Think Fish Keepers Daily News. [2016-2019]

Have just spent the past hour looking into a bucket of tank water.
I did the daily water change on the quarantine tank, the otos are doing well, and the large one who had been bleeding is doing very well. As I was syphoning out the tank water I thought I saw something, so I put that bucket to one side and carried on with the water change. After finishing I went back to the first bucket and looked at it under the light. There was something moving, in fact several somethings. I got a pipette and a glass and spent nearly an hour trying to catch & identify what was moving. It appears that I had 4 fry in the bucket, which I have returned to the quarantine tank. How strange. No idea what they are or where they have come from.
Not sure if I may have lost some of whatever they are during other water changes over the weekend because my focus was on the otos, especially the big one.
It is also going to make other water changes a bit difficult, but it will be interesting to see if any fry survive.

Bertie seems more comfortable now that I've put another light in the tank which has a dimmer and a blue light setting. I'm not sure how many of those fry will survive with the tetras in the tank, but I'm looking forward to seeing some if they do.
I can only imagine that the fry in the quarantine tank are from the panda cories, but I hadn't seen any eggs, so it was very unexpected. I was worried that perhaps some critters had got into the tank, but the little things had the shape and swimming style of cory fry, which was a relief. 

Best of luck with your new arrival @fcmf

Bertie the BN has eaten the eggs again. Perhaps he is not cut out for fatherhood. Although this is possibly not his fault as (unfortunate timing) the patio doors that were broken during the burglary were replaced this week, so perhaps  Bertie got disturbed by all the noise and activity.
Still, I'm taking the opportunity to do a bit of work on the tank, adding some more wood and doing some rearranging, so perhaps next month he will feel more secure.

If it gorged itself during the first few hours, it could be recovering from a huge meal.

The easy way to check if a snail is dead is to sniff it cautiously. Dead snails smell appalling  . Just the tiniest sniff is enough or the smell will stay in your nose for hours.
If it is attached to something, don't wrench it off as that can damage a snail. You have to slide it along whatever it's attached to till it falls off the edge.

Thanks, both. He's still alive - he moved late last night in the direction of a thin slice of courgette with a tiny piece of Snail Stixx wedged in it. He's now back in his usual location, as though he's never moved, but presumably sleeping it off. I'm removing uneaten food to avoid fouling the water or risking him over-eating.

Quote from: Matt on May 25, 2017, 10:06:17 PM

...seems to have some form of green tufty algae growing on his shell

So does one of my nerites. Quite ironic for an algae eating snail 

Perhaps they are just carrying their own snacks. 

I thought Spider pig, but that is my answer to most things

Snail moved 0.5 cm over the weekend. (S)he seems to have disappeared overnight, though - which I'm taking as a positive that (s)he's moved at all, and hopefully (s)he's just under some plant leaves.

My Assassin Snail is equally elusive.  Most of the time the only evidence that he's alive is the occasional empty snail shell.

I assumed that they were called Assassin Snails because of their carnivorous diet, but now I own one I'm fairly sure that it's because they're invisible, like Ninjas!

After 2 weeks' quarantine, and confirmation from the reputable company that the snail had never lived with fish, I moved my tiger nerite into the main fishtank today rather than later in the week as previously intended. Within a minute of his arrival there, he started exploring avidly and seems to be thriving on the biofilm and algae food opportunities provided.