Fur on stones, and too many snails

[lincon]

Hi (NEWBIE HERE )

I've got a tank and it's been going for a few months, the guppies seems to die but the rest of the fish seem fine.

I've got another tank ( bigger ) and started the normal few weeks of leaving it to get sorted.
For the first week i never had a filter or heater and now I have fur ( or white cobweb type stuff ) on the stones, is this ok, ? can i leave it there?

Also a real plant i brought must have had a snail on, i've now got LOADS any idea's on how to stop them breeding ? are they important ? do they help the tank ?

Sorry for such stupid questions

thanks

 

[tstenback]

to the forum.

For the snail question just cut back on the food source and they will die back. I usually place a leaf of lettuce (weighted down) in the tank at lights out in the evening and remove it in the morning. Usually full of snails. After a week or so you will have very few snails but if you dont eliminate the excess food that they live on then they will keep coming back.

THe fur may be fungus and you should try to remove it if you can.

When you say

the normal few weeks of leaving it to get sorted.

do you mean cycling without fish using ammonia or cycling with fish? see here if you are not sure what i am talking about. HTH

 

[ger87410]

I got that white stuff in my tank right before it crashed. Dunno what it is but I would remove it.

 

[lincon]

Thanks for the answers.

I've been watching this forum for some time but only just got to a point where i couldn't find out more.

May I ask what you do with the leaf ? do these snails live on land, or is it a case of disposing of them ?

Thanks once again for the warm welcome

p.s leaving the tank without fish adding the cycle products

P.P.s

My wife thinks the guppies die of fin rot, ( the fins do look like that ) or could it be other guppies biting them too much as it's only the guppies that die. ?

 

[daza]

I've got exactly the same problem as you lincon ...noticed it today - white cobweb stuff and a very small snail (only found one so far, barely looked like a snail, maybe it wasn't?).

I don't want to interrupt my cycling though so I'm hoping I can wait til after cycling before cleaning out with a water change, gravel vac, etc, etc..

I shall definitely be thoroughly cleaning plants when I buy them from now on!

 

[ScuabaDuba]

white stuff ON the fish?

could be ick.

 

[Earthgirl]

Hello Lincon:

Unless you want the snails, dispose of them outside. I've heard of people flushing them, but the odd case of them sticking to to the bowl. And unless you wash the toliet, I don't think you wife would appreciate (I know I wouldn't!).

The white fungusy stuff, vaccuum that stuff out! Or as ScubaDuba pointed out, if the white stuff is on the fish that are dying, it could be ick.
Good Luck and welcome to the Forum!

 

[Jediagh]

Lincon,

I recenlty started my fishless cycle of my 10 gal tank. The week BEFORE I started the cycle I notcied some webs as well on my artifical plants. At the time I had 1 LIVE Auqa Fern Plant, 1 small snail and 2 artifical plants.

I took out the plants and cleaned them in HOT HOT water and put them back in and no webs since. It's been 10 days. I'm NOT srue if it was something the snail did or some fungus that came from the LIVE aqua plant.

 

[Zombies]

Send em over here hehe. I've been trying to breed snails with no luck yet. There for my puffers to munch on.

 

[tstenback]

Thanks for the answers.

I've been watching this forum for some time but only just got to a point where i couldn't find out more.

May I ask what you do with the leaf ? do these snails live on land, or is it a case of disposing of them ?

Thanks once again for the warm welcome

p.s leaving the tank without fish adding the cycle products

P.P.s

My wife thinks the guppies die of fin rot, ( the fins do look like that ) or could it be other guppies biting them too much as it's only the guppies that die. ?

Do you have test kits for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? You will need these at many times during your time in the hobby. They will indicate when your tank needs cleaning and also when the weater is safe to put fish in it. The cycling products are supposed to add beneficial bacteria to the water but this bacteria needs ammonia to survive. I think some of these come with a small amount of ammonia in them but i dont think its probably enough to establish and maintain a good bacteria colony. The one exception that i have heard of is biospira (havent used it myself) it allows you to add fish right away as it supplies the right type of bacteria and the fish then supply enough ammonia for the bacteria to thrive. to help explain what i mean try reading this HTH

EDIT: just pitch the leaf in the garbage outside.

 

[lincon]

thanks for the reply
I'll get those products you mentioned, i didn't need them for the smaller tank, but with al the snails and fur in the new tank i think i'll take your advice.
I've still not put the fish in the new tank yet.