Whats this Mystery Snail doin?! Help!!

[tabletopfishguy]

Brand New mystery snail about 4 hours fresh to the tank and the lad started scrunching his face? thats the only way i can think of describing it, Also added 1 female betta along with 6 ember tets, Im not much educated on snails and was hoping this guy would be good at eating my bio film and leftovers that the fish miss, I know mystery snails often float in certain circumstances and its not super unusual. But this just doesn’t seem right. Could use some help, I used to be something id typically stay away from keeping snails but this guy has me honestly really fascinated with snails.

 

[tabletopfishguy]

Brand New mystery snail about 4 hours fresh to the tank and the lad started scrunching his face? thats the only way i can think of describing it, Also added 1 female betta along with 6 ember tets, Im not much educated on snails and was hoping this guy would be good at eating my bio film and leftovers that the fish miss, I know mystery snails often float in certain circumstances and its not super unusual. But this just doesn’t seem right. Could use some help, I used to be something id typically stay away from keeping snails but this guy has me honestly really fascinated with snails.View attachment 332047

I should probably add the betta and ember tetras are doing perfectly well and displaying healthy behavior.

 

[Elephant nose 4]

I should probably add the betta and ember tetras are doing perfectly well and displaying healthy behavior.

Hi
Is the snail moving? Are your parameters ok as snails are the first to let you know. He's maybe just settling in as it can take a while for them when added to your tank.
Is the betta leaving him alone?

 

[tabletopfishguy]

Hi
Is the snail moving? Are your parameters ok as snails are the first to let you know. He's maybe just settling in as it can take a while for them when added to your tank.
Is the betta leaving him alone?

the betta is completely uninterested in my embers and the snail, Turned the lights on this morning and the snail stuck its head out and started scootin on the glass, Ill update once I get home from work tonight along with parameters

 

[Donya]

Probably has a bubble in the mantle cavity that he's having a hard time expelling because of the orientation he's ended up in and because he's not smart enough to realize that he needs to close up hard to expell it. If he stays floating and stuck for more than a couple hours, gently move him to where he can get a hold of a stationary object near the surface (tank wall, filter tube, etc. but not that floating thermometer) and then let him orient himself as he needs; the bubble should come out on its own eventually. He may also simply freak out when your hand comes near and close up hard, which would also likely expell a bubble and make him sink, thereby solving the problem another way.

 

[tabletopfishguy]

Hi
Is the snail moving? Are your parameters ok as snails are the first to let you know. He's maybe just settling in as it can take a while for them when added to your tank.
Is the betta leaving him alone?

Hey Quick update, After turning on the lights and coming back from work the snail has seem to started traversing the substrate and now periodically snacking on the bio film that he was gotten for, he seems to do well, as for my water parameters My nitrate is under 5ppm and my nitrite is at about .3 ppm
Water here is pretty hard though sittin around 200ppm for my GH I know this can br good for certain fish but not so sure about my inhabitants. Ph is sitting at a crispy 7 and my ammonia readings are barely anything above 0. Chlorine is obviously at a 0ppm as well.

 

[powerdyne6]

Ammonia and Nitrite above 0 will eventually start to harm the fish.

Was this tank cycled prior?

 

[tabletopfishguy]

Ammonia and Nitrite above 0 will eventually start to harm the fish.

Was this tank cycled prior?

Yes for about 3-4 weeks, I just added the fish on tuesday so that could be the cause? I was getting readings of 0s consistently prior to adding, is it possible its just the tank adjusting? those are kind of high fluctuations though.

 

[Essjay]

How did you cycle the tank?

 

[tabletopfishguy]

How did you cycle the tank?

Might be a bight gross and unconventional but I squeezed a good bit of the mulm from a Sponge filter that was running in a pre established 40g breeder tank of my friends in there after it was running planted for 4 days before i decided to do proceed with the “mulming”, I asked them to run the sponge filter in there for 3-4 months to collect a decent bit of bio material. Also added live beneficial bacteria about 5 days in aswell. Not sure if I did a good job a cycling it, Im not an expert or anything let alone overly knowledgeable about fish.

 

[Essjay]

The definition of a cycled tank used in fishless cycling is one which can process a 3 ppm dose of ammonia to zero ammonia and zero nitrite within 24 hours. The fact that you have a reading above zero for nitrite suggests the tank is not fully cycled.
It sounds as though running the filter in a mature tank did not grow enough bacteria for the livestock currently in your tank. If the other tank had a lot of plants, there would be less bacteria growing in there than in a tank with no live plants, so less to grow in your sponge filter.
Many bacterial starters contain the wrong species of nitrite eaters, so unless you used one of those which contain the right species that could explain why you have nitrite but not ammonia.


Any reading above zero for nitrite is not good for fish. It blocks the blood cells from taking up oxygen - it does to fish what carbon monoxide does to us. Until nitrite drops to zero, you need to do water changes to lower the level, or use salt, which mitigates the effect of nitrite. The second part of this link deals with using salt for nitrite.

Rescuing A Fish In Cycle Gone Wild - Part Il

Part II SO YOU STILL WANT TO KEEP CYCLING WITH FISH? If you are determined to ignore the above advice in Part I and still think you want to proceed with a fish in cycle, then you need to be aware of the information presented below. SOME IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT AMMONIA Ammonia in water exists...

www.fishforums.net

 

[tabletopfishguy]

The definition of a cycled tank used in fishless cycling is one which can process a 3 ppm dose of ammonia to zero ammonia and zero nitrite within 24 hours. The fact that you have a reading above zero for nitrite suggests the tank is not fully cycled.
It sounds as though running the filter in a mature tank did not grow enough bacteria for the livestock currently in your tank. If the other tank had a lot of plants, there would be less bacteria growing in there than in a tank with no live plants, so less to grow in your sponge filter.
Many bacterial starters contain the wrong species of nitrite eaters, so unless you used one of those which contain the right species that could explain why you have nitrite but not ammonia.


Any reading above zero for nitrite is not good for fish. It blocks the blood cells from taking up oxygen - it does to fish what carbon monoxide does to us. Until nitrite drops to zero, you need to do water changes to lower the level, or use salt, which mitigates the effect of nitrite. The second part of this link deals with using salt for nitrite.

Rescuing A Fish In Cycle Gone Wild - Part Il

Part II SO YOU STILL WANT TO KEEP CYCLING WITH FISH? If you are determined to ignore the above advice in Part I and still think you want to proceed with a fish in cycle, then you need to be aware of the information presented below. SOME IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT AMMONIA Ammonia in water exists...

www.fishforums.net

Thank you for not slaughtering me and actually providing really useful information and educating me i appreciate it, Im doing 15% water changes every 5-7 days as of now not sure if that’s frequent enough, Definitely will have to give the salt a try when i get home from work.

 

[Essjay]

Make sure you follow the instructions in the link for the amount of salt to use. Too much salt won't be good for the snail.

 

[tabletopfishguy]

Make sure you follow the instructions in the link for the amount of salt to use. Too much salt won't be good for the snail.

also read around and found out that 25-50% water changes daily wont be a bad idea? None of my fish are acting like they have nitrite poisoning or displaying any immediately alarming behavior but there’s obviously no need to ignore the elephant in the room since it will for sure eventually permanently harm them regardless of how they are behaving as of now. Any idea if it would be safe to change the water that much? Wouldnt it be also removing the beneficial bacteria that needs to be growing in population? Or am i mistaken

 

[Essjay]

Daily water changes are one of the two ways of dealing with ammonia or nitrite above zero. They dilute the toxin, but another is needed next day as nitrite/ammonia will increase again after the water change. Depending on how high the level is, even 90% water changes - leaving just enough water to cover fish - are OK, provided the new water is warmed to the same temperature as the tank water and water conditioner is added to remove chlorine or chloramine.
The bacteria live in the biofilm which is attached to surfaces. They don't live floating in the water so water changes will not remove the growing colonies.


Soon you should notice that nitrite is not going up as much each day, then it will drop to zero and stay there. That's when you can start doing weekly water changes, though monitor the levels until you are 100% certain they are staying at zero.