Do the best-laid plans of mice & men....

[Flushable Pets]

Happy day...both Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams are from the UK, so I am certain that the lilt is written in there. And @ClownLurch is correct, there are hundreds based on neighborhoods and the migratory patterns of breeding-age adults. Sometimes I ask people to read what I write with a Norwegian accent because it is far more exotic.

@Retired Viking we have a pond behind the office and I could totally scrape them off and toss them there. That exposes me to all sorts of amazing wildlife, because where I live, we are not top of the foodchain. I will say that the snails certainly move around quite a bit, zooming to and fro, as much as a snail can zoom, and the adult blues love the boiled carrots I toss in every few days.

@Flushable Pets I was born in Cincy, lived in Maryland for many of my formative years and now live in Florida, although last week a friend and I bought a house 5 minutes from downtown Columbus. Your reference to the lower 48 implies that you lived in the upper 1?

You are correct. I lived in the upper 1 for a good portion of my life. Alaskans refer to the continental United States as the "lower 48", so it kind of stuck. Much like I lived in North Carolina until I was 10, so I use y'all a lot as well. Like the UK, I probably have many different accents and local terminologies and to hear me speak, most people would be unable to pinpoint where I'm from because my lexicon is a essentially a pidgin language.

Your tank looks excellent!

 

[LordHappy]

I lived in Tampa when I was a kid, we had a small alligator show up in our back yard after a storm, My father and grandfather could still speak Norwegian, I speak a little but I was told that I have an Canadian accent.

Happy day...so the question everyone is dying to ask...did you discover if the gator spoke Norwegian?

 

[LordHappy]

Happy day...in the past few weeks since I posted this, a lot has changed. Firstly, I am now reasonably certain that they are not bladder/pond snails, but mystery snails. Secondly, and of more interest, there are now hundreds. Whereas the MTS have die offs...do mystery snails? Or do they keep growing and breeding and, ultimately, make a mess of the water parameters such that the shrimp will become annoyed?

Ignoring that it is a 10g tank, I believe I am locked out from putting in a dwarf chain loach, which could be re-homed, or pea puffer, because they would go after the shrimp and would not eat enough of the mysteries to dent the population. Any other thoughts?

 

[Essjay]

Mystery snails will grow quite large. But they lay eggs in grape like clusters above the water line so it's easy to remove them.

 

[eatyourpeas]

Happy day....so I wonder. If I smoosh a snail and send in the slime as if it was mine...I wonder how that would come back? I'm sure people have done this before, so they must have some way of coping with it. I often see ads on aquabid where the seller talks about a certain genetic line for betta and shrimp, but how would us commoners know if it is real?

If you start leaving a slime trail you have a problem

 

[eatyourpeas]

Happy day...in the past few weeks since I posted this, a lot has changed. Firstly, I am now reasonably certain that they are not bladder/pond snails, but mystery snails. Secondly, and of more interest, there are now hundreds. Whereas the MTS have die offs...do mystery snails? Or do they keep growing and breeding and, ultimately, make a mess of the water parameters such that the shrimp will become annoyed?

Ignoring that it is a 10g tank, I believe I am locked out from putting in a dwarf chain loach, which could be re-homed, or pea puffer, because they would go after the shrimp and would not eat enough of the mysteries to dent the population. Any other thoughts?

I have a pea puffer that lives in the tank with amano, neocaridina, and a Mystery snail. I had to remove the snail after she turned his foot into a doily with her pinking shears skills. If there is enough room for the shrimp to hide, they are usually pretty good at getting away fast.

 

[LordHappy]

Happy day EYP...do you happen to know how it would do in a Walstad method tank (no filter no pump)? And while I can move the adult snails out, what might I do with the pea puffer afterwards? Or because I have hundreds of snails, I won't have to cope with this for a while and the tank that was supposed to be inverts only will now have...a vert. I guess I better go learn about pea puffers.

 

[eatyourpeas]

Greetings, Happiest of Lords!

They are adorable little waste machines!

Between the creature in question and the snail carcasses (and the bits of snail left inside) you'll have quite the bioload. I am afraid I would only try it if I could have lots plants to absorb the ammonia. I have found hornwort and duckweed to be excellent eaters, and also have a pothos plant, my sweet little nitrogen hog.

Also, depending on the size of the tank, large weekly water changes. Pea puffers are very sensitive so clean water is a must. My tank is 6 gal. so I have a smaller setup. It also means you can't go on vacation if you find that you need to change the water twice a week.

This is my pea puffer setup (no laughing allowed):

6 gal. tank
Nicrew LED light on timer for 8 hours a day
Archaea Heater
Shiruba XB-303 canister filter (cleaned every six weeks)
Aqueon Quiet Flow 3 gal. internal (backup filter with sponge media for QT)
Hikari Mini Bacto Surge Sponge filter (as an Ostracod breeding station)
Fluval Stratum substrate
Saba and cholla wood
Ohko Dragon rocks
Anubias, Cryptocoryne (Lutea, Retrospiralis, Wendtii) , Chain Sword, Aponogeton, Java Fern, Hornwort, Duckweed, Pothos (emersed)

Used to put root tabs, but I am now finding that not vacuuming as often provides a more natural fertilizer for the plants. So, no ferts. 60% weekly water change. No algae in glass, ostracods keep that clean.

Inhabitants: Miss Ethel (pea puffer, center), Albert (Amano shrimp), Faraday and Coulomb (cherry shrimp), Colin (mystery snail) moved out.

Tank today:

Mmm, are you sure your snails are not ramshorn?