valen

I had two platies for 10 months in a 10 gal tank and all was fine and stable. I had no water quality issues other than a little extra algae sometimes (manageable).

About a month ago I decided to get more live plants and got a lace java fern and anubias. Along with the plants came pond snails and I think it all went downhill from there. I never had snails before and read up on them and started getting rid of the egg sacks.

About a month ago I lost one platy to pop eye/bacteria and fed the other platy medicated food and it seemed to work. His milder popeye went away. Then a few weeks later (he was alone in the tank) he started to get sick again but this time it was like a fungus looking swelling or bubbling at the base of his tail (not ick) and a piece of tail tip was also notched out (he was alone in the tank).

Now I have no more fish but lots of snails. I want to get more fish but first I need to make sure that the new fish will not get the bacteria (or whatever) infections that the other died with.

Should I do something to the water in the tank if ammonia/pH/nitrates etc are normal ? Should I dump it , scrub everything and start over or can I keep the water and the good bacteria and the cycle going ?

I was thinking now is a good time to buy a chemical snail killer since I have no fish. I could Kill off the pond snails and do water changes every day until I am sure the snail killer is diluted/gone and only then get new fish.

Any suggestions on which snail killer product ? I can't get a snail eater fish as the tank is too small and using the luttuce method never really gets rid of them. Right now I must have around 50 small dust size snails and about three or four big ones. They are reproducing like crazy and I can't keep track of all the egg sacks.

So I really have two questions , can I (should I ) keep my water and established tank water or start over completely (big hassle) ? What is the risk to the new fish if all the water parameters are fine ?

Which chemical snail killer should I get (if any) since I have no fish now and want to get rid of constant snail breeding problem ?

Any advice would be much appreciated

Lucy

I'm really sorry you lost your fish.

Since you don't know what caused their death, I can't really advise whether to sterilize and restart the cycle.
You might want to take out clean the gravel and plants to get rid of the snail eggs. Rinsing out the filter might help too. Doing a complete water change might help with whatever infected your fish.

As far as getting rid the snails, I've read that if you put a peice of lettuce in the tank at night, it will attract the snails. Then just toss the lettuce out in the morning.

Good luck.

capekate

Hi Valen
sorry to hear of your problems with snails and the loss of your fish.
My suggestion if it were my tank is to clean it all out, and start over. The disease may still be in the water and I wouldnt add any more fish in there til the tank was cleaned out. I know that you will have to start the cycle all over, but in the end it may be worth it. This way you would be confident that you get rid of all the snail eggs and any disease that may still be present but dormant.