I Need Advice Please.

[slawek]

Hi there,
Ok, I set up the tank with plants and let it cycle for 6 weeks. Water trialed and tested, all is well. Added some neons just to get started, thats where it all went wrong. The man in the shop said its impossible to kill these fish, and he was wrong. They got some disease, white patchy, I went and got some Protozin. At this point my new friends the snails moved into mass production, two different kinds, must of been in the plants. Then I had the newest addition, the dragonfly larve. It proved difficult to eradicate as he was quite spritely, and super invisible on my gravel. But I got him, quite a scary looking wee beastie, big alien head. Anyway during all this I lost 8 Neons, only recovered 6 dead of the 8 the other 2 I actually lost, I have no idea where they went. (I assume my dragonfly stalker may have had something to do with it. So after all this the 3 survivors seemed ok, until about 2 days ago then they started to loose there colour??? And last night I caught another dragonfly larvae romping in my tank, muchos advice needed, please help..........

 

[Genie]

hmmm. yes. i agree that neons arent as hardy as they are made out to be. But when dead they sometimes do just disappear. Its been mentioned in other topics today how they can be found later in the weirdest places. I know nothing about dragon larvae sorry.
snails however, shouldnt cause any threats. Hope someone more knowledgable can come along to put your mind at rest

 

[darkwolf29a]

Hmm...I know nothing of dragonfly larvae. You might ask at the LFS and see if anyone has any ideas.

But, yes....neon tetras can be bulletproof. However, normally, they aren't nearly as hardy as advertized. Honestly, the hardiest fish I've found is a guppy...and I have killed a few of those too. In fact, I found one I lost 2 weeks ago. I was looking at the filter yesterday and his body floated out.

 

[slawek]

hmmm. yes. i agree that neons arent as hardy as they are made out to be. But when dead they sometimes do just disappear. Its been mentioned in other topics today how they can be found later in the weirdest places. I know nothing about dragon larvae sorry.
snails however, shouldnt cause any threats. Hope someone more knowledgable can come along to put your mind at rest

Thanks, so even if the snails are multplying out of control it should be ocay? Just really worried as there are lots of little snail dots appearing all over the place its like a wee epidemic.

 

[-germ-]

Get cleaning, fish temporarily re-homed and SCRUB away....
Keep the filter in old tank water with the fish as you do this and if it is cycled and you don't take too long then you should be able to have your tank back up and running in an hour or two...
Can't hurt...
Do you catch your own live foods? If not then the larvae and snails must have come in with LFS items; plants, gravel, live food.
If you do catch or provide your own live food it's most likely that.
I wouldn't pay any attention to your LFS, anyone that boldly states tetras can't be killed are kind of missing the point of good fishkeeping...
What are your curent water parameters and what do you feed and how often?

 

[slawek]

Hmm...I know nothing of dragonfly larvae. You might ask at the LFS and see if anyone has any ideas.

But, yes....neon tetras can be bulletproof. However, normally, they aren't nearly as hardy as advertized. Honestly, the hardiest fish I've found is a guppy...and I have killed a few of those too. In fact, I found one I lost 2 weeks ago. I was looking at the filter yesterday and his body floated out.

But its really depressing I tried so hard to get the water right, and I dont want to kill the wee guys, and now there are only 3 I dont think thats good for them either, are they not better in bigger numbers?

 

[darkwolf29a]

As far as getting rid of the snails, you might try floating a piece of lettuce or two in the tank for an hour. The snails should be attracted to the leaf and then you remove it, and them, from your tank. I have heard of this working.

Tetras like bug each other...it's their thing, I guess. 3 should be fine for now, as they will all just pick on each other. As long as one isn't getting singled out, you should be fine. But, you are correct, the more the merrier with those little guys. And honestly, they don't seem to care what colors you get. You can mix blue/green/black/whatever. LOL In fact, I have 1 Black Phantom at the moment, since he is the lone survivor of the very original 2 tetra tank. He's doing well by himself with his Tiger Barb buddies...they all pick on each other. LOL I think the guppies are getting in on it to now. LOL I'm growing a gang of thugs in my tank, at this time. And Plato, a 4.5 in plecostomus, is going to get run out of the tank, I know it. LMAO

 

[Genie]

snalis arent harmful in themselves (not the ones ive known to come from LPS plants anyways), but they breed like ermm, gerbils. So I would do anything you can to remove them, but dont be too scared of them

 

[darkwolf29a]

snalis arent harmful in themselves (not the ones ive known to come from LPS plants anyways), but they breed like ermm, gerbils. So I would do anything you can to remove them, but dont be too scared of them

Do gerbils breed faster than rats? LOL

 

[Genie]

i dont know...? ive recently bought gerbils and have read about how often they breed lol

 

[slawek]

Get cleaning, fish temporarily re-homed and SCRUB away....
Keep the filter in old tank water with the fish as you do this and if it is cycled and you don't take too long then you should be able to have your tank back up and running in an hour or two...
Can't hurt...
Do you catch your own live foods? If not then the larvae and snails must have come in with LFS items; plants, gravel, live food.
If you do catch or provide your own live food it's most likely that.
I wouldn't pay any attention to your LFS, anyone that boldly states tetras can't be killed are kind of missing the point of good fishkeeping...
What are your curent water parameters and what do you feed and how often?

I did the cleaning thing after I caught the first dragonfly larve, took out some of the more bushy plants too so I could see the action that was going on. and have done it once since then, I really dont think the cleaning is the problem.
Yeah think my ever growing non fish population is down to the plants.
I test the NO2, NH4 and pH weekly as well as a 10% water change, feed the fish a little 3 times a day. Should I be testing for something else...?

 

[Lorna]

Get cleaning, fish temporarily re-homed and SCRUB away....
Keep the filter in old tank water with the fish as you do this and if it is cycled and you don't take too long then you should be able to have your tank back up and running in an hour or two...
Can't hurt...
Do you catch your own live foods? If not then the larvae and snails must have come in with LFS items; plants, gravel, live food.
If you do catch or provide your own live food it's most likely that.
I wouldn't pay any attention to your LFS, anyone that boldly states tetras can't be killed are kind of missing the point of good fishkeeping...
What are your curent water parameters and what do you feed and how often?

I did the cleaning thing after I caught the first dragonfly larve, took out some of the more bushy plants too so I could see the action that was going on. and have done it once since then, I really dont think the cleaning is the problem.
Yeah think my ever growing non fish population is down to the plants.
I test the NO2, NH4 and pH weekly as well as a 10% water change, feed the fish a little 3 times a day. Should I be testing for something else...?

Did you test the PH again before adding the fish? Plants can alter it and I know that fish are very sensitive to a PH which is out of their tolerence zone

 

[slawek]

As far as getting rid of the snails, you might try floating a piece of lettuce or two in the tank for an hour. The snails should be attracted to the leaf and then you remove it, and them, from your tank. I have heard of this working.

Tetras like bug each other...it's their thing, I guess. 3 should be fine for now, as they will all just pick on each other. As long as one isn't getting singled out, you should be fine. But, you are correct, the more the merrier with those little guys. And honestly, they don't seem to care what colors you get. You can mix blue/green/black/whatever. LOL In fact, I have 1 Black Phantom at the moment, since he is the lone survivor of the very original 2 tetra tank. He's doing well by himself with his Tiger Barb buddies...they all pick on each other. LOL I think the guppies are getting in on it to now. LOL I'm growing a gang of thugs in my tank, at this time. And Plato, a 4.5 in plecostomus, is going to get run out of the tank, I know it. LMAO

Thanks, I was a little worried about the bullying too as they didnt seem as bad when there were more of them, so cheers for that....tomorrow is the beginning of the end for the little slimeballs (dont even like killing them)...

Get cleaning, fish temporarily re-homed and SCRUB away....
Keep the filter in old tank water with the fish as you do this and if it is cycled and you don't take too long then you should be able to have your tank back up and running in an hour or two...
Can't hurt...
Do you catch your own live foods? If not then the larvae and snails must have come in with LFS items; plants, gravel, live food.
If you do catch or provide your own live food it's most likely that.
I wouldn't pay any attention to your LFS, anyone that boldly states tetras can't be killed are kind of missing the point of good fishkeeping...
What are your curent water parameters and what do you feed and how often?

I did the cleaning thing after I caught the first dragonfly larve, took out some of the more bushy plants too so I could see the action that was going on. and have done it once since then, I really dont think the cleaning is the problem.
Yeah think my ever growing non fish population is down to the plants.
I test the NO2, NH4 and pH weekly as well as a 10% water change, feed the fish a little 3 times a day. Should I be testing for something else...?

Did you test the PH again before adding the fish? Plants can alter it and I know that fish are very sensitive to a PH which is out of their tolerence zone

Yup the tank was with plants from day one, fish didnt go in till week 8 or there abouts, and I test the water weekly.