Help Me Name My Fish!!! *Img Hvy*

[ChicknThief]

Sad Update: I have now lost my ryukin and my ranchu. The aquarium people have never contacted me (I also found a free 90g but they never emailed me back either

). I am not home right now and won't be until Monday afternoon. So there is not much I can do about anything from where I am. And despite all this, I got a call from home, and apparently my snail gave birth while I am away.

Holy Crud. So now I have a baby snail, but two less fish.

 

[texasgirl]

Keep doing water changes (50% or more) every chance you get!!! Good luck with the rest of them!

 

[silkiechicken]

Good luck and sorry about the fish that didn't make it.

If your snail is a mystery snail, be very careful, before you know it, you will have thousands upon thousands of snails. What ever you do, don't release them or let them get out.

 

[KingsCalls]

The big one.......Tiny
one with the most white....Nemo
mostly gold one.....Flash
black one ....Orca

 

[Half-a-dozen]

Quote:
What happens if they get out????...... Do they still multiply????

Good luck CT on your tank and fish.......

 

[ChicknThief]

I have now lost my ranchu as well. When I get home we are going to the fish store and asking for refunds on several things. The fish person knew that I knew NOTHING about tanks, and I asked several questions. You would have thought that cycling and the true tank size needs of the fish I was buying would have come up somewhere.

I got an email back from a person who has a 55g for 80$. I don't know if that is a good deal or not.

Oh yeah, and my snail had two more babies. If I cannot release the snails, what do I do with them? Could I sell them to the fish stores maybe?

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I'm sorry to hear about your fish! Back when my parents got us fish years and years ago, we did just about everything wrong. We had a ten gallon tank and bought two really nice fancy goldfish that were pretty expensive. We cycled the tank for the 24 hours it says on the package instructions and stuck them in there. They both died in a day or two. Then the pet store employees gave us all the wrong directions and told us we needed to get cheap fish first because the first set of fish in a tank always dies. Sooo...we bought two little feeder goldfish. And guess what...They lived for TEN YEARS!!

When I got my second tank when I was much older, I knew better. I was able to keep my fish in a nice environment and they lived for awhile. Unfortunately I had to give them away to my uncle after the filter leaked water all over the room. I had to send it back and I was so upset! It wasn't even a cheap filter because I think I paid $40 to get the better one!

Anyways, even though it is upsetting, the mistakes you made are mistakes many of us make in the beginning. I hope you are able to get one of the larger tanks! I have always wanted a larger tank, but right now I have no where to put it. Also, as far as bottom feeders go, I loved my cory cat. You can get one for every ten or twenty gallons or so and they work wonderful to keep the tank clean. They also don't get overly large. I would usually feed my goldfish extra food and the bits that fell to the ground he would eat! And don't forget that a well balanced tank will stay clean for quite some time!

 

[texasreb]

Most people kill their excess snails or use them as food for fish that eat them (you do not need any more fish!).

Personally, I would never get any snail that reproduces asexually due to the excessive explosion of snails that are extremely hard to get rid of. Sadly for you, it's another live and learn lesson in aquarium keeping.

Please don't get discouraged and scrap the whole hobby. Fish keeping really is fun once you get going. You've gotten bad advice, but you seem like someone who wants to do things right and the hobby needs more people like you.

You could try Craigslist to see if anyone wants to take them off of your hands (the baby snails).

The current going rate for used tanks is $1.00/gallon for the glass only. If you are getting a stand, hood and light bar, etc then $80 is an ok deal. If it's just the glass...it's too much.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Oh yeah, I forgot to write about the snails.

If it is a mystery snail, that is usually the name pet stores give to apple snails. Apple snails can get VERY large, sometimes as big as a golf ball or even a tennis ball. They are fun to keep though, as long as you can handle their mess. They are probably just as bad as goldfish with messing up the tank!

However, if it is an apple snails, they need both a male and a female to produce young. Typically they lay their eggs above the water line and they lay them in large sacs. However, some species of snails are hermaphroditic and will produce young alone, without a mate. These snails are typically the ones you have to watch out for. TO get rid of them you could always just crush them (I know, it sounds barbaric, but it is not so hard to do) or you could start giving them away to people who have fish who may like to eat baby snails. Also, those types of snails work well in contained decorative ponds.

Is there any way you could take a picture of it to show us?

 

[texasreb]

Quote:
This is only true in a limited context. The tank may look clean, but if you have livestock in it, then they are producing invisible waste that is harmful. Nothing can take the place of regular tank maintenance. Weekly water changes of 25-50% will always be necessary for a healthy tank.

As far as bottom feeders go. Nothing exists in aquaria that will, "help keep the tank clean." Bottom feeders eat from the bottom of the tank, but they do not eat poop. Snails do not eat poop. The organisms that eat poop are nitrifying bacteria which are invisible. Their waste is ammonia. Another bacteria will develop in the tank that eats ammonia. Their waste is nitrItes. A third bacteria will develop to eat the nitrItes their waste is nitrAtes. Nothing eats nitrAtes--water changes are the only way to remove nitrAtes** The is the nitrogen cycle, uber simplified.

Remember that all living creatures that eat also produce waste. Snails are notorious for adding a lot to the tanks bio-load and they don't eat poop. They do eat some kinds of algae so in that sense they are tank cleaners. Bottom fish need food, usually their own food and since they are mostly nocturnal they should be fed after lights out.

**I must qualify this a little bit. No aerobic organism will eat nitrAtes. There are anaerobic bacteria that will eat them. These bacteria can live in pockets in your aquarium, but they are deadly poisonous to your tanks livestock. In order to avoid anaerobic bacteria in your tank, you should stir the substrate every time you clean the tank. This is what gravel vacs do.