Mystery snails not doing good.

[hickoryflat30188]

7 days ago I set up a new 10g aquarium just for my 2 Mystety Snails Marty & Pheobe which I've had now for about a month. They were in a 5 gallon Fluval Spec & were doing great then b/c I got an infestation of pest snails & two different types of worms I decided to go get 3 Cory catfish. BAD decision!!! The CC's terrorized my poor snails especially Marty. There being the reason I'm giving the snails a new 10 gallon home. My ? Is how long do I have to wait before putting them in the new tank. Like I said it's been going now for 7 days. I've added Seachems Stability every day. It is planted/heated/filtered,but my water parameters DO NOT indicate any type of cycling going on. Right now nothing is in the tank like fish or snails.
Poor Marty & Phoebe are in a tiny holding container w/one plant that I change daily. Marty is NOT doing well. Please help w/any suggestions.

[littlegoldsnail]

Cycling only takes place when there is ammonia for the nitrifying bacteria to feed on, you need to but either straight bottles ammonia (cant have anything else in it)or add fish food every day (the fish food method takes longer). Stability won’t do anything if there is no ammonia.

Btw: a 5 gallon is WAY to small for corydoras catfish, Cory’s need to be in schools and need a minimum of 20 gallons, take them back to whatever pet store you got them at or rehome them to someone with a bigger, and cycled tank and a good diet for them. Corydoras need plenty of protein as well and veggies in their diet and will NOT help with pest snails or algae.

[littlegoldsnail]

Cycling can take as little as a week to as long and a couple months, I don’t have a lot of experience with stability and it’s effectiveness so I don’t really know how long it takes with stability.

[littlegoldsnail]

Another thing, if you have more questions about water chemistry and aquatics and fish, fishlore aquarium fish forum is a wonderful place to get info, lots and lots of very knowledgeable, experienced and active people on all the time, here is a link: www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/

[hickoryflat30188]

Hi all haven't been on in awhile so I DO have an update == some good some not so good. My snail Marty did pass away, but his mate Phoebie is still doing ok. She's still in the 5 gallon Fluval all alone except for the pesky PEST snails that I CANNOT get rid of. I REALLY DON'T LIKE THEM. I moved the 3 Cory catfish to the new 10g -now cycled- tank. I took heed of the suggestions that I put them in at least a 20 g, but just couldn't swing that. They (Molly, Larry & Curly) seem to be doing very well. Already had two sets of eggs on my aquarium walls & that was in the 5 gallon Fluval. Only one reached the fry stage, but has now disappeared. This made me very sad I have NO idea where it went. I know the adults didn't kill it b/c I moved them to the larger tank the moment I saw the baby & then saw it several times afterwards. I'm sure the POSSESSED Fluval tank sucked him up in the tiny slot that goes to the sponge filter and media compartment. The REAL reason I'm posting now though is about my other Mystery snail Finn. I've had him the longest & am VERY fond of him. He's in a 10g Aqueon heated/planted/filtered tank w/just one other tank mate my Betta. They have always been together & do quite well - seem to really like each other. He's grown amazingly large since originally getting him from an aquatic store here in Ga. Just in the past few days he's looking poorly. He's not cruising the tank, is often half in & half out of his shell, hasn't eaten anything I've given him. This tank he's in is also showing good water parameters per my API master water testing kit. His acting this way came on suddenly. Any suggestions what might be wrong w/him? He's always had small pieces of cuttlebone in the tank & his shell looks fine.

[littlegoldsnail]

What are the exact water perimeters (like how many ppm)?
How old is he? Where did you buy him? Chain pet stores (such as petsmart or Petco) often have snails that have been inbred a lot so they can breed them fast which generally gives them a very short life span, usually snails bought from breeders and/or small aquarium store are much more likely to have a long life span. Also, mystery snails tend to get lethargic in either too cold or too warm of water, what is the temperature? I hope he gets better! Right now offer him a high calcium and high protein diet. You can find a lot of snello (snail jello) recipes on YouTube, usually it’s baby food, boiled and blended fruits and veggies, bloodworms or krill, calcium powder and gelatin, it’s usually a good recovery food for sick snails and provides them a boat load of nutrients to help them heal.

Also, the ten gallon will be okay temporarily, but the corydoras are definitely gonna need an upgrade as soon as possible, usually they feel safest in a school of about 6, but they are very active bottom dwellers so they are gonna need the floor space of at least a 20 gallon, though a 20 gallon long tank is better (same water volume but not as high and longer). It’s understandable if you don’t have the resources for that and they will be okay in the 10 for the time being so don’t stress over it to much, worry only makes things worse. Good luck! I hope everybody does okay.

[littlegoldsnail]

Btw, the number one cause of pest snail overpopulation is overfeeding, snails don’t need food every day, I usually feed my mystery snails every 2-3 days to keep them healthy, my mystery snails stay a nice healthy weight and it keeps the pesty bladder snails at bay cause there is not a bunch of left over food.

[hickoryflat30188]

Thank you littlegoldsnail. I'm sure Finn has passed this morning nothing is making him react, but he still doesn't smell. When I picked him up there was no reaction he's still half in & half out of his shell. There were quiet a lot of particles/tissue/slime (not sure what the stuff was) that came out of his shell from around his body. I immediately took him out of the tank he did NOT smell and placed him in a temporary holding container that I've used many times to feed him away from my Betta. Of course I put the same tank water in the container that he's been in. I put in an algae wafer & some fish food but NOTHING is happening he's not moving. Usually when I've done this in the past he immediately attacks the wafer. I've never found a blanched vegetable that he's liked so I didn't add that this time. I've only ever fed him organic zucchini squash he's never touched the lettuce, green beans or cucumber I've given him not even snail jello. I guess I'm through w/snails which is sad b/c next to my betta they are my favorite aquarium pet.

[littlegoldsnail]

He sounds dead, if you gently pull on his trap door and he doesn’t pull back then he is dead.