Advice for beginners?

[snerdahmik]

I'm considering getting a couple mystery snails along with a fish. I want to know the important details before I get one to prevent any unnecessary deaths. I'm not sure where to look for reliable information other than asking y'all, because when I was first getting into keeping terrestrial snails, most information I googled was unreliable or bad advice. Is a 10gal tank big enough for two mystery or nerite snails and a small fish like a betta?

[littlegoldsnail]

Okay, first things first

Things you will need:

Api master test kit

Water dechlorinator

A filter (sponge filters are great, or you can use a hang on back, but you will need a sponge or mesh intake cover)

Heater. adjustable, fully submerge-able, you will probably want about a 50 wat,

Substrate. I really like sand bottom, if you want live plants in the tank, then I would get some nutrient rich planted aquarium substrate and top it with your desired sand, or you can co with gravel, but it’s harder to work with.

Lighting. A standard little LED that comes with a kit of fine if you don’t care for live plants, but if you want plants I would recommend and aquaneat or nikrew led bar (should be easy to find on amazon

Also will want a little bottle of doctor Tim’s ammonium chloride.


———————————————————————

So, you will first want to rinse the tank out, set it on something sturdy (a filled 10 gallon weighs about 100 pounds after substrate, filter etc...

First you want to put your substrate in (the empty tank), some sloping in good when arranging it. If you have decor like a chunk of driftwood, or big rock or something, you should put it in now.

(I should have mentioned that you should make sure the tank has no leaks before you do all this)

Fill the tank up at this point. Hook up your filter and heater and everything, make sure it all works (filter shouldn’t be making any funny noises, make sure the heater is keeping the temp up at about a stable 78° or so, that’s a perfect temp for both bettas and mystery snails.

You will then want to add some dechlorinator/heavy metal detoxifier (stress coat is good, especially if you want a betta).


—————————————————————— Now is that part that requires some patience... the nitrogen cycle. If add fish or snails right away they will die in not to long.

The nitrogen cycle should take a few weeks.

To cycle the tank, add ammonia chloride till the test kit reads about 2 ppm (parts per million), you will then monitor you ammonia level for the next couple weeks, if it begins to go down, then you will add some more ammonia to keep the level up around 2ppm. After a couple weeks of this you should eventually begin to see nitrite, a byproduct of ammonia, this is a good sign, it means your good bacteria has started to grow.

Continue to add the ammonia and pretty soon, the nitrite will get really high, then that will begin going down too. A while after that, you will see nitrates, these should steadily climb.

By this time you will still want to be adding ammonia to feed the good bacteria, but when you test it won’t show up because the good bacteria should be consuming it all.

When there is no longer any ammonia or nitrite and the nitrates are high when you test the water, your tank is cycled.

You can buy some tetra safe start to jump start the cycle, the process will be that same but it will go a little faster (tetra safe start is bottled nitrifying bacteria to start your cycle going).

After your tank is cycled, continue to add ammonia until you are ready to get your snails, then the day before you pick them up, do a large water change (60%), and your good. I will post later to tell you about acclimating your snails.

[littlegoldsnail]

Acclimating (very important):

There are three methods of doing this.

1: turn tank light off. float the bag the snails come in it the tank for 15-30 min, then open the bag and add 1/4 of a cup of water to it every 5-10 minutes until bag is full. Poor some of the water in the bag out into a sink or something. Continue adding water every five minutes until bag is full again. Put your snails in the tank.

(you don’t want to get any pet store water in your tank).

2: put contents of snail bag in a small bucket. Get some air line tubing (with a valve to control the flow). Start a siphon from the tank to the buck and set the valve at about one drop per second. Once bucket fills a little ways, take some water out. Once it fills some more, take some water out. You want to do that 3-4 times. Put snails in tank


3: (the worst) float bad in tank for one hour and release. Don’t use this method unless fish or snails have been in the bag for 6 hours or more. The only time you want this if there is carbon dioxide build up in the bag already. If there is carbon dioxide build up then you don’t want to open the bag until you transfer them to the tank or the PH of the bag water will swing and can cause PH shock. Other then this instance you never want to use this method cause it doesn’t acclimate them to the PH and KH of your tank water.

Method 1 is my person favorite. It’s easy and has a high success rate.

[littlegoldsnail]

Btw, your stocking idea is perfect for that tank. A couple snails and a betta in a 10 gallon is just right in my opinion.

I would not recommend any schooling fish for tank that small. definitely don’t get a goldfish (bad idea, they are messy fish and I wouldn’t keep one in anything less then 40 gallons, they are really pond fish or large fish only tank, they don’t pair with snails well either) Steer clear of large catfish (llike plecostamus or pictus), catfish are also messy and bad with snails unless you have a large tank or 75 gallons or so.

One stocking idea is shrimp! I love freshwater shrimp, and they clean and have pretty much no poop. The only problem is there is a 50/50 chance your betta will eat them... some bettas like to eat shrimp, some don’t.

[littlegoldsnail]

Here is a video on how to clean an aquarium the easy way😀. This is a sand bottom sponge filter setup. This YouTuber has a lot of helpful videos. m.youtube.com/watch?v=LYv5n0a85OY

[snerdahmik]

Nov 19, 2019 23:44:56 GMT littlegoldsnail said:

Btw, your stocking idea is perfect for that tank. A couple snails and a betta in a 10 gallon is just right in my opinion.

I would not recommend any schooling fish for tank that small. definitely don’t get a goldfish (bad idea, they are messy fish and I wouldn’t keep one in anything less then 40 gallons, they are really pond fish or large fish only tank, they don’t pair with snails well either) Steer clear of large catfish (llike plecostamus or pictus), catfish are also messy and bad with snails unless you have a large tank or 75 gallons or so.

One stocking idea is shrimp! I love freshwater shrimp, and they clean and have pretty much no poop. The only problem is there is a 50/50 chance your betta will eat them... some bettas like to eat shrimp, some don’t.

Thank you so much!! You've helped me a ton! You're awesome!   

People have told me mystery snails can change their sex, but others say that's not true. If I got two males, would they be territorial? Or would one become female? I've learned how to determine their sex already, I'm just wondering if I'll end up with eggs anyways.

I've had my heart set on a betta since I first had the idea of getting mysteries. They always get the short end of the stick, and they look so sad and lifeless in the pet store. I see so many pictures of bettas in vases and tiny tiny little aquariums with no filter.. EEEWWW.. I want to get one just to pamper it. I would never put those types fish in such a small tank, it's cruel.

[littlegoldsnail]

I totally agree. When I walk into the pet store and see them in little cups I want to rescue them all.

No, mysteries can not change their sex. I don’t exactly know the difference between the genders, I’ve just seen them mating and noticed that all the males have significantly longer antennas and the females are more shy. Mystery snails are not aggressive, the most I’ve seen is them give each other little nips while trying to get the food. Most of the time nips are on accident though.

Mystery snail eggs are really really easy to spot. They lay big clutches of pink eggs above the waterline that are obvious and easy to remove and dispose of, that’s why I don’t really worry about genders. Also, mystery snail eggs do drown if they fall in the water or something.

[littlegoldsnail]

Also, for a 10 gallon, I would change some of the water (between 25% and 40%) every-every other week to keep the water conditions stable for a tank of small size like that. I have a routine and just change about 35% every week cause I like to, but you can go a little longer then that if you have a low stocking like that.

Also, to talk about filter media. This all depends on what type of filter you get. If you do get a HOB (hang on back), don’t change you media like the petstores tell you (I will explain why).

Your good bacteria that you grow to cycle the tank grow primarily in you filter media. Porous surfaces like sponge, foam and lave rock are where they thrive. Every time you throw away a filter cartridge, you throw away millions of good bacteria that are keeping your fish and snails safe. To clean filter media and not replace it, you just rinse it in old tank water (just like you clean a sponge filter). Filter media really shouldn’t need to be replaced for a really long time (years sometimes) if you regularly rinse it. Pet store make their money when you think you need to replace it, this the rumors. Also, store bought media is not the only way to go. It’s expensive because of marketing, but the foam and materials really only cost a few pennies. This is where DIY media comes in.

There are three main forms of filtration,

mechanical: catching large debris, poo, dirt, etc.

Chemical: removing contaminants, toxins, etc.

Biological: your good bacterial colony.

We will start with mechanical. Mechanical filtration really can be achieved with a scrap piece of corse foam or something, simply sifting debris out is easy. For my HOB I have a chunk of foam and some poly fill for mechanical.

For chemical filtration there is a lot of commercial products, but if you have a good water conditioner and you are not trying to get rid of meds or something then you really don’t need it. In my opinion chemical is not natural and artificial chemical filtration is not what God intended. I use a natural toxin removers like Indian almond leaves and stuff.

Biological. You bacteria grows on every surface in the tank, but it grows best on certain things. One of the most common and best biological media is actually lava rocks and ceramic rings. Both of these are very porous and make a wonderful home for your little bacteria. What I did was just take a cut of some pant hoes and fill it with lava rocks, then tie it of and put it in my filter. You can use a mesh bag or something to, it just keeps the small rocks from going everywhere in you filter.

The only reason many people don’t like sponge filters is because they don’t offer and option for chemical filtration. I personally like them cause I don’t use chemical filtration in that sense.

What I would recommend are Indian almond leaves, the leach tannins into the water (which are amazingly healthy for you fish and snail). Bettas love them. They remove toxics. And I like the dark tint to the water.

[snerdahmik]

Nov 20, 2019 16:42:27 GMT littlegoldsnail said:

Also, for a 10 gallon, I would change some of the water (between 25% and 40%) every-every other week to keep the water conditions stable for a tank of small size like that. I have a routine and just change about 35% every week cause I like to, but you can go a little longer then that if you have a low stocking like that.

Also, to talk about filter media. This all depends on what type of filter you get. If you do get a HOB (hang on back), don’t change you media like the petstores tell you (I will explain why).

Your good bacteria that you grow to cycle the tank grow primarily in you filter media. Porous surfaces like sponge, foam and lave rock are where they thrive. Every time you throw away a filter cartridge, you throw away millions of good bacteria that are keeping your fish and snails safe. To clean filter media and not replace it, you just rinse it in old tank water (just like you clean a sponge filter). Filter media really shouldn’t need to be replaced for a really long time (years sometimes) if you regularly rinse it. Pet store make their money when you think you need to replace it, this the rumors. Also, store bought media is not the only way to go. It’s expensive because of marketing, but the foam and materials really only cost a few pennies. This is where DIY media comes in.

There are three main forms of filtration,

mechanical: catching large debris, poo, dirt, etc.

Chemical: removing contaminants, toxins, etc.

Biological: your good bacterial colony.

We will start with mechanical. Mechanical filtration really can be achieved with a scrap piece of corse foam or something, simply sifting debris out is easy. For my HOB I have a chunk of foam and some poly fill for mechanical.

For chemical filtration there is a lot of commercial products, but if you have a good water conditioner and you are not trying to get rid of meds or something then you really don’t need it. In my opinion chemical is not natural and artificial chemical filtration is not what God intended. I use a natural toxin removers like Indian almond leaves and stuff.

Biological. You bacteria grows on every surface in the tank, but it grows best on certain things. One of the most common and best biological media is actually lava rocks and ceramic rings. Both of these are very porous and make a wonderful home for your little bacteria. What I did was just take a cut of some pant hoes and fill it with lava rocks, then tie it of and put it in my filter. You can use a mesh bag or something to, it just keeps the small rocks from going everywhere in you filter.

The only reason many people don’t like sponge filters is because they don’t offer and option for chemical filtration. I personally like them cause I don’t use chemical filtration in that sense.

What I would recommend are Indian almond leaves, the leach tannins into the water (which are amazingly healthy for you fish and snail). Bettas love them. They remove toxics. And I like the dark tint to the water.

Would this be a good filter? Some of the comments left on the product say things that lead me to believe you can take out the little rocks inside the filter and replace them with things like the ceramic rings you mentioned or 'bioballs'. It's pretty inexpensive, and I have no point of reference of what a quality filter would even look like, so I'm unsure.

www.petsmart.com/fish/filters-and-pumps/filter-media/aquatop-caf-sponge-filter-5272209.html

It states that it can be used as a stand alone filter, so I wouldn't have to buy anything extra to make it work, or would it need something like a power source or tubing as well..?
I was planning on having a sponge filter and indian almond leaves, as well as a couple lava rocks at the bottom of the tank. Would that be sufficient?
Thank you for your time, you've been really helpful.

[littlegoldsnail]

That’s looks pretty good🙂

I didn’t see a size thought. It looks good though

Sponge filters are powered by an air pump, so they work as a air bubbler and filter at the same time. If you have an eBay account you can check there to, I see a lot of good little sponge filters and filter media for cheap.

[snerdahmik]

Nov 20, 2019 17:16:59 GMT littlegoldsnail said:

That’s looks pretty good🙂

I didn’t see a size thought. It looks good though.

Sponge filters are powered by an air pump, so they work as a air bubbler and filter at the same time. If you have an eBay account you can check there to, I see a lot of good little sponge filters and filter media for cheep.

The product comes in sizes based on your tank, but it doesn't specify exact measurements of the filter.

So I get an air pump as well? Sorry for misunderstanding.

[littlegoldsnail]

Yea, sorry I forgot to mention that you need one with a sponge filter. I would recommend one anyway, even if you don’t want a sponge, my snails love playing in the bubbles.

[littlegoldsnail]

One thing, make sure it doesn’t have any charcoal in it, that removes the good tannins almond leaves leach into the water.

[snerdahmik]

Nov 20, 2019 18:19:24 GMT littlegoldsnail said:

Yea, sorry I forgot to mention that you need one with a sponge filter. I would recommend one anyway, even if you don’t want a sponge, my snails love playing in the bubbles.

Thank you so much!!

[littlegoldsnail]

No problem 😉

[littlegoldsnail]

this country needs more aquatic snail enthusiasts.