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Ok, so I just did a water change so I don't really have a picture of this.. but Here's the situation.
I have a 46 gallon bowfront with a pond snail infestation.
Months ago I added 4 assassin snails.
this tank also houses: 5 khulii loaches, 5 glass cats, a handful of pygmy and dwarf corydoras and their babies, 2 dwarf sunset gourami (both female) and a parkinsoni rainbow.
Soo.. on water change day I start the process smooshing every pond snail that is on the glass. I don't worry about the plants or substrate. I then start cleaning the glass and after a couple minutes I start my home-made python system and get that poop out of the tank.
Heres the mystery: In the back right corner of the tank, almost 5" from ANYTHING (decor, plants, driftwood) there's a pile of snail shells. All white and empty. I have pond snails and trumpet snails in my tank. These are always pond snail shells. I do find them around the tank because my fish do eat them. This pile always shows up. Every week, same spot reguardless of the tank flow. I've changed the filter position 3 times now so it's not that the shells get caught on anything. These are whole shells and not smooshed so they're not the ones I got.
I clean up this pile every week. I can't get all of the shells but I figure they're like crushed coral, it'll help my KH... eh couldn't hurt right?
So.. who do you think is piling these shells up?
I'm thinking it's the loaches. I read that they like snails and aren't a cure for them, but I think once I started smooshing them, they learned the flavor. This pile started after the assassins were added but the loaches were only added a short time before that.
Aurie
PS.. the pile usually contains up to 100 pond snail shells of various sizes.. some up to the size of a pea.
I have a 46 gallon bowfront with a pond snail infestation.
Months ago I added 4 assassin snails.
this tank also houses: 5 khulii loaches, 5 glass cats, a handful of pygmy and dwarf corydoras and their babies, 2 dwarf sunset gourami (both female) and a parkinsoni rainbow.
Soo.. on water change day I start the process smooshing every pond snail that is on the glass. I don't worry about the plants or substrate. I then start cleaning the glass and after a couple minutes I start my home-made python system and get that poop out of the tank.
Heres the mystery: In the back right corner of the tank, almost 5" from ANYTHING (decor, plants, driftwood) there's a pile of snail shells. All white and empty. I have pond snails and trumpet snails in my tank. These are always pond snail shells. I do find them around the tank because my fish do eat them. This pile always shows up. Every week, same spot reguardless of the tank flow. I've changed the filter position 3 times now so it's not that the shells get caught on anything. These are whole shells and not smooshed so they're not the ones I got.
I clean up this pile every week. I can't get all of the shells but I figure they're like crushed coral, it'll help my KH... eh couldn't hurt right?
So.. who do you think is piling these shells up?
I'm thinking it's the loaches. I read that they like snails and aren't a cure for them, but I think once I started smooshing them, they learned the flavor. This pile started after the assassins were added but the loaches were only added a short time before that.
Aurie
PS.. the pile usually contains up to 100 pond snail shells of various sizes.. some up to the size of a pea.