long time, but we recently found out I had been given some (very) bad advice regarding his needs, so we're quickly trying to bring ourselves up to speed with aquarium keeping.
We had stupidly gotten attached to the little guys, so we relocated the remaining three snails to our travel carrier while we tried to figure out a new set up for them. At the same time, the heat bulb in the turtle tank went out, so our bulbs ended up shifted around, and the lamp that we put on the carrier with the snails ended up way too powerful and heated the water well beyond what is reasonable. The few minnows that had been scooped in with them unfortunately died, and since then the snails have been not well.
One has still been fairly active, but the other two have not. One of those had been floating, and I was finally able to get quite a bit of air out of his shell, and now he's on the bottom, still very inactive. Now the active one is intermittently floating, but still moving around. From what I've read, these guys are fairly heat tolerant, and there have been a lot of changes in their lives recently, so I'm not sure if the issue was the heat or something else. They are now in a 10 gal aquarium with filter. They have been given fish flakes, turtle pellets, egg shell, and fresh veggies. I am awaiting bottom feeder pellets (there was plenty to eat in the turtle tank) and test strips which should be delivered this weekend.
Any advice appreciated. I've had the turtle for a long time, but we recently found out I had been given some (very) bad advice regarding his needs, so we're quickly trying to bring ourselves up to speed with aquarium keeping.