Dead And Dying Snails.

[Sharpie]

My roommate Joe wanted me to ask you guys about his snails. He has a red belly Parana tank with 3 red bellies, a Plecostomus Catfish, and a pike(They get along fine....so far.). The problem is he’s put probably 8 snails in there and each time they die. There antenna kind of shrivel up after a day or two and they start coming out less and less. He tests the water every other day and everything seems fine. The ammonia is a little high but it’s coming down and the water is clear. We haven’t seen the Parana or the pike show any interest in them so we don’t think it’s that. Anyone have an idea why there dropping dead all the time.

 

[jennybugs]

Tha ammonia won't be doing any of the tank inhabitants any good at all A well cycled tank shouldn't have ammonia or nitrite in it and fairly low nitrates as well.

 

[Sharpie]

Tha ammonia won't be doing any of the tank inhabitants any good at all A well cycled tank shouldn't have ammonia or nitrite in it and fairly low nitrates as well.

It's VERY little ammonia but I guess even that could be hurting them. It's relay hard to keep a Parana tank clean.

 

[RadaR]

Tha ammonia won't be doing any of the tank inhabitants any good at all A well cycled tank shouldn't have ammonia or nitrite in it and fairly low nitrates as well.

It's VERY little ammonia but I guess even that could be hurting them. It's relay hard to keep a Parana tank clean.

It will be hurting them and may cause problems for the general health in the future.
If the tank is large enough, isn't over stocked and has good filtration then it shouldn't be hard to have 0 ammonia. For those fish you are looking at having a 100gallon tank with perhaps one huge eheim external filter.

 

[Sharpie]

Tha ammonia won't be doing any of the tank inhabitants any good at all A well cycled tank shouldn't have ammonia or nitrite in it and fairly low nitrates as well.

It's VERY little ammonia but I guess even that could be hurting them. It's relay hard to keep a Parana tank clean.

It will be hurting them and may cause problems for the general health in the future.
If the tank is large enough, isn't over stocked and has good filtration then it shouldn't be hard to have 0 ammonia. For those fish you are looking at having a 100gallon tank with perhaps one huge eheim external filter.

100 gallon!!!!! We only have two of them at the moment! Unless his research is a little off I can't Imagen needing anything over 50 gallon for a year or two. The guy at the shop said we only needed a 20g but he's an idiot. We have a very nice (and expensive) filtration system on it at the moment. We had a problem with them having left over food when we were feeding them beef heart. We switched to live feeding and everything is clearing up now but the bio filter is still having trouble catching up. He checked the water yesterday and everything looked fine but the snails aren't looking so good.

 

[RadaR]

Tha ammonia won't be doing any of the tank inhabitants any good at all A well cycled tank shouldn't have ammonia or nitrite in it and fairly low nitrates as well.

It's VERY little ammonia but I guess even that could be hurting them. It's relay hard to keep a Parana tank clean.

It will be hurting them and may cause problems for the general health in the future.
If the tank is large enough, isn't over stocked and has good filtration then it shouldn't be hard to have 0 ammonia. For those fish you are looking at having a 100gallon tank with perhaps one huge eheim external filter.

100 gallon!!!!!

Aye, 100gallon. That is in the long term though and all the fish will aventually need it so no need to worry just yet. The plec will get massive if it's a common or gibbi. They can reach 20" plus. Also the piranhas will get to the size of dinner plates.
Ah well, just keep on top of the biological filtration

Oh, and possible that they fish trying to eat the snails?
Snails need calcium to grow their shell but you should be ok by just doing water changes. Soluble copper kills inverts quickly, this copper could have come in on recently bought plants.

 

[Sharpie]

Tha ammonia won't be doing any of the tank inhabitants any good at all A well cycled tank shouldn't have ammonia or nitrite in it and fairly low nitrates as well.

It's VERY little ammonia but I guess even that could be hurting them. It's relay hard to keep a Parana tank clean.

It will be hurting them and may cause problems for the general health in the future.
If the tank is large enough, isn't over stocked and has good filtration then it shouldn't be hard to have 0 ammonia. For those fish you are looking at having a 100gallon tank with perhaps one huge eheim external filter.

100 gallon!!!!!

Aye, 100gallon. That is in the long term though and all the fish will aventually need it so no need to worry just yet. The plec will get massive if it's a common or gibbi. They can reach 20" plus. Also the piranhas will get to the size of dinner plates.
Ah well, just keep on top of the biological filtration

Oh, and possible that they fish trying to eat the snails?
Snails need calcium to grow their shell but you should be ok by just doing water changes. Soluble copper kills inverts quickly, this copper could have come in on recently bought plants.

Ok thanks, that relay helps. I didn't know about the calcium and we just put new plants in the tank. I knew the piranhas would bet about 12" or so but I relay can't see the pike living for more than a few more weeks. He's not growing very fast at least not as fast as the piranhas and he keeps picking fights. I'll just trow him in my pond if he somehow actually lives to get to that size. I don't think Joe relay wants him in the tank anymore anyway. He keeps digging up the gravel and produces a lot a waste.

EDIT: I did a little research and I'm 90% sure the thing is a Dwarf Pike Cichlid. So no worrys about it getting big but it's probably not going to live very much longer regardless.