Advice on plants/snails/fish

[houndour]

Hi,

I'm not exactly a beginner to fish keeping, but it's been about 3 years since I had to 'end' my last aquarium But I am moving house and I'm planning on setting up my aquarium again

My questions relate to the problems I had first time around....

1. I love live plants, and I had them before...only I also got snails too I was NEVER able to get rid of them and I really don't want them again. I remember being told to dip plants in magnesium [something or other] I have some anyway. Is this enough to kill snails/eggs??? What do you guys do?

2. If live plants is not the way, I have seen some very good fake plants. Does anyone have these? And how do they look in an aquarium?

3. I still have all my old equipment...filters etc. Assuming they still work and do not need replacing, even though they have been unused for 3 years, will I run the risk of re-introducing snails???

4. My tank isn't huge. It's 30 inches x 15 wide and 18 high. I had a red tailed shark before...not out of choice. My mum said I would take on someone else fish without asking. I remember being panicked at the time cos I had read that these fish were very territorial. However, this 'shark' was absolutely fine and he was gorgeous. I would like to get one for my new set up, but again am worried he might chase the other fish. Anyone had any bad experiences with these terrorising other fish?

5. Another fish I absolutely adore are corys. I never had _any_ success with them I had mainly Pandas...and I never found out what was wrong with them. I guess the symptoms that they were about to die was they would be on the bottom, then they would suddenly rush to the surface and what seemed like take a gulp of air then dive down the bottom again. Once they started this they didn't really last much longer than a week. My fish shop didn't know what was wrong. And no forums at the time could help. No other fish had this problem. Anyone else had problems like this?

I would really like to get Pandas again, but I don't want to kill them.

I think thats it for now.

Thanks
Sam

 

[keane]

Hi,

my cories (4 juliis) do that all the time (swim to top and then dive back down again)!!!

I just thought they were having some fun or getting a quick gulp before retreating back down to their preferred bottom dwelling. . Have seen them doing it in the LFS's i've visited too.

They seem quite happy otherwise (if that is a problem).....bombing around the bottom of the tank, playing around in a group.

Here's hoping someone in the know picks up on this post and answers the query.....

tbr

 

[houndour]

Thanks you've jogged my memory a bit more with what my corys did....

You're right, they did do that anyway, I guess near the end they did it a _lot_ more then about a day or so from the end, I would find them permanently at the surface 'drinking air' (i guess thats the best way to describe it). They did not look any different...maybe a bit emaciated (probably from not eating), but they did not bloat up, or look dull. No signs of any fungus. No sign of raised scales.

Thanks.

 

[black angel]

as far as i know panda corys are quite difficult to keep. maybe try the bronze or peppered cory in a group of three or more. as for the grabbing air they do that anyway and is normal behaviour, but i think they dont like deep tanks but im not sure on that one. maybe they needed more oxygen. im sure someone can offer more help to you

"you can use Potassium permangenate for a ten minute soak for the plants. This is particularly effective against harmfull bacteria. In america you can use Jungle Products Clear Water, a diluted form of potassium permangenate.
for snails, household bleach, 1 part bleach to 19 parts water. Effective against pathogens, algae, and snails. Can also cause severe damage to plants, particularly sensitive stem plants. Do not allow the roots, bulbs, or rhizome to come in contact with the bleach. Soak for two minutes and rinse completely with clear water and dechlorinator."

or do what i do and use my fingers to squash them or a lettuce leaf at night attracts them on to the glass.

i use both real and artificial plants and if well mixed it looks effective. fake plants do look good nowadays though and some are very lifelike. its down to personal choice though, good luck with what you get.

 

[jflowers]

Cory's can ingest air and extract oxygen from it in the gut, thats why they dive for the surface and back. Mine do it all the time.

[EDIT: http/www.seremban.net/fishcorner/fc140598.htm ]

Jon

 

[keane]

Thanks Jon.

I thought mine were ok but you have definitely put my mind at ease now (and hopefully houndour's too)

cheers

tbr

 

[endilliteracy]

I was told to let my live plants sit in a bowl of ice cold water (with ice cubes). I've never had a snail problem after that.

 

[bettaninja]

How long did you have to soak them in ice water?

 

[pahansen]

I also use potassium permanganate (Jungle's Clear Water). I rinse all of my plants first under running water, in the hopes that anything big will get rinsed off, put them into a 10 minutes soak in the permanganate -- be careful, because it can really stain clothes or other porous things -- then re-rinse and check carefully for snails. So far I've only had snails once, and that was before I started this system.

Another almost-too-simple suggestion: look carefully at the tanks from which your plants are being sold. Sometimes you can see snails in them. Steer clear of plants from these tanks, and possibly even from that store. I don't have a lot of faith in the idea that there are only snails in a few of the tanks!

-- Pamela

 

[endilliteracy]

How long did you have to soak them in ice water?

I soaked them in ice water for about 5-10 minutes or until it got really cold. Then I took them out, rinsed them off again and planted them in my substrate. I have had NO snails what-so-ever. And I know the place that I get them from has snails in their plant tanks because when I purchased plants a long time go from them for one of my 10 gallons, I didn't put it in cold water and added it to my tank. I had to end up stripping the whole tank down again because the snails took over. I tried picking them out and lettuce but there were way too many! I even saw a very large one, it was about a 1/2 inch!