Abnormal Nerite Snail Behavior

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cowgirluntamed

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Ok...for those that have been following some of my latest posts...i now have another dilemma. For those that haven't followed, I will briefly recap.

5.5 gallon betta tank at the time with one betta and 3 nerite snails. Planted.

I dealt with cyanobacteria. I used the ultra life blue green slime stain remover twice. (Waited a week between doses.) Dwarf sag mostly died, anubias Nana Golden's were ok, and the crypt wendtii was still amazing. I bought some floating water sprite and water lettuce. Added it to the tank. (Sometime in May I think?) Honestly during this time my betta would get an occasional "cyst" like thing either around his lip or on his head. One appeared at a time and would go away on its own within a few days. I wasn't sure what to make of it.

Then one day, he got Popeye. Not a clue how, kept the water clean(0 ammonia,0 nitrite, 5-10 nitrate), no medicine, and it went away within a week. Maybe a week or two later and I notice Hydra...

This was around the end of June. So, after looking at a lot of treatments...and having just set up a 10 gallon quarantine tank for new baby plecos, I decided to move him and his snail friends in it(still had just over a week till I got the babies). I turned the filter and light off and poured 16oz of hydrogen peroxide into the tank. I wasn't feeling well so left it for a full 24 hours and then cleaned out the filter and got everything running again. I did an almost 100% water change(including the filter) and added carbon. It ran that way for a week.

Unfortunately my floating plants did not survive, my anubias plants melted(may be dead-unsure) and my crypts melted but are thankfully growing back. I also removed a ton of the dwarf sag and trimmed up some of it to replant to see if it was salvageable(probably not at this point).

Anyway, a couple of days before putting him back in the tank he had another cyst. Didn't last long. Put them all back in the 5.5 gallon. Kept having to clean out dead plantz and I think my ammonia went up due to losing the bacteria colonies to the h2o2. I had added half a bottle of tetra safe start when I out him back but not sure it really worked.

Anyway....no more Hydra!! But....a new problem. My snails started acting weird and staying above the spray bar all grouped together....they were getting wet thankfully but didn't want to be in the tank. I stared and stared...worms!!! It ended of being a nasty type of planaria. I posted that thread in the 14th. I finally decided to do the dog dewormer. I planned on doing this Tuesday, the 16th.

Unfortunately, this is the morning my betta got dropsy. First signs...still thought it was the planaria. I wormed the tank with the dog dewormer as directed. After a day the snails came down but my betta wasn't getting better. :( I lost him on Thursday, the 18th to dropsy. *Sniffs*. (I think these plants may have brought other parasites that were causing him probs that I couldn't see as well as the pests that I saw.)

The next day, I did a 2nd dose of wormer(I had not done a water change). Well...i forgot to do a water change even after the 2nd dose due to not wanting to see the tank much since my betta died. Though..i finally went in there and noticed a snail on its back. I righted it and he moved a bit. The other day...another was almost in its back so I fixed him. At that point I noticed they werent moving much. I actually centered them in the sand so I could see. Well, they hadn't moved so Tuesday(the 23rd) I did just over a 50% water change.

No movement unless it's a bit after I tap them.
I added carbon Thursday morning. Still nothing.
I just bought some seaweed wrap for sushi as this was suggested in another thread to feed them to see if maybe they were hungry.

I placed that in the tank this morning and got it to stay down. I put the snails on it and they all just sort of moved to the edge and are still again.

I tested the water yesterday quickly and the ammonia was 0.25, 0 nitrite, 5 nitrate. I just bought some national geographic bioballs to put in my filter hoping more bacteria can grow and get that ammonia down.

Anyway, I will test the tank again tomorrow morning before I put the media in and post the results again. I still have carbon in there and will leave it for a time.

Do you think I messed up when I didn't do the water change after the wormer? Or could this be something else. No fish in the tank now. Or pests that I can see. The dont seem to want to go up the walls, just want to stay flat on the sand and not move.

Should I just leave them and see what happens? Should I add aquarium salt for them?(if so, how much? At least I know they won't mind salt seeing as how they breed in brackish water). Or should I out them in a plastic tote that I have with absolutely clean water(I could add some driftwood) and a heater and see what they do in that?? Any of these ideas sound good to you guys??

Thanks for listening guys. I don't want to lose my cool little friends! (And to think...i thought these things were weird at first and I was kinda grossed out! Lol.)
 
Fenbendazole can kill snails and shrimp, this might be the root of your problem.
 
How did I not catch that? Maybe I did and that's why I didn't do it at first. Though I was panicking for the betta. Do you think these guys might recover? Should I remove them from the tank into a different clean container? I actually took some tank water and put it in a small bowl. I took all three out and placed them in there. One stayed shut up tight, one moved a bit, and then the other one was moving side to side and I just don't know what way. I have a video of it though but it's hard to see.

https://youtu.be/YzjJsjIkebU

Sorry for the quality. Took it with a not so great camera phone. She looks like she wants to push out of her shell. She kept doing this for a bit even after I put them back in the tank.

Do you think they will recover at all? Anything you think I could try?(moving them to different container....adding salt? Anything?
 
I would do a full water change of the tank with dechlor and temp matched water no salt keep running the carbon and see how they do snails can be sensitive to meds so they may have been affected just keep an eye and replenish the water a little bit a day thereafter.
 
I'll keep doing water changes but I took the snails out and put them in completely clean water in plastic container. I may do at least half water changes on it daily. If this stuff made them sore on the bottom the container is nice and smooth. I didn't think sand was a good idea which is what's in the tank. I don't know if they'll recover or not but its worth a shot since they are still alive.

Lyra guppy - do you think this tank will be safe for the snails after a bit? I read up on the wormer and I wasn't sure if it stayed and wouldn't come out like the no planaria can do. If I need to I will throw the sand out and rinse everything good. I can put new sand in easy enough. What do you think?
 
I haven't worked with fenbendazole, so I can't say from experience. Maybe very lightly rinsing the filter media and sand in old water, and scrubbing the walls? Hopefully a more experienced member can answer you better than I can.
 
Thanks Lyra. I think I'll make a new post to ask that question. And so far I don't know if the snails will make it. They are all out of their shells as much as possible after putting them into the plastic container. I'm going to do a 50% water change everyday until I figure out what to do about them. I just don't know if they can recover.
 
16oz of hydrogen peroxide

That is 1/2 lb of peroxide solution Most of the time when I see people talking about peroxide treatment the dose recommended is about 1ml. You massively over dosed the tank and probably killed most if not all the nitrite and ammonia eating bacteria. You probably should have re cycled the tank with ammonia before putting the fish back in. I am not surprised that most of your plants died.

The next day, I did a 2nd dose of wormer(I had not done a water change). Well...i forgot to do a water change even after the 2nd dose due to not wanting to see the tank much since my betta died. Though..i finally went in there and noticed a snail on its back. I righted it and he moved a bit. The other day...another was almost in its back so I fixed him. At that point I noticed they werent moving much. I actually centered them in the sand so I could see. Well, they hadn't moved so Tuesday(the 23rd) I did just over a 50% water change.


Also, I dosed it by putting 200 ml of water in a bottle(well rinsed). I poured the entire packet in. I shook really well and then put in 10 ml of solution in the tank.(20ml was for a ten gallon.)

For this medicine I have read on the web that people have had success at a aquarium dose of 1ppm which is 1mg/l without snails. each packet is one gram (1000mg). I think the dose in the 200ml of water was 5parts per thousand, 5ppT. I am not sure what the final ppm will be in the tank with a 10ml dose of your concentrated solution. but I am guessing it is high. Then you don't cycle water and add another dose and then even a 3rd dose before you cycle water. That effectively multiplied your does by 3.

I am not surprised your fish is dead and your snails are on life support. You appear to have a habit of overdosing. and skipping water changes that just compounds the problem. And keeping the medicated dose in the tank high for 3 days also compounds the issue. I would advise you to stop and think about what you are doing before dosing anything (fertilizer and water conditioner included).
 
No fish or snails were in the tank when I dosed the peroxide. I was sick and didnt get back to it fast enough. I was also checking things before I ever put the fish and snails back in there after that. The betta already showed signs of something being wrong.

I only had dosed ONE thing of wormer before the betta died and that was AFTER he already showed signs of dropsy. He was going before the wormer.

Anyway, this is an OLD thread. I was doing the best I could. It was the parasites that killed him, not me. My tap water always reads at 0.25 ammonia. My tetras are fine when I reads this though it's normally just below. My water tested this when I had tested the betta tank before and he was fine until these parasites came.

Don't bring up old threads. I already felt bad enough. I do not try to overdose my tanks. I try not to do anything unless I have to.
 
Also, for an update, I only lost one of the three snails. The other two made a complete recovery when I noticed I had these parasites in the container I had moved them too. The plants didn't completely die. the dwarf sag was a total loss. The anubias is very slowly recovering I thing. The crypt wendtii melted but came back strong and still growing.

Also, the text you quoted of mine was NOT the dose of the tank. It's 0.1 grams per ten gallons. Putting a full packet in the bottle was an easy way to mix it up. I found it on another forum so probably can't post the link here. If you would like to look at it I can pm it to you.
 

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