Lowtech Nanos - The Mossy Spider & More

[shangman]

This tank has returned to it's rightful state, with mossy spider taking centre stage. The mossy spider grew A LOT of moss while in the big tank with the high light (that I very lazily never lowered, yikes), so it grew a lot. It also grew a lot of filamentous thread algaes. I did a blackout on the big tank with the mossy spider in it, but it didn't seem to do that much, so I pulled off the easiest algae, and then chucked it back in this nano anyway. The shrimp/snails seem to have eaten the worst of the algae off already, hooray! This tank is also quite low light (except right at the surface), which helps loads. The cherry shrimps eem very happy that this wood has returned, I've seen a lot more of them now than I did when there wasn't much in the tank.





Where the moss was at it's fluffiest and needed a trim, I pulled it off to use in wabi kusa balls. I really want to add some emergents to this tank, and because of the placement of the wood I can easily balance 2 - 3 on the wood, so I experimentally made a few yesterday. I used hydrocotyle tripartita japan, pelia (this grew CRAZY big in the high light tank, I have a huge puff of it right now), and a mix of mini Christmas and phoenix moss to make the base plants for the balls (the balls were made of a golfball sized amount of wet ADA Amazonia new, wrapped in sphagnum moss and lots of cotton thread). Then I added little sprigs of hygrophila pinnatifida, ludwigia super red + ar mini, rotala hra, brazillian pennywort and a nice little pot of marsiela hirsuta that my dad's friend bought but didn't need so gave to me to try. They're in bowls for the first few weeks to adapt and to get the ammonia out of them. If they work well, I'm going to make lots of them to form a lot of the riparium growth for the pond tank. I really like the idea of taking the excess plants grown in the hightech and using them in the pond tank, so I get to see both versions of growth. This is a photo of 2, I have 6 total. Might buy clear plastic bags on top for humidity.





I really need a new light, now the tank is raised this light is way too close to the surface, especially for the emergent growth. I want to try <this light, the Chihiros C2 LED light>, though I'm trying to avoid spending too much cos I have to buy loads for the new big tank. Omg, way too addicted! 😵😛

My dad bought a huge bag of tiny twigs from Riverwood aquatics for the hightech/pond tank, so I took a few out and tried adding them to this one to see how it looks, it was very bloody fiddly. Not 100% convinced yet, I think things need to grow on/around them a bit. It does give it a bit more of that fancy aquascaping vibe though!





I think the tank could use a little more shaping, which would involve getting rid of some of the pellia and crypts in the front, but I'm waiting for the big scape to be ready so I can use whatever extras I have in there.

 

[shangman]

Got myself a beautiful new snail from Riverwood Aquatics - it's a White Wizard snail, and thus was immediately named Gandalf. Gandalf has a beautiful cream-coloured spiral shell, and is grey with mustard spots. It's mouth is big enough that I can see the "teeth" rasping on the glass with is p cool. Gandalf is about an inch long atm, but should get up to 5cm. I only got one, but now I've reserved a second so I can have Gandalf and Saruman together. Anyone else kept these snails? I haven't come across them before. Now I've been researching interesting snails and would also like a hairy snail too...

The amanos are strangely attracted to Gandalf, and like to give the shell a good clean regularly, as you can see !!

​

 

[shangman]

This tank is currently a bit hmmmmmmmmmm to me...

2 weeks ago one of my large amano females died from a failed molt. I noticed a few planaria so I made a trap and put the shrimp body in and caught a few. Have been noticing more planaria around!

Then last week I bought 2 more white wizard snails go with with the first, as the first had been active and eating and going about the tank seemingly happy.

The 2 new snails are also much less active, they've buried themselves in the substrate since I got them. I made sure to turn the temp of the tank down just in case it's from the weather. All my rabbit snails and MTS are active and normal, no problems.

Then 3 days ago, my first white wizard snail died. It had been actively going around the tank looking fine, but then stopped appearing. I found it floating underneath the floating plants. I did a big waterchange as I know that snails can really gross up the water, the snail didn't smell bad so I think I caught it early, but still.

This morning, I found another large female amano dead, and an UNPLEASANT number of planaria around it. I think they've become an actual problem now, and my shrimp numbers haven't gone up massively even though they breed a lot so it's time to nuke. I guess I should do another big wc again now too, I suspect it was there a few hours.

Not really sure what to do about the snail + amano deaths, I haven't been doing anything differently recently. I generally do smaller wc on this tank as it's lowtech, so will go back to 50% to see if that helps! Otherwise not that sure what to do, I did get the big amanos secondhand and the dead ones are the biggest so I suppose it could be old age, but still... hmm. The only other thing is that due to the wood I don't really hoover the substrate at all in this tank, so maybe will also take the wood out briefly and do a proper hoover. Any thoughts?

Will be buying some no-planaria and taking all the snails out to a quarantine tank next!

 

[Wookii]

This tank is currently a bit hmmmmmmmmmm to me...

2 weeks ago one of my large amano females died from a failed molt. I noticed a few planaria so I made a trap and put the shrimp body in and caught a few. Have been noticing more planaria around!

Then last week I bought 2 more white wizard snails go with with the first, as the first had been active and eating and going about the tank seemingly happy.

The 2 new snails are also much less active, they've buried themselves in the substrate since I got them. I made sure to turn the temp of the tank down just in case it's from the weather. All my rabbit snails and MTS are active and normal, no problems.

Then 3 days ago, my first white wizard snail died. It had been actively going around the tank looking fine, but then stopped appearing. I found it floating underneath the floating plants. I did a big waterchange as I know that snails can really gross up the water, the snail didn't smell bad so I think I caught it early, but still.

This morning, I found another large female amano dead, and an UNPLEASANT number of planaria around it. I think they've become an actual problem now, and my shrimp numbers haven't gone up massively even though they breed a lot so it's time to nuke. I guess I should do another big wc again now too, I suspect it was there a few hours.

Not really sure what to do about the snail + amano deaths, I haven't been doing anything differently recently. I generally do smaller wc on this tank as it's lowtech, so will go back to 50% to see if that helps! Otherwise not that sure what to do, I did get the big amanos secondhand and the dead ones are the biggest so I suppose it could be old age, but still... hmm. The only other thing is that due to the wood I don't really hoover the substrate at all in this tank, so maybe will also take the wood out briefly and do a proper hoover. Any thoughts?

Will be buying some no-planaria and taking all the snails out to a quarantine tank next!

I had a fair few planaria in my low tech tank a few months back. They created something of a snail graveyard from all the empty shells at the front of my tank.

I grabbed a sachet of Panacur from PAH and dosed (0.1g per 40 litres) twice, two weeks apart, and haven't seen any planaria since. My shrimp population definitely increased afterwards also.

It had the added benefit of getting rid of the Hydra that had accumulated where I regularly fed BBS also.

 

[Karmicnull]

Be careful with Nerites and no planaria - I dosed a tank to get rid of Hydra and even a month later when I dropped a test Nerite in thinking there would be no problem in it, it lasted about 2 days before dying. 'Pest' snails (mini ramshorn and pond snails) were all fine. You might be better going the Panacur route.
Cheers,
Simon

 

[shangman]

I had a fair few planaria in my low tech tank a few months back. They created something of a snail graveyard from all the empty shells at the front of my tank.

I grabbed a sachet of Panacur from PAH and dosed (0.1g per 40 litres) twice, two weeks apart, and haven't seen any planaria since. My shrimp population definitely increased afterwards also.

It had the added benefit of getting rid of the Hydra that had accumulated where I regularly fed BBS also.

There are a few small empty shells are the front 😱

This morning I did a 80% wterchange so I could suck up all the mulm in the bottom and to hopefully take out some planeria... OMG there were literally HUNDREDS in the bucket once I'd done it, mostly hidden in the mulm. Will need to do another big change to get the rest of the mulm, I totally underestimated how much there was in the bottom and what could be lurking there. My general thought before was mulm/shulm, it doesn't matter in this small lowtech with shrimps and snails, but considering the enormous number of planeria I've just caught (easily over 100), perhaps not!

Will do the second big waterchange just before dosing the tank so there are as few as possible to die dirty the water, probably this weekend so I can also set up a little snail quarantine tank too. Hopefully the white wizard snails prefer a cleaner tank!

Just bought some No-Planaria earlier, didn't realise I could use Panacur! But after seeing them in a large number.. I MUST DESTROY. Some of the are red/pink from delicious cherry shrimps 😭

Super annoying, I have good number of blackworms and tiny creatures in this tank I really like! Had to suck a load out and feed them to the fish!

 

[Wookii]

Be careful with Nerites and no planaria - I dosed a tank to get rid of Hydra and even a month later when I dropped a test Nerite in thinking there would be no problem in it, it lasted about 2 days before dying. 'Pest' snails (mini ramshorn and pond snails) were all fine. You might be better going the Panacur route.
Cheers,
Simon

Agreed - I should have mentioned the nerites. I removed all my horned nerites, and added them back in two weeks after the last treatment, and they have all been fine - though my system is set-up for 20% daily water changes.

 

[Wookii]

There are a few small empty shells are the front 😱

This morning I did a 80% wterchange so I could suck up all the mulm in the bottom and to hopefully take out some planeria... OMG there were literally HUNDREDS in the bucket once I'd done it, mostly hidden in the mulm. Will need to do another big change to get the rest of the mulm, I totally underestimated how much there was in the bottom and what could be lurking there. My general thought before was mulm/shulm, it doesn't matter in this small lowtech with shrimps and snails, but considering the enormous number of planeria I've just caught (easily over 100), perhaps not!

Will do the second big waterchange just before dosing the tank so there are as few as possible to die dirty the water, probably this weekend so I can also set up a little snail quarantine tank too. Hopefully the white wizard snails prefer a cleaner tank!

Just bought some No-Planaria earlier, didn't realise I could use Panacur! But after seeing them in a large number.. I MUST DESTROY. Some of the are red/pink from delicious cherry shrimps 😭

You'll never remove them all manually - I used to see several half an inch or more below the substrate surface - though it's worth sucking them out where you can to avoid an ammonia spike when they all die.

 

[shangman]

Be careful with Nerites and no planaria - I dosed a tank to get rid of Hydra and even a month later when I dropped a test Nerite in thinking there would be no problem in it, it lasted about 2 days before dying. 'Pest' snails (mini ramshorn and pond snails) were all fine. You might be better going the Panacur route.
Cheers,
Simon

Ahh damn!!! Well I've bought it now.. Will make sure to do lots of extra waterchanges and add some carbon to the filter for a week too. Maybe the snails will need an extended summer holiday 😂 When I dosed my old tank for hydra it killed all my MTS which I was very fond of, and since I have such lovely snails in this tank will be very careful when returning them!

You'll never remove them all manually - I used to see several half an inch or more below the substrate surface - though it's worth sucking them out where you can to avoid an ammonia spike when they all die.

Yeah they'll never all be sucked out they are too well adapted, I can still see them in the tank even though I've removed loads, but like you said wanted to get rid of as many as possible to reduce the ammonia spike, and also to give the baby shrimps a bit of a break from what must be constant harrassment! I have a few berried females atm and would like to protect & grow this colony.

 

[Hufsa]

I heard white wizard snails can be hard to keep alive, but I dont remember why, it was many years ago. Sorry not very useful information perhaps.

If you are planning to keep burrowing snails in the substrate in your tank I would be careful, snail medications of various kinds can get "attached" to it and will slowly kill any burrowing snail you try to introduce. Ive had this happen before with completely inert sand and NoPlanaria. I was also unable to keep Nerites alive but cant say 100% that it was caused by the tainted substrate.

Maybe best course of action would be to remove all the substrate, nuke tank contents and then add a brand new substrate?
Ugh these unwanted pests are a b****, my sympathies 🙁

 

[shangman]

I heard white wizard snails can be hard to keep alive, but I dont remember why, it was many years ago. Sorry not very useful information perhaps.

If you are planning to keep burrowing snails in the substrate in your tank I would be careful, snail medications of various kinds can get "attached" to it and will slowly kill any burrowing snail you try to introduce. Ive had this happen before with completely inert sand and NoPlanaria. I was also unable to keep Nerites alive but cant say 100% that it was caused by the tainted substrate.

Maybe best course of action would be to remove all the substrate, nuke tank contents and then add a brand new substrate?
Ugh these unwanted pests are a b****, my sympathies 🙁

That's really interesting about the snails... everything online says that they're easy to keep but with the death of my first one I feel like I must be missing something! Especially since it seemed totally fine and active for a week or so and then quite randomly died. And I've got rabbits thriving in the tank with no problems. I have lowered the temp a bit just in case the hot weather heated the tank to just a bit too much for them, otherwise I'm really not sure what to do. Of my new two (bought before the first died, from the same source), one is still very burrowed into the sand, and the other is exploring around. I did wonder whether there might be a reason that they're not more commonly kept, because they're very nice. Would love to keep these two alive and thriving if I can, will put a blanched leaf in and see if that gets their attention.

The medication and sand thing is a really good point, I'll remove the substrate and replace, I'd much rather do that than have dead shrimps w/ planaria, or dead snails w/ no planaria!

Luckily the best bit of this tank is the mossy wood which is rather easy to remove and preserve. I was planning on taking out some of the plants into the new big scape, so I can wait 2 weeks and do this "rescape" at the same time as the big tank. I don't mind making the change, and maybe this time I'll try something different and do 100% sand with root tabs, one of the big problems will mulm in this tank is escaped soil from the underlayer, so this'll make it nice and clean again 🙂

Should the snails have some sand in their holiday tank too? Maybe they'll like a bit of playsand to try.

 

[Deano3]

Firstly love the tanks and journals, I had planeria a while ago and they killed off all my pest snails what I loved but then started on my nerites and killed them then my shrimp so certainly have to go.

I purchased a treatment off a knowledgeable man on ebay and he sent the treatment and I dosed never seen planeria since but it did kill off my shoul of rummy nose tetras aswel unfortunately .

Make sure don't take any plants out and place in other tanks incase planeria on there as that's how I ended up with them unfortunately.

Best of luck
Dean

Sent from my SM-T595 using Tapatalk

 

[shangman]

Firstly love the tanks and journals, I had planeria a while ago and they killed off all my pest snails what I loved but then started on my nerites and killed them then my shrimp so certainly have to go.

I purchased a treatment off a knowledgeable man on ebay and he sent the treatment and I dosed never seen planeria since but it did kill off my shoul of rummy nose tetras aswel unfortunately .

Make sure don't take any plants out and place in other tanks incase planeria on there as that's how I ended up with them unfortunately.

Best of luck
Dean

Sent from my SM-T595 using Tapatalk

This is great advice thank you! I made wabi kusa balls recently (see earlier in this journal), and just yesterday saw planeria trundling along with them in one of the bowls! It must've come from the moss in this tank that I used, so the wabis will be going in too before I treat everything, it would be so annoying to treat this tank then add the wabi kusas and get the problem all over again! And def won't be taking any other plants out before the treatment.

Sorry about your fish 🙁 These medications seem like quite a dice roll somtimes!

 

[shangman]

Waiting a bit to treat the planaria, until after the big scape is finished. In the meantime, the wabi kusas have done really well - leaving them to grow in bowls by the window really helped their growth.

Of the plants I used, the hydrocotyle tripartita and leucocephala worked the best. Of the mosses, the best was the mini Christmas moss, though I think the pelia will work well too given time (it looks great semi-emmersed in my other tank where ti was glue to wood). The Marsilea hirsuta that came in an invitro pot has also worked fantastically, I would definitely use invitro pots again for this kinda thing. The pinnatifida and rotala didn't convert from emersed and died, but the ludwigia ar mini has converted very quickly and easily. A great experiment, will definitely be doing more.

So, onto some pictures... I put them in two tanks, including my lesser photographed 45L, so I'll show you both!

The Mossy Spider first... this one didn't have any emergents in it before, when I planned the mossy spider I always wanted some emergents but didn't have the knowledge on how to do it... this technique has worked perfectly for what I originally envisioned. I think I will add another one or two to the back higher up so it's half in/half out of the water. And maybe raise these 2 up as well. Ignore the sad buce, it melted in another tank so I put it in here to keep it from melting any more.

This tank needs a good clean up to get it looking really good again, I want to really tart it up once I've killed the planaria.

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This is the 45L which is a tank I scaped with my dad. The back has a pocket of soil behind some horizontal wood (which is now covered in pelia and Christmas Moss), with lagenandra and eleocharis in it. It has had a small crypt but that didn't like it. I just aded the wabi kusa in front of the wood on the right side, to give the grass some variety. In the emergent wood in the middle there is usually an echinodorus, but the greenfly really hurt it a lot, so we've cut it back to keep them away. My dad wants to try SB Invigorator on them if they return, but that makes me go hmm.

​

Behind the echinodorus is some tiny white fungus of some sort. Quite interesting, I love it when random stuff like this appears! Any idea what it could be?

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Full tank shot, the camera makes it hard to photograph the top and bottom together. The scape is finally looking quite nice, though it's got sme very sad buce in it that I'll soon be nabbing for my hightech. I want to get it looking great for the end of summer, I did a big clearing of plants from it a few weeks ago and realised that it wasn't bad and algae-filled, it just needs some attention. Stuff I thought was algae ended up being 30+ java fern babies growing on the end of the leaves with their roots waving about!

One day I will take a proper photograph where you see that the light is an old wooden Chinese lantern.

 

[shangman]

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Well I'm VERY pleased this morning, as I just found a 4mm tiny baby white wizard snail crawling about the moss! As the first wizard snail died mysteriously, and the snails are generally so inactive I have been worrying that they weren't very happy, but I think this shows they are 🙂 They spend the majority of their time buried in the sand, occasionally crawling all over the glass, maybe one day every week, sometimes a bit more. Even when they're buried though, I can see their feeding tube sticking out slightly, which they use to filter feed. I have one more active, and one less active one. I think I have a male and a female - apparently you can tell from the eyestalks, the female one has 2 straight eyestalks, the male one has 1 straight eyestalk, the other is fat and curly. I don't know how long they take to have babies though, so they could've been pregnant when I bought them (just over 6 weeks ago), though a few weeks ago I did notice them crawling on eachother so perhaps that was ~the act. They don't lay eggs, they are like rabbit snails and give birth to small live babies. Fingers crossed this continues and I can spread them around to those that are interested!

This tank is looking much better atm, I've been doing weekly and sometimes twice weekly waterchanges with substrate vacuuming to get rid of all the mulm in the bottom, which is where the majority of the planeria live, so I've been able to get rid of quite a lot of them, several hundred easily. I still haven't treated the tank as I want to have the big one stable with all my fish in my 60L tank in there, so I can convert that to a temporary snail quarantine. And now I know there are precious baby snails, I want to make sure I'll be able to find and catch all the snails so they don't get killed by the treatment.

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I also moved some plants from the front to further back, which has really helped give some better balance, and during that moving found lots of clumps of moss at the back hidden in corners which was v useful for adding to the big tank. Even in lowtech with hard water the phoenix moss grows very well. The tank composition isn't fully there yet, I added a small brand on the right with moss which needs to grow in, but it's getting there slowly. I want to add some more buces, but will wait for them to grow in the big hightech rather than buy them, I like to keep things cheap in this tank.

I've culled the shrimp in the tank as I've been getting a lot of wild colours, who now live in my little waterlily pot-pond outside. I easily pulled 80+ shrimp, and only 6 or so were actually properly posh red, I need some more good quality ones to help with breeding rich red ones, I'm v jealous of people with properly red shrimps!! Can't complain too much though as my first cherries were like £10 for 30. I also had 4 lovely black shrimps in there somehow, who have gone into my new hightech, they look v nice so I've ordered some more, I thought the black colouring might make them less obvious to any greedy fish, at least less obvious than bright orange which was my second colour of choice.

The emergent wabi kusa are doing great, so much so I added another one on the right. I ended up raising them higher than what I showed you last time, so a bit of the ball is always out of the water. This has been super effective, I love them. I think all my tanks from now on will have a few emergent plants, it just feels so natural and pretty, and the shrimp really love to pick at them when I top the water up. My light is currently taped to the sloped ceiling to give enough light to the wabi kusas, really need to replace it at some point!

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[aec34]

@shangman how do you get your moss so tidy?! Is this topiary skill, or does the variety just grow like this? Mine is always v unruly - think I bought it as spiky moss

 

[shangman]

@shangman how do you get your moss so tidy?! Is this topiary skill, or does the variety just grow like this? Mine is always v unruly - think I bought it as spiky moss

I don't ever trim the moss, other than pulling off bits of undergrowth to put in other tanks when I think it could do with being less of a big blob. Never used scissors on a moss, it can just be pulled off (never just the tips, I pull off small clumps) and tied somewhere else it needs to be.

I think the topiary effect just the natural growing pattern of the moss, I originally used quite a few types in this tank but the one that's grown the best and now dominates is pheonix moss Fissidens fontanus. I did originally do a dry start on this tank which meant the moss is very spread out all over and creates the undulating blobs, but I'm sure it would be similar with tying as well. On the top left there is a ball shape from the wabi kusa which had some christmas + phoenix moss wrapped around them which does def enhance the pleasant blobby look.

I have some mini pelia, when I put it in a big tank with high light it wasn't attached to anything but formed a pretty neat large blob, I think most mosses/liverworts like to be blobs, but phoenix moss does it on a small and neat scale.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Behind the echinodorus is some tiny white fungus of some sort. Quite interesting, I love it when random stuff like this appears! Any idea what it could be?

It might be a <"Bryozoan">.

This tank is looking much better atm,

It looks lovely.

cheers Darrel

 

[shangman]

Hi all,

It might be a <"Bryozoan">.

It looks lovely.

cheers Darrel

Thank you very much Darrel 😍 That means a lot!! Even though I've got a big hightech tank now, I still want to make sure I try to makepretty lowtechs too, I'm convinced they're undersold.

Could the Bryozoan live half in and half out of water? I'll do some more investigating on it, it's still growing there. I have a dream that one day some little toadstools will appear out of the moss too.

 

[shangman]

The Great Swapping
​

As you guys will know from reading this journal, I have the Mossy Spider, and also another tank which is 45L - which I shall now name "The Ferny Stump". Don't be fooled by the side-by-side, the left is half the size of the right!

​

Both of these tanks have problems with them, which I'm hoping to solve in one fell swoop by swapping over the stocking, and doing some light rescaping at the same time. On the upside, they both have fabulous emergent sections that I really love, so it's not all doom and gloom.

The problem with the mossy wood (tank on the left) is: planaria. That's it, but it's really annoying. Even after getting all the mulm out, the planaria are plentiful again, and my shrimp population isn't great. I can't treat the tank because of all the snails, and once I treat it if I want to keep snails in it again I have to change all the substrate, which is very annoying as I like the tank as it is.

The problems with the ferny stump are plentiful(tank on the right): loads of hard-to-eradicate algae, badly setup with a stiff plastic back that has trapped and killed fish, crystal shrimp don't breed, pygmy cories don't seem happy. Also, loads of greenfly on the emergents, might get some baby ladybirds for that.

My solution is to put all the animals from the mossy wood into a quarantine tank, and then dose it with no-planaria. A few days later I'll drain the tank, and refill it with rainwater that's perfectly suited to the crystals. I'll actually monitor the water this time, as I realised recently my dad wasn't bothering (no wonder they don't breed). I will also put in here the rescued black cherry shrimp from my <high-tech tank> who need a new home as Mr Daffodil the apisto has aquired a taste for them. Hopefully I can balance the water to keep both types of shrimp!

To catch the crystal shrimp - and the pygmy corydoras out of the ferny stump that I want to put in my hightech - I need to take out the wood and maybe some other plants. Once that's done, I'm going to dose this tank with no-planaria too (I saw one once in there, don't want them back again plz). After that - a medium-rescape - take out the back stiff plastic wall, and replace it with a black lava rock background I'm making myself. Vacuum out all the sand, and replace with new. Finally, fill it with tapwater, and add the snails, cherries and a few amanos in, who I'm hoping will also deal with the algae problem better than the crystals did (they did nothing). My dad is hoping at this point to get a betta.... we'll see.