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Leopard Cory Looking Pale?

So far things look good. Fish are happy. Plants are growing. Notices a bit of almost hair like algae growing so remove that when I can.

Only thing is, every day the sand is covered in what I believe is poop. Surely it can't be just from the two fish. Could it be the probably hundreds of snails? I worry this could cause ammonia build up - how can I reduce the number of snails? I feel bad, but would an assassin snail or two help control the population? Do any fish eat snails?

FYI I feed one pellet of food every 1 - 2 days so I can't imagine I am overfeeding??
 
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pollyandpear said:
Only thing is, every day the sand is covered in what I believe is poop. Surely it can't be just from the two fish. Could it be the probably hundreds of snails? I worry this could cause ammonia build up - how can I reduce the number of snails? I feel bad, but would an assassin snail or two help control the population? Do any fish eat snails?

FYI I feed one pellet of food every 1 - 2 days so I can't imagine I am overfeeding??
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Hoover them up everyday if you’re worried. However, with a matured filter and plants, the system should be able to cope with poop. I guess it’s just very visible because you have lightish sand.
As to the number of snails, what pellets do you feed? Snails will control their population size in relation to availability of food. You could get a snail trap and empty that everyday, or Dennerle sell a snail catcher that you can use to pick them off the glass.
 
pollyandpear said:
FYI I feed one pellet of food every 1 - 2 days so I can't imagine I am overfeeding??
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pollyandpear said:
hikari sinking wafers
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For only 2 Cories? That could be too much. Also, are they algae wafers? If so you might also want to get them something like Vitalis cartfish pellets or bug bites for some animal protein to mix the diet up a bit.

If it were me and I wanted to get rid of the snails I’d feed less and set up some snail traps making sure to empty them regularly.
 
Ah okay, how often should I feed them and how much?

I will buy some bug bites.

Looking at the current food I feed it says they contain silkworm and krill, doesn't mention algae?
 
In my opinion snail poop is not as polluting as fish poop. Some fish are really bad at digesting efficiently and their poop is like half food still, while snail poop is usually less potent and more broken down. Like mentioned above I would make sure the corydoras are not overfed, but I would expect there to be a certain amount of snail poop visible anyway. In addition to excess fish food they eat biofilm and any plant leaves that are rotting, so they will always have a certain amount of food available. Especially in a newish set up tank, the amount of old growth on the plants will be greater than normally, because the plants have old leaves that aren't adapted to your specific tank. So there is a bit extra food there until all the plants have transitioned themselves.
I wouldn't worry so much about the snail poop in other words. If its unsightly you could try to set up the flow so that its swept towards a filter inlet. Or do some occasional manual removal.

Im glad to hear your tank and fish are on the mend 😊
 
Thank you!

I will take some updated photos.

I use a siphon to try and remove the poop every few days - my filter is a HOB filter so unfortauntely it doesn't really do much for the flow in the aquarium beneath the water.
 
I’d recommend using the bug bites too or another small granule, although corydoras will eat those wafers once they soften I find wafers are better for grazers like plecos. A wafer for two small corydoras is more than likely too much. As I mentioned before you definitely won’t starve your fish if you don’t feed them everyday. In fact it’s probably beneficial for fish to fast one day a week.
 
Hi all,
Hufsa said:
In my opinion snail poop is not as polluting as fish poop.
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hypnogogia said:
Hoover them up everyday if you’re worried. However, with a matured filter and plants, the system should be able to cope with poop.
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pollyandpear said:
I worry this could cause ammonia build up - how can I reduce the number of snails?
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That is the one, snail (or shrimp) faeces <"isn't very polluting"> because they are <"eating low protein content food"> and are very efficient at extracting any nutrients from it. What is left (the snail faeces) has had all the "goodness" removed from, and the structural carbohydrates left behind are right at the edge of <"being biodegradable">.

The small amounts of protein eaten is largely being incorporated into the snail body, where it will stay until the snail dies. This is often the problem when people use a molluscicide and then say that "snails wiped out my tank". They did, but only because the owner had killed them and their protein content suddenly became available again and produced a tsunami of ammonia (NH3).

cheers Darrel
 
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I think I will just leave the snails for now then. I mean, I am not just giving a few tiny bug bites for the cores.

The fish seem active and happy, they are swimming about the tank. I also seem to be able to change the water every 4 days to a week now - I tend to do a 30 litre change. Plants are growing a lot. The tank surface is covered with duckweed (which is annoying as I didn't buy any!) and water lettuce.

Wondering if I can start considering adding more fish yet?
 
pollyandpear said:
Wondering if I can start considering adding more fish yet?
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Sounds like its steadier now 😊 So yeah I think you can start preparing. Do very small additions (few fish) if you can, its really worth it to spread the additions out over multiple trips to the shop. Especially now in the beginning when you just have two fish, try not to add more than about three fish or so, maybe five if they are a fair bit smaller than the corys.
Then you can gradually ramp up the stocking level
 
Thank you.
I will either get a few more leopard cories or get a small group of nano fish like tetras or celestial pearl danio 🙂
 
I may have gotten more than three fish.

I got two additional leopard copies, but they are tiny babies, and 4 Mollys. Not the fish I was planning on getting but seeing their beautiful orange colour in person I thought they looked lovely!

They are currently acclimatising in their bags before I let them into the tank!
 
Mollies are well suited to hard water. Ideally you’d have 5-6 cories rather than just the 3 you have at the moment.
 
I have 4 copies now 🙂 would have got a few more but given I've added 4 mollies j thought I'd wait.



I think one of the molly may be pregnant?
 

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I mean, I don't have space for loads of babies! I certainly can't keep them all eek should have thought about this
 
The Hydrocotyle tripartita isn't really growing horizontally, despite pressing it down. It has just grown a little taller. Any tips on how to get it to cover the floor?
 
pollyandpear said:
The Hydrocotyle tripartita isn't really growing horizontally, despite pressing it down. It has just grown a little taller. Any tips on how to get it to cover the floor?
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It might creep a bit more if the light is stronger.
In lower light it goes a bit more upwards towards the light.
There is a certain amount of trimming that will need to be done as well though. This plant tolerates a fair bit of trimming, so mow it like a lawn once it has some thickness, and plant the trimmings to spread it or fill it out where needed 🙂
 
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