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Hi all, The <"native Physa fontinalis"> has fleshy outgrowths of the foot. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It will for shrimplets. Usually they will live quite happily in the filter, you just need to make sure that you don't pour them down the sink when you clean the filter. I'm not sure that this is a viable option with a filter with a pre-filter. Personally I like a sponge filter with...

Hi all, The ones ones the shell? I think @Steve Buce is right and they are another snail, the <"Lake Limpet"> (Acroloxus lacustris). <"Snail Leeches"> are pretty common. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Definitely Red Cherry Shrimp and they look very Amano like. cheers Darrel

Hi all, There will be <"plenty of calcium (Ca)"> in @confusedman's water for <"geological reasons">, so they don't need to add any. They are a <"grazing surface"> for the shrimp, as well as "botanicals" most people add a <"green leaf as a food source">, this might be <"Nettle (Urtica...

Hi all, I think you can feed them with very finely powdered flake food etc. and possibly they do better in tanks with leaf litter etc. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I think it may be a <"Macrobrachium sp."> ("Long armed") shrimp as well. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Really good for shrimps, some people use Indian Almond Leaves (Terminalia catappa), but I use pyo. Oak (Quercus spp.), <"Beech (Fagus sylvatica), Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) etc">. Have a look at <"All the leaves are brown">. They are best with <"a veg. based diet">, you can use any...

Hi all, Because the OP lives in S. Oxfordshire I would expect that their water is pretty hard and the Aquasoil won't be able to soften it enough to cause problems. <"Alder cones are good">, they will tint your water a little bit. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I'd probably leave it for a few days. I carry on with water changes, but I only change a small volume of water (every day) I always have them, but they only become apparent in tanks where I feed a <"lot of small live food items">, and particularly micro-worms. I'd be less worried, it...

Hi all, I powder it with a <"pestle and mortar"> and tip it in. Rather than try to weigh out really small amounts, I divide it <"into portions by eye">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Entirely harmless, some fish eat them, and they tend to come and go in abundance. They are basically a Daphnia, <"surrounded by a hard carapace">. They are really common in freshwater, even in big puddles. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Definitely a Planarian, looks like it might be close to Girardia (Dugesia) tigrina, because of the eye spots. The <"second one is an Ostracod">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I'd definitely give them something to cling to, a plant or sponge etc. cheers Darrel

Hi all, That would sort of be the point, you may not be able to get 100 ppm TDS and 6 dGH. I'm not a great believer in "magic numbers". I would just ignore the dGH value and use the TDS value, it is a lot more straightforward. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Yes, I'd aim for 100 ppm TDS. I like conductivity meters because conductivity is a linear scale and the meters are pretty straight forward to use and maintain. You could only <"really calibrate the API dGH"> test by making a standard with a salt like calcium chloride (CaCl2.6H2O). I'm...

Hi all, A bit of strange one, but the <"ppm" value recorded by a TDS meter"> isn't the same as the ppm (mg/L) (of divalent cations) used to <"work out dGH">. I'd just go by the electrical conductivity value, it is a lot more straightforward The conversion factor the meter uses, to "convert"...

Hi all, Depends on the fish. I fairly briefly owned <"Dicrossus maculatus"> and they ate them, but most other fish aren't that keen, presumably because of the hard shell. The <"Copella I have at the moment"> ate them when I first went in the tank, but as soon as they were acclimatized and knew...

Hi all, <"Ostracods"> ("Seed shrimps") @X3NiTH also had <"some stripy ones">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It doesn't give you any values for anything, it just says that none of the samples haven't exceed the EU statutory limits. Some of these are quite tight (mainly heavy metals and pesticides), but others are really broad (50 ppm NO3, 2500 microS conductivity etc.) cheers Darrel

Hi all, I used the <"Panacur Granules Sachets"> and just ground the powder with a pestle and mortar. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Thank you. I got to know a couple of <"Bristol L number keepers"> and began to appreciate what an inadequate fish-keeper I was, but I also found out that <"real experts"> had had unexplained fish deaths, often of large rheophilic plecs, fish, that in some cases, they had kept for a...

Hi all, I mention it as often as I can. I wrote it a long time ago, and it has had a few homes, but I'm still proud of it. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It is, but only indirectly. When you have a lot of small live food you tend to get a Hydra boom, but only if the Hydra were already present in the tank. Yours will probably become inconspicuous again, but if you do want to get rid of them fenbendazole ("Panacur") is very effective. Old...

Hi all, I agree, have a look at <"Berried RCS? No it's green...">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, All these little crustaceans tend to look pretty similar, but a <"lot of them are invasive aliens etc">, so knowing what you've got is quite important. I've kept Crangonyx for the last five years and they are a really good addition to the fish tank. Have a look at: <"Live food...

Hi all, Definitely, I've never been a CO2 user, but it is exactly the same as the other parameters, the smaller the volume of water the quicker things happen. I think shrimps and snails are complementary and that a tank with snails is likely to have healthier shrimps. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Shrimps have <"haemocyanin"> as their oxygen transporter, which less efficient at oxygen transport than haemoglobin and they don't have as efficient a blood flow system as vertebrate animals with the heart pumping blood around the haemocoel and, relatively undifferentiated, vascular...

Hi all, Yes it could, oxygen is the base in OH- and you can potentially get pH values in the pH10 range in water that is <"super-saturated with oxygen">. Because the pH scale is a (base^10) log scale, pH10 is 100 (10^2) times more basic than pH8. I understand that, I'm <"not very good at...

Hi all, The high pH is almost certainly because of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) injection. You can only get that combination of low dGH, dKH and TDS when you add a strong base (like NaOH) to fairly low solute water. NaOH will raise pH, when it disassociates into a Na+ and OH- ion, it is a <"strong...

Hi all, I'm not a CO2 user, but the linked thread <"Nerite Snails in high tech"> has some discussion. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It is shell erosion. Snails can only make <"new shell material at the mantle">, once new whorls have grown in front of that shell portion the snail can't repair it. If you have soft water (or your pH drops below pH7 during CO2 injection) then it will get worse and eventually kill the...

Hi all, I think they probably do. I used to have a lot more (and bigger) when I was feeding vegetables to the shrimps etc and the water was a bit harder. I seem to have a lot of Tadpole Snails, but I don't know if that is because they have slightly different food sources to the Ramshorns...

Hi all, Red Ramshorn (Planorbella duryi) and Tadpole Snails (Physella acuta) survive in my tanks at about 4dKH (and are self sustaining populations), but they never grow very big. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Probably <"Ostracods">, they are harmless and <"really common in planted tanks">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, The ones I've looked at have all been Helobdella sp. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I have Leeches in my tanks, it isn't entirely by choice, but they are almost impossible to eradicate, and I like shrimps, snails, Lumbriculus etc. so I'm not ever going to take the nuclear option. cheers Darrel

Hi all, In that case the cure would definitely be worse than the Leech. You could try baiting with a <"Planaria trap">? cheers Darrel

Hi all, Useful link. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Are there snails? A lot of leeches are snail eating. I'm not sure about non-UK species, but the UK Fish Leech (Piscicola geometra) has a <"very obvious head sucker">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It is definitely a Leech. cheers Darrel

Hi all, We have a <"few threads about them">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I'd be surprised if it was directly shrimp related. Shrimps are nutritionally pretty good, and would be very similar to the invertebrates a Betta would eat in the wild. I haven't kept a Betta for a long time, and never with shrimps, but I fed Cherry Shrimps to my Apistogramma for a time...

Hi all, Do you know exactly what species they were? Gammarus pulex needs high oxygen levels, so it may have been the heat. I've not kept Hyalella azteca, but I have both <"Crangonyx pseudogracilis"> (and Asellus aquaticus) and they are pretty bomb proof. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I should be able to find you some. I'll have a look when I'm back in work. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Quite possibly, I have both types of flatworm in my tanks and some leeches. I've never managed to exclude them (or Hydra) for long. Probably the safest option, Hydra and Tricladia Planarians you can kill with fenbendazole ("Panacur"), Rhabdocoelas flatworms are fairly resistant and...

Hi all, Have a look at <"Planaria? Help please!">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, How are they moving? Are they "gliding"? cheers Darrel

Hi all, I would think some fish will eat them. I've never kept <"any fish"> that eat Hydra, Leeches or Planaria, although there are <"some that allegedly will">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I'm pretty sure they are live-bearers, so it must be snails that have survived. I assume in their natural habitat they occur in seasonally wet areas and can survive extended periods of drought, buried in the substrate. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Almost certainly that one. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It is <"more the movement">, if it loops it is Leech. Try a flattish stone placed on the substrate, if they are leeches <"they will congregate under the stone"> during the day. You could also try a <"Planaria trap">, they work to some degree for leeches, but not as well as they do for...

Hi all, Good, if the worm stays "worm shaped" I wouldn't worry about it at all. If it contracts and expands is is a leech and I'd try to remove it. It won't be a fish leech, so even then it isn't a real problem. Chemical control probably isn't a good idea, have a look at <"Leech"> . cheers Darrel

Hi all, I'll be quite honest, I'm not familiar with any of them other than Lumbriculus variegatus. Because very few of them have links on the Wikipedia page I assume they aren't organisms that you encounter very often, and my guess would be that they are mainly fairly similar in appearance to...

Hi all, It looks bigger than Lumbriculus, and they don't move in that way. Click in the <"links"> in the thread messages and they will take you to relevant posts. Leech is my guess as well, but I can't see enough from the video to definitely exclude an annelid worm. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I can't tell from the video. It is either an annelid worm as (@Nick72 suggests). Some species are aquatic, (like <"Lumbriculus">) including some <"very "earthwormy" looking ones">. The other option is a Leech, they move by contracting from a sucker (one at either end) and then...

Hi all, You have a lot of native species in the USA, we only have <"one native species in the UK">, the now endangered <"White-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes)">. The primary cause of this decline is the invasive non-native Signal crayfish, (<"Pacifastacus leniusculus">), and...

Hi all, I agree with the others, I'd definitely change a bit more water. Freshwater is much more variable than salt water, which is almost infinitely buffered and consistent in its physical characteristics. Organisms that have evolved in the sea (or Lake Tanganyika) don't have any ability to...

Hi all, That becomes <"more problematic">, and another example of a company selling a product without <"actually explaining what it contains, or how it works">. I would just add a cheap calcium carbonate source, <"Oyster shell chick grit would do"> and at least you would know what it...

Hi all, Is it this one "JBL Aquadur - Mineral salt water conditioner to raise the hardness of freshwater aquariums"? That should do. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I should have put the figures from the report in: Hardness Total (Ca mg/l) Number of samples :18 Min. 8.90 Mean 12.83 Max. 16.70 The workings for dGH/dKH are in <"Good stones and rocks..."> cheers Darrel

Hi all, True, conductivity is a pretty blunt instrument as a measurement. I don't add many nutrients so nearly <"all of my TDS"> will be from Ca++ and HCO3- ions. Unless @Nick potts has been adding <"calcium and carbonate">. Then his tank won't have much of either dKH or dGH. cheers Darrel

Hi all, That is pretty much RO water out of the tap, less than 1dGH/dKH, but a pH over pH8 because of the NaOH addition. It isn't likely to have much copper (Cu) in it, mainly because it doesn't have much iron (Fe), lead (Pb) or manganese (Mn). cheers Darrel

Hi all, What does the report from your water supplier look like? They have an analytical lab. so their report will be accurate. The test results look fine. I know that this won't find much favour among some traditional fish-keepers, but if you have reasonably heavy planting my opinion is that...

Hi all, I might try adding a bit more carbonate buffering as well. They didn't <"enjoy life with me"> when the tank got below about 100 microS and ~3dKH. No, I think that is wrong. I'd just ignore the pH, it is raised by <"sodium hydroxide (NaOH) addition">. Because NaOH is a strong base it...

H all, They are all illegal to own in the UK other than "<Cherax quadricarinatus>". I think a few people have seen Orange morph Cambrellus sp. in Europe, but they are all banned in the UK. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Sounds like it may be a Damselfly nymph, they are ambush predators and don't tend to swim very much, but they sort of flex from side to side. It might be a <"swimming mayfly nymph (Baetidae)">, they are pretty rapid, but normally small and dark. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Click on <"the link">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Welcome, I'm sorry to hear that. We have a <"Scutellaria thread"> that might help. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I think it will be fine. Your tank isn't really non-cycled. I don't see cycling as a switch between non-cycled = toxic and cycled = safe, it is more of a slope. Unwittingly you've performed a <"bioassay"> with your Cherry Shrimp. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Nice, I'm pretty sure that one is the "Common River Snail" (Viviparus viviparus) it has a blunt shell apex and you can see the brown stripes (should be three of them) on a greenish shell with slim tentacles. cheers Darrel

Hi all, We have a relatively common native species of Trapdoor Snail <"Viviparus viviparus ">, apparently V. contectus is very similar and also widespread, but I've never knowingly seen one. They need high levels of oxygenation, so may not be that suitable for tropical aquariums. I'm not...

Hi all, You get snail feeding species and some that eat detritus worms, fish eggs etc. The <"common UK fish leeches"> have large rounded head suckers, I've seen <"Piscicola on Sticklebacks"> from ponds etc., but I've never seen that type of leech in the aquarium. I wouldn't either, I think it is...

Hi all, Leech, they are <"really difficult to get rid off">, they are Annelids, and NoPlanaria etc. doesn't affect them. <"I've learned to live with them">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I have them in all the tanks, they are just a useful addition. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I know exactly what you mean, but you really need to let things settle down and get some stability. From earlier in the thread Just have a couple of weeks with minimum maintenance (pre-filter clean once a week?) and water change, nothing else. Then you can assess where you are...

Hi all, Oak, Beech and Alder "cones" all work and are available all over the UK. Have a look at <"All the leaves are brown"> and <"Medicinal trees: The Common Alder">. I've never bought Indian Almond leaves (Terminalia catappa) , but they look to do a good job as well. cheers Darrel

Hi all, <"Structural leaf litter">, I use Beech (Fagus sylvatica), Oak (Quercus robur, Q. rubra, Q. ilex), Camellia (C. x williamsii), Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica), Evergreen Magnolia (M. grandiflora), Strawberry Guava (Psidium cattleianum) and Alder "cones" (Alnus glutinosa, A. cordata). I can...

Hi all, You have to balance the increased level of CO2 out-gassing with the surface agitation. It is easier for me, because I don't add CO2 and a larger gas exchange surface probably increases CO2 levels (via equilibrium with atmospheric levels), <"rather than depleting it">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, That sounds promising. I'd probably keep changing a bit more water and make sure you have <"plenty of oxygen">, possibly via a bit more <"surface agitation">. The last thing is don't remove any of the growing vegetation at the moment, <"more plant mass"> will definitely help reduce NH3...

Hi all, Yes change some water. We don't know at what level NO3 becomes toxic, but it is a high level and almost certainly in the hundreds of ppm. The NO3 in your tap water is exactly that already NO3, but in your tank some of that NO3 is the <"smoking gun"> from previously high levels of...

Hi all, That sounds promising so fingers crossed. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I'd agree with that, they should be translucent and not at all "milky". There isn't much you can do in terms of treatment, so I'd just keep an eye on them. In the photo the Blyxa looks really pale, is it as pale as it looks? and do the new leaves look any greener? cheers Darrel

Hi all, Right at the start for surface floaters like Amazon Frogbit, Salvinia or Pistia you don't need to worry about them getting algae on their leaves and they have access to aerial CO2, so they are great nutrient sponges. cheers Darrel

Hi all, You can. An alternative is <"Oyster (or Cockle Shell) chick grit">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I think this <"is really important"> (and for a <"lot of fish as well">). I think that, in addition to the filter mulm, some snails and structural leaf litter also help, and then there is also a <"big wodge of moss.......">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Sounds likely that they are Rhabdocoelas flatworms. In that case they are harmless, but not particularly susceptible to fenbendazole. I'd try @Witcher's suggestion. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I thought that and I wondered whether they are Rhabdocoelas flatworms (like below)? I tend to ignore them unless they are really plentiful, then I have a go at baiting for a while. cheers Darrel

Hi all, We've got a few <"Planaria threads"> You used to be able to buy it without a prescription in Pets@Home, eBay etc. This is the link that @Gill posted <"Panacur Wormer Granules 1g">. I can't tell from the photo, but you need to look at both the head end of the Flatworm and the way it...

Hi all, Not really, you just let the tank grow in, no ammonia addition etc., although you can feed the plants with a terrestrial plant fertiliser <"containing urea"> (while you don't have any livestock). I like snails, but even if I didn't I'd definitely recommend <"MTS and Ramshorn snails">...

Hi all, Yes Bladder snail (Physella acuta), I'm a fan but obviously not niversally appreciated. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Not really, it/they won't do much damage to the plant. If you are worried, but don't want to kill it, you could pop it in a pond, they normally feed on Potamogeton spp. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It is the caterpillar of a China-mark Moth. I don't know which one, but something like <"Brown China-mark (Elophila nymphaeata)"> looks likely. We have a <"[0]=484']couple of threads"> with these. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Try wedging it under something. It should sink after a while. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I've always been both skint and really tight with money, so I know a lot of cheap alternatives to "branded" products. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I'd imagine that should be fine for Cherry Shrimps, they are pretty resilient. Another option is a <"Cuttle "bone"> they sell these for Budgies etc. and they work pretty well. If you put a little bit in the snails and shrimps will pick at it, and if the water gets below pH7 it will...

Hi all, What @thatblokeoverthere says. Red Cherry Shrimps don't do well in really soft water. Coral sand is the biological "aragonite" form of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and slightly more soluble than ground limestone. There are some ethical issues in its use, but crushed Cockle or Oyster...

Hi all, I only had them briefly, I was given three and they started fine and very active, but they rapidly began to show shell attrition at the shell apex and became less active. I wasn't too worried (I have a lot of snails) but after six months or so of not seeing them I found their very...

Hi all, Yes it is the carotenoid pigments that enhance the <"red colour of shrimps, fish and Flamingos">. <"Brine shrimps are rich these"> (obtained from the algae that they eat). cheers Darrel

Hi all, No. Yes, ideally. It will die eventually. Until it dies it isn't a problem, and after death it would be the same as having a large dead snail, or a small dead fish, in the tank, not disastrous, but better out than in. As @alto says not easily, without killing things you might like...