New nano arrived

[demonr6]

Speaking of.. My pipes were getting funky so I took the canister filter out of service to take apart and clean everything. A whole host of baby snails which I terminated rather quickly were in there but as I poured the water out I found this.. WTH!





Process of elimination.. I have a school of six Celestial Pearl Danios, two ghost shrimp, one Olive Nerite snail and some random pond snails that hitchhiked. I am pretty sure I can eliminate everyone but the CPD's unless one of my plants is undergoing some miraculous evolutionary metamorphosis?? I have not seen any others swimming around so this must be the sole survivor. It has been in the canister filter for however long it takes to grow to that size. It is tiny but still quite visible to the naked eye even from four feet away where it swims in the little QT container. Now, what do I do with it? I am not prepared to be a father, I am too young. Help!

[Wyvern]

Thanks for the pics, it looks stunning!

For unwanted snails - add half a potato uncooked to the tank - it will kill them for you, you leave it in for at least a day. But it will make your water cloudy but nothing the filter cant handle once the potato is gone.

Any unwanted fish you can either take to your LFS (mine takes unwanted fish all the time and give you some credit to use in store) or you need to find someone who will take them from you.

[demonr6]

Heh, I will have to try that potato solution out. I don't really mind the fish at all, I am just not set up to move them into another tank to raise them etc. It is every fry for itself in my tank. Funny thing is this morning I was going to hook up the airstone and out come three more from hiding. Apparently there are much more of them hanging out in the cover of the moss. I count at least four now.

[Wyvern]

Hehehe sounds like you somehow got some eggs in the tank unless you had a pair in there before?

I know the potato trick works well for QT of all plants to make sure nothing hitches a ride to your tank.

[demonr6]

Pennywort is the culprit. I had no problems till then.. now I am destroying little snails almost daily. I am sure the ghost shrimp appreciate it though.

Originally Posted by Wyvern

Hehehe sounds like you somehow got some eggs in the tank unless you had a pair in there before?

I know the potato trick works well for QT of all plants to make sure nothing hitches a ride to your tank.

[Wyvern]

Hehehe, at least now you know better :P

And your lucky with the plants you get. For us its a constant struggle to get decent plants here.

[demonr6]

I would think you can get some really interesting native plants being where you are? I know we have quite a bit native to Florida but I am afraid to use most because of them taking over. You can go ditch diving here and get all sorts of plants.. granted we are in a drought so that would not work well right now. :)

[Wyvern]

Hehe, we unfortunately have so many really strict laws on plants and the picking of even wild flowers that its rather difficult to do it. Plus the closest river to me is rather tiny and not much growing in it. I've learnt to appreciate our plants and wildlife - especially since I live in the Western Cape and we have the fynbos varieties such as the Protea that most people know. But its all normal plants, I am part of a forum here and we are waiting hear on a few new bylaws that are getting passed, making things even harder but then again its all for the preservation of the natural habitat's that we have.



There you can see what ive managed to do with my planted tank. Altho I keep mainly live plants even with my boys 5gallon tank, they dont have much right now and I need to get some seachem excel to boost the CO2 in the tank to help the java moss grow. The planted one is going to be the home for my girls once they get here from a "local" breeder (he lives about 100km from me so hes not that local :P)

[demonr6]

It does not look bad at all. One word on the Excel, when I dose it, the next day I have a funky film on the surface so I had to resort to using a bubbler.

[Wyvern]

Hmm thanks for the tip, I will have a look cos the bubbler on my tank (part of the pump) stopped working after a month. The rest of the pump is working fine tho.