# weird life form found in my tank.



## jcgoobee (6 Jul 2009)

Hello there,

I wasn't bothered by this at the beginning but their population seems to be growing, so I thought I should ask around and see if there's anything that I should do.

The size of these things are very tiny, as tiny as half size a grain of sesame. They seem to have transparent skill shell and easy to crack when I pick it up with a twister. They only appear at night, and visible on the grass. They seem to crawl in extremely slow speed and if I scrap that off and the fish sees it, they will eat it. They also appear to be active at night as I never see them during the day but on the grass in the early morning.

I believe that my filtration system and water quality is very good. Has anyone seen this? I wonder if they're baby snails..

Thank you.


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## Steve Smith (6 Jul 2009)

Sounds like some sort of cyclops or other tiny crustacian.  It might also be possible they're baby snails?


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## vauxhallmark (6 Jul 2009)

Sure sound like snails, although I'm not sure what a "skill shell" is, nor a "twister"   

Try to get hold of a magnifying glass, perhaps?

Mark


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## mr. luke (6 Jul 2009)

coepods?


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## Steve Smith (6 Jul 2009)

mr. luke said:
			
		

> coepods?



That was the name I was trying to remember!


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## jcgoobee (6 Jul 2009)

vauxhallmark said:
			
		

> Sure sound like snails, although I'm not sure what a "skill shell" is, nor a "twister"
> 
> Try to get hold of a magnifying glass, perhaps?
> 
> Mark



Oops.. sorry about the typos. I meant to say, soft shell and tweezer.  my bad.


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## jcgoobee (6 Jul 2009)

not sure of it's any of names that you folks have mentioned, but it's really tiny, and not difficult to scrap off at all. 

Let's say if they are snails and continue to appear, should I use some sort of medication to kill them? Not sure if it's snails' nature to crawl around at night since I never had any in the past.

Thanks folks.


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## jcgoobee (7 Jul 2009)

*suggestions please....*

so.... still wondering how I can get rid of them? it appears that I'm getting more and more of these each morning I look at the tank.


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## Steve Smith (7 Jul 2009)

Do you have any shrimp or snails in the tank that you want to keep?  If not, you could use one of the anti parasite medications which, along with killing off parasites, usually kill of snails and such.  Research this option thoroughly before gonig down this route as some meds can cause problems with filter bacteria.


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## jcgoobee (7 Jul 2009)

SteveUK said:
			
		

> Do you have any shrimp or snails in the tank that you want to keep?  If not, you could use one of the anti parasite medications which, along with killing off parasites, usually kill of snails and such.  Research this option thoroughly before gonig down this route as some meds can cause problems with filter bacteria.



Hi Steve,

No, I only have Tetras, and couple of Otocinclus in my tank... no shrimp or snails at all. Do you have a favorite brand that works well for you? Thanks for writing back.


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## Steve Smith (7 Jul 2009)

If I'm honest, I've never done this.  Sterozine (or something like that) might be worth a look.  You could also consider a natural predator, like a botia loach but again you'd need to research this some more   Also Anentome helena (Assasin Snail) might be worth a look.  I'm considering buying a few of these to deal with my ramshorns I have in most of my tanks.


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## jcgoobee (7 Jul 2009)

SteveUK said:
			
		

> If I'm honest, I've never done this.  Sterozine (or something like that) might be worth a look.  You could also consider a natural predator, like a botia loach but again you'd need to research this some more   Also Anentome helena (Assasin Snail) might be worth a look.  I'm considering buying a few of these to deal with my ramshorns I have in most of my tanks.



Hi Steve,

huh! natural predator is a good idea that I haven't thought of. That's brilliant! I'm a bit against using medication unless I really have to. I'm just a bit worry that these creatures might be growing out of control some day that I will have to do a complete rebuild.

Thanks Steve.


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## jcgoobee (8 Jul 2009)

*YoYo Loaches - solution found*

Okay, in reference to the advice I got from the forum plus a bit more research yesterday, I got three small YoYo Loaches last night. They have the reputation of eating snails. I was a bit skeptical as they seem to be so small, and dormant after I released them to the water.

Guess what happened this morning? those three little ones did eat almost every bit of snails on the glass! Granted that there are several small ones attached but it's much, much better than the day before. I notice that there are some small particles floating on the water so those could be empty shells...

According to the aquarium owner, I will never be able to get all the snails and eggs cleaned up unless I clean up everything from the ground up. If I have plants in my tank, it's likely that eggs would hide there regardless of how much cleaning I do before I plant them in the soil.. It's just part of the chaos that we aquarists have to put up with.

Anyway, just want to share with the friends here that YoYo Loaches do a very good job in cleaning up snails.


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## Egmel (15 Jul 2009)

*Re: YoYo Loaches - solution found*



			
				jcgoobee said:
			
		

> Anyway, just want to share with the friends here that YoYo Loaches do a very good job in cleaning up snails.


But like many loaches they also grow quite big, most places say about 5-6" and they like to be in groups.  So not ideal for smaller tanks   Botia sidthimunki, the dwarf or chain loach is often a better option as it only gets to 2".


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## jcgoobee (15 Jul 2009)

*Re: YoYo Loaches - solution found*



			
				Egmel said:
			
		

> jcgoobee said:
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From what I found out, YoYo loaches are one of the species that don't grow too big, usually around 2", so I should be okay. Worst comes worst, if it grows larger than 2 or 3", I will trade them with the aquarium shop where I bought them... Clown loaches do grow up to 6", so they are definitely not the keepers for me. 

All the snails have virtually disappeared ever since I put those YoYos in my tank. Yay!


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## Egmel (15 Jul 2009)

*Re: YoYo Loaches - solution found*



			
				jcgoobee said:
			
		

> From what I found out, YoYo loaches are one of the species that don't grow too big, usually around 2", so I should be okay. Worst comes worst, if it grows larger than 2 or 3", I will trade them with the aquarium shop where I bought them... Clown loaches do grow up to 6", so they are definitely not the keepers for me.
> 
> All the snails have virtually disappeared ever since I put those YoYos in my tank. Yay!


Clown loaches can  grow to 12" but tend to stay around 8" http://www.clownloachfish.com/
Yoyo Loaches can grow to 6" http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile79.html

(Unfortunately loaches.com is down at the moment otherwise I'd have provided links to there)

I'm not saying the information you were given is completely wrong, I'm just warning you to keep an eye out on how big they may get as there are sites which disagree with the 2" estimate.

The chain loach can look similar to the yoyo loach when young, is it possible you have these?


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## jcgoobee (15 Jul 2009)

*Re: YoYo Loaches - solution found*



			
				Egmel said:
			
		

> jcgoobee said:
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The place I got those Yoyo loaches is pretty reputable, and they do look like the ones on the pictures from the link you sent... but hopefully they won't get too big but if they do, I will either trade them off, or give them away..... hey... maybe I should get a bigger tank? haha.. just a wild thought... but doesn't seem my counter top in the kitchen can support that... at least not for now... Thanks.


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## SunnyP (16 Jul 2009)

I have some bengal loaches and they are amazing at neutralising snail infestation. Had snails everyhwere in my tank and found some eggs hidden under some bogwood. Let these guys loose and about a week later empty shells everywhere. Not a fun time removing them but better than snails all over the place i guess.
The bengal loaches seem to be curious of everything that moves as they sit on the bogwood waiting for anything small in their mouth that they can munch on, so they may be the right thing for removing you infestation.

Sunny P


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## Jase (16 Jul 2009)

In my planted tank I used to find it quite theraputic squashing snails whenever I saw them, but now I'm bored of that   So am _tempted_ to stick a couple of small Clown Loaches in for a few weeks to clear up the problem. I have these Loaches already in another tank and the only thing stopping me putting them in is the thought of all my nice plants floating at the surface when I wake up one morning. Anyone found Loaches disrupting plants overly?


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## SunnyP (16 Jul 2009)

My bengal loaches have all been fine and respect the plants, not sure about other loaches though. The devastator (transformers)(geek) in my tank is my bristlenose plec who goes wherever he wants and chomps through anything in its way. Eg. Wisteria Stems.


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## jcgoobee (16 Jul 2009)

I'm not sure about bengal loaches, but my yoyo loaches do dig deep into the soil and appear to be searching for any treasure (snail eggs?) underneath.

one disturbing comments that I have heard, is there's no way to destroy all the snail eggs as they are hidden deep in the tank and always in multiplication mode. It can be controlled by deploying natural predators such as loaches, but not a complete clean up unless I bleach the entire tank.


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## chris1004 (19 Jul 2009)

A small number of snails is quite healthy in any tank so personally I wouldn't worry to much about them. The only time that they reach infestation proportions is when there is enough food to go around so unless you are overfeeding or not removing rotting or decaying organic matter like dead leaves, which you should be doing to keep ammonia down, you shouldn't have any real problem.

I agree that if there is a lot of them it can look unsightly but its also a good indicator of the above problems. 

On the plus side because they eat decaying organic matter they are benificial to the overall ecology of the tank. 

If you keep your hardness levels down then they have trouble forming their shells (mainly calcium) and therefore become much easier for the predatory fish to eat.

I have also found that by keeping the front glass spottlessly clean even if there is a lot of snails in the tank very few like the clean glass and show a marked preferance for other uncleaned surfaces leaving the viewing plane relativly snail free.

Mostly though I just try to ignore them (ramshorn snails) and take solace in the fact that they are actually helping me rather than hindering me. Pond snails however get crushed on site these really can be a menace if left to get out of control.

Regards, Chris.


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