What am I?

[Matthew RJ]

I'm not sure what section this question belongs in. Photos? Fish ID help? (mods, please feel free to move it as necessary).

So it's a 30 gal, misc fish (angels, red tail shark, molly)
Live plants (crypts, amazon sword, valence sp?)

possible ich outbreak over the last week. Just bought a new heater today (original was a pre-set one) and starting a treatment.

But during my weekly water change, found these little guys. Part of my routine in cleaning is to remove a diver / ornament and they must have come off it (they were on the counter where I placed the diver).

So ... what are they? I counted 8 in all.

PS - they're alive!

 

[Meenu]

Could you post a pic or at least describe them?

 

[Matthew RJ]

Sorry, thought I had the pic uploaded.
Still trying...
A brief description: black, look almost like little snails.

 

[josh11551]

maybe pond snails hitchhiked on plants recently bought.

 

[Matthew RJ]

http://img718.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=1002904.jpg

 

[josh11551]

looks like snails but i don't know what type...

 

[NMfishman]

Looks like snails to me too. they kinda look like these ones I had in a 20 gallon years ago, if they are the same type they will overrun your tank! I would remove all that you can find and hopefully you will get them all.

 

[Matthew RJ]

Thanks for the heads up. I did a thorough water change like usual. Again I think they fell off an ornament.

I'll do a 2nd water change this week to combat the ich and watch to see if there are still any left.

Aside from water changes, how do you get rid of these things?

 

[NMfishman]

Just pick them off by hand if you can, if not then I guess you will have to wait until they get bigger then get them. If they get real bad I suppose you could add some loaches, but your tank is pretty well stocked all ready, and obviously don't even consider the loaches till your ich is gone and your tank has settled down again. Just try to get them by hand first.
btw what is your tank temp.

 

[Butterfly]

Look like ramshorn snails to me
Carol

 

[Matthew RJ]

tank temp. is @ 80 (ish)

Thanks again for all the quick replies. Wish me luck with the ich!

 

[Nutter]

I'm with Carol. They are definitely Ramshorns. Hard to tell exactly what sort but that doesn't really matter. Very difficult to totally eliminate. The best you can really hope for is to keep the numbers under control.

Do not over feed the fish. Excess food will result in an explosion in the snail numbers. Remove as many as you can by hand every day. You can put a blanched lettuce leaf in the tank overnight. In the morning snails should have gathered on it & the leaf along with the attached snails can be removed. Be sure to get to the lettuce leaf before the lights come on or the snails will have gone into hiding again. Yoyo Loaches will help keep the snail numbers under control if you have room for them, (don't think you have).

 

[NMfishman]

To fight the ich I would up your temp to at least 86. Make sure you do it real slow though like over a day or two. If you think your fish can handle it very slowly nudge the temp up to 90, that is the temp ich will die at.

 

[Aquarist]

Good morning,

Agreed, Ramshorn snails.

I respectfully disagree with NMFishMan....90 degrees is too high.

Raising your temperature to 86 degrees and leaving it there for a full two week period will help rid your tank of ICH. Do two gravel vacuums each week to remove the spores that fall off the fish and into the substrate. Warmer water requires more oxygen so you may need to add an air stone/supply line if you aren't currently using one.

Note: ICH may appear worse before it gets better. Even if all of the ICH disappears before the two weeks are up, leave the temperature raised for the entire two weeks.

Best wishes!

Ken

 

[NMfishman]

The reason I like to raise it up to 90 is that it instantly kills the ich when it falls off the fish and reduces the time your fish have ich and the time they are at the elevated temps. My 55gal had ich and my pictus had it the worst, they rarely survive ich, but they all lived cuz they were not infected for long. Now that being said it did stress the fish out, but everyone still survived.
By all means if you do not feel comfortable about raising your tank up to 90 then don't. Your fish are not as susceptible to ich as some of my fish and should be all right with the longer exposure to ich. Do what you feel comfortable with.

 

[Lucy]

Just to add, there are some strains of ich that can survive at 86F, although that's the temp I usually recommend also.

 

[Aquarist]

Thanks for elaborating on that NMFishman!

Ken

 

[Matthew RJ]

Ich looks like it's getting under control (thanks to increased water temp & med) ...back to snails ...

In my 2nd water change of the week, I took out 2 ornaments and found more snails. I tried to remove as many as I could see (it's really not that bad, maybe 20 max). The one ornament has a cave and lots of hiding spots. Because of that I'm not sure I got them all.

Any other tips on taking care of snails?