We Have Fry!! I Repeat, We Have Fry!!

[Kiara1125]

I got home from visiting and staying with my grandmother on Sunday around 2:30pm. I finally found out where my tank is leaking (bottom of tank at the back left area) and I was tranferring my decorations, then my fish, to my other tank. I noticed some little fish swimming around, and after I caught all of them and counted them, I have 7 Platy fry!!! I guess it was survival of the fittest. I decided to leave them with the other fish, because my other fish aren't bothering them. My Neons (very friendly) like to keep them company, but as soon as one of my Platies come over my fry swim away. I also noticed this morning that I have a snail (I think it's a baby Mystery Snail). My fry are eating crushed up flake food and bloodworms, but my questions are:

1) How old are they? -They are already eating crushed flake food, they are about a cm long, they don't have egg sacs, and they are already starting to get some black markings. They all have black markings (some look like Wag markings, Mickey Mouse markings, and Twin Bar markings) and there are 4 light colored fry and 3 dark colored fry (general body color).

2) What should I do about the snail? -It's cute and not harming anything. Like I said, I think that it's a Mystery Snail. It's brown and has black spots all over it. I don't know how to get a bigger shell for it, because it's only 1/2 cm right now.

My computer and camera software are currently being jerks. I'll try as soon as possible to get some pics up. But, for now, I'll put some pics I found off of Google that match my animals the most.

Baby Mystery Snail, same size and color.

Platy Fry, bottom fry matches most to all of my fry. You can only tell if they have light or dark body color, not exact colors.

 

[IThinkTherefore]

1) I don't know, but the others likely will.

2) That looks like a ramshorn, which may munch your plants a bit, and if there is more they'll breed like crazy. You don't need to get bigger shells (lol), they make their own

Edit: Also, cute fry!

 

[nanu156]

umm you said "baby snail" so it came with a plant correct? if so take it out and toss it its a pond snail and it is very bad news they eat plants poop a ton and take up oxygen they also produce a ton of ammonia when they croak

they are bad i repeat they are not pets they are pests its like having pet fleas lol

cute fry

 

[IThinkTherefore]

Snail Species List .:. Freshwater Aquarium Snail Species Information Pages

Haha ramshorns can hitchhike too! This is a list of aquarium snails, ponds are listed, they don't have the swirly shell

 

[nanu156]

pond is a name that i believe applies to any freshwater snail that is commonly found and treated as a pest it is not specific to a single species

but yeah there are also some curly pointy shelled ones that get in plants and are also bad news

 

[Kiara1125]

Thanks ITT!! After looking at all the pictures, it does look like a Ramshorn. Plus, I got my camera software installed, so you guys can see my fish, fry, and snail!! And nanu, I noticed the snail (just thought that it was a shell then) with my Amazon Sword that I got 4-6 weeks ago. I was just like, what?? Then I decided to leave it in there. I just noticed it this morning moving. I still don't know what I should do with it, but if you guys wait, I'll most likely have a picture of it up tomorrow around 3:30pm cst.

 

[ValRasbora]

Congrats!
I have ramshorns snails, they don't bother my plants much. Only decaying plants

 

[Dylandrewsdad]

That is how I found my first Platy fry, when I moved them to another tank! Congrats. If you want to grow them out fast, keep very clean water and feed them a few times a day.

 

[aakaakaak]

Ramshorns are generally good as long as you don't overfeed. Considering your lack of more clean up crew (except your oto) keeping the ramshorn might be a good idea. Just remember they don't need more than one to reproduce. If you're bad with feeding you could have a bad problem.

Grats on your baby fishies. They look like variatus at that age, but probably aren't.

Being able to breed something always feels kinda cool.

If you want any mystery snails instead (Gold or Blue) and are in the Hampton Roads Virginia area I can totally hook you up. I've got a bunch of peas.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I have had the red ramshorn snails in tanks for years. They will eat any leftover food and any dead fish you may not spot right away. The numbers will grow over time, faster if you overfeed. I keep some needle nosed pliers around and crush the excess snails and let the fish eat them. The ones that get big, around a nickel plus size, are the only ones I have directly observed eating on my amazon sword. I have not noted them damaging any other plants that I have kept. (Have not kept all plants however.) I currently remove the bigger ones to a tank with only floating plants (hornwort) and a medium sized plecostomus. The plecostomus feeds a lot on the plants and algae (it also takes all other foods I put in the tank for the companion zebras.)(I put the zebras in the tank last summer to keep mosquitoes down.) My thinking is that the vegetable matter is poorly digested and that the droppings, much like a horse or cow, have a lot of food value left in them. The snail population has bloomed in that tank.

My guess is that there was an egg patch on one of the plants you introduced. The ramshorns lay eggs on surfaces and secrete a very tough and transparent coating around them. Very hard to spot on a plant, and difficult to remove without damaging the plant.
Several years ago I set up a planted tank without any snails and after some months a sheet algae/bacteria growth began to cover all surfaces of the tank. I eventually found that an antibiotic took care of that growth. I got some rams horns and malaysian trumpet snails for the tank and the growth has not returned or been in any tank with the snails before or since.

It may also be that the presence of the snails helps to cycle a newly set up tank. One habit developed over the years is to place some rooted plants and/or floating plants in a newly set up tank on the first day the water is added. There are usually snails on the plants and I have deliberately picked them from an established tank and dropped them in the new tank. I usually wait a few days before adding a single fish. Then a slowly add fish in small numbers over periods of several days between additions. It occurred to me that the snails may produce both the ammonia to start a cycle and carry the beneficial bacteria necessary on the surface of their shells along with the surface of the plants. Just a thought as I seldom have problems with a new tank setup and have been thinking of how habits developed over the years might fit into the cycling formulas with the use of conditioning chemicals that I have read about on this forum. It must be that my practice accomplishes the same results in a different way without the use of these chemicals. I am still thinking about how this may be. At any rate the presence of ramshorn snails has been a normal practice by me for many years.

 

[Kiara1125]

Thanks Val Rasbora, DDD, aak, and skjl!! I think I'll keep the snail, my platy fry look awesome (I named one Tohru and it has a clear, maybe orange later on, fin and a black tail), and I'm getting some aquarium safe silicone tonight. Either today, after school, or tomorrow, after I get my other tank set up again, I'll take some pics of everything (especially my new fry!!) and post them here. I'll post a picture of what the parents look like, I'm pretty sure that the mom is Misery because of the fact that some of my fry look like they have the Wag markings on their fins. My Oto loves to swim around my Terra Cotta Pots that I have in the Fry Tank. He like to suction himself on them upside down. I have to get a picture of that!! lol!!

 

[nanu156]

DONT silicone the tank, i repeat don't silicone the tank, return it

you will have leaks at a later date, i repeat this is a temporary fix at best

aquarium safe silicone is 5.99/tube when you find it cheap if you insist on not returning the tank buy a new 10g tank for 12.00 and call it a day

 

[Dylandrewsdad]

As they used to say...."Word" Just buy another tank!

 

[nanu156]

thank you mike!!!!! geish i was starting to think that no one was going to back me up in this thinking lol

she can just exchange it its wlamart they will exchange anything!!!! sometimes you have to make a bit of a fuss but they will do it for you in the end

 

[lauraf]

Marcy, I 100% agree with what you've been suggesting. One of the essential skills to acquire in growing up - learning when it really is cheaper in the long run to spend a bit of money up front.
And be able to return anything with confidence. In which case you don't need to spend any money at all!!!

 

[nanu156]

OMG I could kiss you!!!! look at my response to the other thread.

Again if it was even a 55g tank i would be doing the research to help her do the best possible job on the repair, getting her illustrated instructions and talking to the folks i know who build custom stuff....

but really it isn't even cheaper to repair it. by the time the repair supplies are purchased she could just buy a new one.

BUT why do that when it has a 2yr warrenty through tetra, and walmart is pretty easy to return stuff at.

if it was purchased from joes fish shack yeah ok joe might not be able to DND the product he might lose money and i would be an advocate for a different solution, but it's walmart.... They are going to give it to tetra (equally as evil) tetra is going to take it fix it and sell it again... or recycle the glass and make more tanks with it....

OC just tore me a new one lol sigh.... it's economics, and common sense. lol

rar im so annoyed about this i could spit.

 

[Kiara1125]

Sorry nanu!! I'll reutrn the tank. Who do I need to talk to, and what do I need to do to get this done??

 

[ValRasbora]

just go to customer service, and say, "I need to return this tank," and explain your circumstances (how old, defects, blah blah blah) ;D

 

[Kiara1125]

Fry Update- Pictures!!!

I these pics I have (in order): Mom and Dad (Misery and Evasive), Ramshorn Snail (Charles), my Oto (Fang) attached to my submersible heaters cord with my sponge filter in the background (AWESOME BUBBLES!!!), a group of my fry (pic taken in leaking take. I found them while tranferring decorations), and two of my fry (Kyo and Tohru. Kyo is the light colored one on the right and Tohru is the dark colored one on the left).

 

[skjl47]

Hello; If you have the reciept take it and the tank to the customer service desk at any Wal-Mart (I think it was mentioned that the tank was purchased at wal-mart.) Tell them the tank leaked and that should be enough. Don't know what happens without a reciept. If it was purchased on a credit card, the monthly statement my be enough. The return practices are common at wal-marts, but not always identical. Last spring I bought a floor demo TV at the Harlan, Ky walmart with the understanding that i had 90 days to return it. I moved to TN and the local walmart had a different policy. I had to drive back to Harlan to return it. But all the rest of the time there has been no problem with returns.