Think Fish Keepers Daily News. [2016-2019]

@Sue that's a very frustrating and disappointing situation to find yourself in.
That's a lovely list of fish, and you've waited such a long time for them. 

I've done a water change on the fishless 180 litre as I've not done one since 29 July. For a tank that has only wood, plants and pest snails (both tiny ramshorns and 'pond' snails) the sand was rather mucky. I used to blame it all on the fish   14 x 7.5 litre buckets clean water later, the tank looks much better.

I am adding 3ppm ammonia every 3 days. Nitrate will be building up but I have no idea how much as I don't have a nitrate tester. Since my pH has been dropping, it must be quite high. I was intending to do a 95 to 100% water change the day before I went for the fish to remove both nitrate and the bicarb I've added for the pH but as that's now on hold, I thought I'd better do something. The new plan is a water change twice a week which should get rid of the bicarb and replace it with the small amount of KH in my tap water, and also remove a lot of nitrate.

Snails poop like there is no tomorrow.
I've got ramshorns and pond snails in a tank for feeding to the puffers and they can make an enormous amount of mess.

I did think tropicals produce very little in comparison with goldfish whose entire wellbeing seemed to be concentrated around their pooing habits. However, the two massive female tetras have been reaching new echelons on the pooing side of things lately, not helped by the fact they're ingesting a lot of sand lately and so the resultant poo is strewn with grains of this. [Sorry - hope no-one is reading this while eating. ]

I was midway through working today when I got distracted by something moving at a fast pace up the front of the tank glass. Since the arrival of one of the batches of plants, I've noticed a baby snail every week during the water change but which I've discarded to avoid an infestation and given the heebie-jeebies I'd get if I were to find one decimating a dying/dead fish or were to find a partial dead fish.

However, this afternoon, this chap - now named Usain Bolt due to his speed and so likely to become a permanent tank resident now that he's been named - has been out in full force. [Ironically, I focus on trying to take a non-blurred photo of a snail and, inadvertently, I manage to capture probably my best pic yet of an x-ray tetra!]

Lts hope he doesnt prove to be a Usainina 

I've googled this to no avail - help! 

You'll have to wait for a bolt from the blue, Matt.

 

Reading http://www.ots.ac.cr/rbt/attachments/suppls/sup51-1%20Physidae/Physidae%20Information.pdf, can someone with some knowledge of biology confirm for me that Usain could indeed be Usainina as well? If so, I think I'll remove him & her ASAP into their own tank!

That's the problem with pest snails - they are pests because they are sneaky little so and so's and when you think you have just one, that's the one you can see. There are plenty more in hiding waiting to make lots of new baby pest snails.
If you ever see a small curved bit of clear jelly with specks inside attached to the glass, decor etc, that's snail eggs.

Who's been eating chunks of Amazonian frogbit overnight?! Usain(ina) Bolt is going to be removed today if I can track him/her down.

Updated: he's been moved into the QT. Not sure he seems too happy in there - moving much more slowly - but it gives me better peace of mind.

What a coincidence... I bought a single assassin snail today after seeing how many Malaysian trumpet snails there were one night and getting a bit freaked out...

I generally crush the ones in the shrimpery if i spot them, the pygmy cories get all excited when they find one. The assassin is most welcome to them. I don't mind the snails I add myself but pest snails are plant eating menaces and I have as much sympathy for them as I do any snails I find in the garden.

News on my pygmies is I noticed one of the large females has developed a bit of a fungal infection along her back, she's probably worn herself out with all the egg laying bless her. So I've dosed the shrimpery with some eSHa 2000, hopefully it'll do the trick.