Fishless Cycle ,a Snail And Small Funny White Things.

[Corrianda]

Hello all.
I posted a while back, about my fish that died in a newly set up tank, and i got lots of fab advice on fishless cycling and i am doing it and the tank is nearly ready..but , two things.

First i found a tiny little snail in the tank,i assume it came in with a new plant i bought cos it wasnt there when the fish were. so i didnt do the adding amonia thing as it would have died so i am doing it the natural way, the tests have shown great improvement in all, amonia nitrite ,nitrate and ph balance.

Second and more important.... i have lots and lots of tiny , really tiny, little white things swimming about in the tank, theres so many and they are all white and flit about in the water, some on the glass..are they bad? What are they, any idea anyone please?
Thank you.

 

[WILDER]

http/www.aquarticles.com/articles/manage...aria_Worms.html

 

[Liam]

They could be planaria as Wilder suggests, they are worm like, small wormy leech like things (white when small but tan or light brown when they are bigger) that usually stick to the glass and swim in a wriggly way. Seen mostly at night. If you have dot like critters that as you said ‘flit about’ they are probably cyclops little white critters that move in very fast bursts, if these are what you have they will make a great meal for your first fish and are nothing to worry about, even if its planaria unless there are lots of them there is nothing to panic about.

 

[Corrianda]

They could be planaria as Wilder suggests, they are worm like, small wormy leech like things (white when small but tan or light brown when they are bigger) that usually stick to the glass and swim in a wriggly way. Seen mostly at night. If you have dot like critters that as you said ‘flit about’ they are probably cyclops little white critters that move in very fast bursts, if these are what you have they will make a great meal for your first fish and are nothing to worry about, even if its planaria unless there are lots of them there is nothing to panic about.

Thanks for the replies.

They are little white dots.One more question, the snail...my son has named sammy..lol..will he be eaten by the fish when i get some? He is very small.

 

[puppyduck]

Unless you get loaches, sammy is (sadly) safe.

Bear in mind, before long there are going to be lots of sammys. Probably best to tell your son that sammy has gone to heaven and kill him. Quickly.

We had one snail. When we got the tank. One turned into about 5. And after we'd had the tank for a month (with no live plants in and feeding our fishies in moderation) they became about 500. We now have problems.

They make a lot of mess with poop etc, seeing as they're quite dirty. They cause disease. And they basically take over your tank.

If you do want to leave him in tho, but get problems with lots of snails, try the humane snail trap from your local petstore. I think the maker is Tera or Tetra or something like that. It works wonders and cut down our snail population by over half. Its only humane up to the point you capture them without killing them, as once you chuck them in the garden they tend to die, but still a good way of doing it.

 

[Corrianda]

Aww no, he's too cute, i could not kill him! Theres definitely only one..so there won't be anymore..unless i got new plants and another snail comes in them..but then i would have to have male and female lol...

UPdate on the white things, some are still the white flitting dots, others looks like very small maggots, very short and thin they don't seem to swim much but do slide up and down on the glass alot...i wonder if they are related, the flitty ones..do they turn into the crawly ones?

ETA.....just done tests..tank water ph is 8.5...this is too high yes? My tap water is 9.0 when fresh out of the tap.

 

[Richie Hell]

Aww no, he's too cute, i could not kill him! Theres definitely only one..so there won't be anymore..unless i got new plants and another snail comes in them..but then i would have to have male and female lol...

Careful they're not asexual or hermaphrodites!

 

[Liam]

No the flitty ones stay flitty, and as I said will be a nice welcoming meal for your new fish. The sliding ones are probably what wilder was referring to. Not so desirable. Some fish do eat them when they are small, I have seen endlers eat them. I made a trap for them in a little shrimp tank I have. I never knew they were as troublesome as the article Wilder linked to says. In the fish tank they get eaten.

As for Sammy well Sammy will turn into many, be both mammy and daddy, (silly I know) . I don’t mind snails and have always kept trumpet snails, which are good for keeping the gravel sweet and ramshorns, as they eat algae. The numbers can get alarming but they level off after a time. Lots of people don’t like seeing the front glass covered in them but it doesn’t bother me and even though they do poo a lot its mostly vegetable matter they eat, so I don’t think its very polluting. Their numbers are restricted by the food supply.