5 days in. One Casualty.

[rollasoc]

My 26L tank finished cycling last weekend. Tank is planted.

So on Tuesday, I bought 5 white clouds and lowered my temperature to 24 degrees.

Left them in the dark overnight.

Next day switched the light on. All 5 were pretty active.

Fed them a little each day and tested the water.

Wednesday's readings were .25 Ammonia, .25 NitrIte and 5 Nitrate
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturday's readings were 0 Ammonia, .25 NitrIte and 5 Nitrate

On Saturday, one of them seemed all on his own. Then started swimming to the top staying there, hardly moving. When I fed them, he didn't eat.

Last night, I couldn't find him. The rest were all still active. Eventually, I found him by a plant, stuck to the pump inlet.

I turned the pump off and retrieved him and gave him a decent burial.

Today, three of them are still active. One is going between hiding under the filter box, just below the surface, (in the darkest bit) or hiding in the far corner above the filter inlet. He (I think) did come out and eat though, then went back to hiding.

The only other info, is my tank has snails (I LFS said they are probably apple snails, another pond snails). There seems less snails since I put the fish in, but they are still there. (I'm going to get an assassin snail to wipe them out next).

Should I be worried?

 

[mfdrookie516]

I would question that the tank finished cycling if you are getting ammonia and nitrite readings. 5 white clouds, IMO, shouldn't cause a spike in a cycled tank. That said, it sounds like you're on the way back through it now. Ammonia is 0 and nitrite probably will be soon. You may do a couple water changes to see if you can get that nitrite down to 0.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about the snails. I like them. I have a variety in my tanks (mts, pond, ramshorn) and will eventually have some nerites. As long as you don't overfeed, they won't overpopulate (its pretty much a direct correlation).