Please help!
I’ve had a very healthy betta, 2 nerite snails, 1 adult rabbit snail, and the 2 2-month old babies the rabbit snail produced.
I recently started feeding the betta Ocean Nutrition’s Instant Baby Brine Shrimp and the betta loves them. Today I noticed that one of the nerites had an long orange thing between the inside of its shell and its body (side of body). I watched it and after a while saw the orange thing quickly expelled. It sunk into the substrate. I thought it was a leech (introduced by the above food) so I decided to change out the substrate and water.
I reserved about a liter of the water with the betta, put the snails in the lid of the tank with some water and lots of algal buildup so they were happy, and tossed the substrate, silk plants, and the rest of the water.
Like always I rinsed and wiped down the inside of the tank with my hands, checked for any life and didn’t see any, then prepared the new substrate. I used recommended sand and rinsed it following directions. I also added purchased water for the first time that said it was ready for the tank with no ammonia, chlorine, etc and that it had a conditioner. After letting it cycle for about 20 mins I added the fish and snails along with the reserved original tank water.
Within a couple minutes the snails started sloughing off a thick slime or mucus from their bodies. I quickly pulled them out and put them with the moss balls and remaining water I’d planned to toss in case they were harboring parasites. The cloudy mucus fell off them and they seem to be fine for the time being. The fish is still fine in the tank.
I’m scared to reintroduce them to the tank. What should I do?
Thank you so much for your help!
I’ve had a very healthy betta, 2 nerite snails, 1 adult rabbit snail, and the 2 2-month old babies the rabbit snail produced.
I recently started feeding the betta Ocean Nutrition’s Instant Baby Brine Shrimp and the betta loves them. Today I noticed that one of the nerites had an long orange thing between the inside of its shell and its body (side of body). I watched it and after a while saw the orange thing quickly expelled. It sunk into the substrate. I thought it was a leech (introduced by the above food) so I decided to change out the substrate and water.
I reserved about a liter of the water with the betta, put the snails in the lid of the tank with some water and lots of algal buildup so they were happy, and tossed the substrate, silk plants, and the rest of the water.
Like always I rinsed and wiped down the inside of the tank with my hands, checked for any life and didn’t see any, then prepared the new substrate. I used recommended sand and rinsed it following directions. I also added purchased water for the first time that said it was ready for the tank with no ammonia, chlorine, etc and that it had a conditioner. After letting it cycle for about 20 mins I added the fish and snails along with the reserved original tank water.
Within a couple minutes the snails started sloughing off a thick slime or mucus from their bodies. I quickly pulled them out and put them with the moss balls and remaining water I’d planned to toss in case they were harboring parasites. The cloudy mucus fell off them and they seem to be fine for the time being. The fish is still fine in the tank.
I’m scared to reintroduce them to the tank. What should I do?
Thank you so much for your help!
