Think Fish Keepers Daily News. [2016-2019]

In my betta's tank were two pieces of wood, one with bolbitis attached, the other with anubias at one end and java fern at the other. I always had problems with the long filament type of algae on all these plants. After the betta died, i put the wood & plants into the main tank as I won't be getting another betta just yet (and I'm feeding the filter with ammonia)
Today I did a water change in the big tank, and there is no sign of the algae on the betta tank plants. This could be due to any of the following:
nerite snails
cherry shrimps
stiphodons

I can put a nerite back in the small tank when I get a new betta but i don't think shrimps or stiphodons are a good idea.



The reason I haven't got a new betta yet is because we are going to have the radiator moved from underneath the worktop the tank is on and I would not like to either subject a new betta to the work, or move a new betta temporarily. Once the work is done, I'll be betta shopping 

Besides, I've had a rotten cold for the last week and just haven't felt in the mood even for fish shopping 

I have had nerites for years, and I don't always have eggs. I bought 3 the same type a few years ago and one of them did lay eggs so I separated that one from the other two (I had three tanks back then) and hey presto, no more eggs in any tank.
And I've never had eggs with a single nerite. They need two to tango....

Frequently 

If they are near enough to something rigid they can grab hold of that and pull themselves onto it, but if they are too far away they try to grab hold of the substrate which doesn't work - they stay upside down with a foot covered in gravel or sand and we need to rescue them. But that was in the past. I now have so much wood with attached plants  in my tank that they always have something close enough to grab hold of.
It is quite interesting watching a snail come further and further out of its shell looking for something to grab hold of. They can reach round 180 degrees; that's when they try to grab hold of gravel/sand.

And I've never had eggs with a single nerite. They need two to tango....

The impression I get, from googling and reading of others' experiences, is that a single nerite female does still produce eggs, so perhaps Sue's been lucky in that respect? I also read about horned nerites being the worst - shame for you, TopCookie, as they're the ones that have the advantage of being small/lightweight enough to eat algae off plant leaves. Personally, much as I very much enjoy having a snail in my tank for the different behaviour and aesthetics, I wouldn't buy one purely for algae-eating as I find there doesn't seem to be any particular strategy in this regard - a patch of algae may be left untouched while he goes over and over a seemingly algae-free area and leaving footprint patterns behind.

I was going to recount my experiences of my nerite landing upside down, usually having done acrobatics off the filter or misjuding the weight of a plant leaf, and that he seems to have learned from the error of his ways over time, being careful to test out plant weight with his feelers before deciding whether or not to move onto it. However, I heard a clink this morning - he had fallen from the top of the glass and landed on his back, the second time I'm aware of that he's done this over the past few months. 

The cause of the most recent batch of nerite eggs were the two #1 snails shown in this thread https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/gallery-showcase/snail-photos/ They even laid eggs on the glass. But once separated, neither of them laid eggs. I have to confess that the one in the betta's tank is no more. When I thought it was stressing the betta too much I put it in a tub of water and forgot about it  (I did have three, one of them died shortly after purchase)

I suspect snail #3 is not well. See photo in reply 13 in the same thread. It was on its back when I did the water change so I put it on a rock and it's still there 2 days later. It is still alive - it didn't smell and it held it's operculum (trapdoor) tight when it pulled at it with a fingernail. Maybe it's responsible for the disappearance of all the filament algae from the betta tank plants and is just sleeping it off 





Several years ago when I had 125 and 60 litre tanks I had just one nerite in the 125. The filter in the 60 was a Hagen Trio, a filter which had a large flat front. http://www.hagen.com/img/aquatic/products/a360.jpg It grew algae all over the front. So I borrowed the snail from the 125 litre. It didn't take long for it to find this field of algae and ate its way round and round in the most elaborate patterns till there was none left.

Water change again today, and the snail that looked iffy last week hadn't moved at all. This week, it smelled 
RIP nerite.


I get bored when doing a water change because of how long it takes to refill the tank. So today i used some of that time to do some measurements.
It took nearly 40 minutes to refill the tank because of waiting for the kettle to boil. I need 1.5 litres (kettle max level) per bucket of water.
Today it took 3 minutes 15 seconds to boil 1.5 litres water in our kettle. It takes 1 min 15 seconds to carry the water to the tank, ladle it in with a jug and return to the kitchen.
Our tap water is 6^oC at the moment.
Come August, I'll only need 1 litre boiling water, and it will boil faster than I can pour a bucketful of water into the tank using a jug.

I bought the snail on 14 December 2014 so I'd had it three and half years.


It's that 2 minute wait for every kettleful that gets to me. I go and do something else and forget to come back then have to reboil it. As the tap water gets warmer in summer, I need to boil less, and it boils faster because it's warmer. Water changes in summer are really fast 

You can always rely on someone with a scientific background to take measurements & monitor their protocols to pass the time. 

Hitch-hiker found in tank - but contents vanished. I have my suspicions as to who is responsible - the greedy female tetra.