Identifications needed

[im4god2]

Hi,

My tank finally finished its cycle, so I thought I had this fish thing figured out. ;) A couple of identifications needed:

1) I've noticed I have a snail (or two) in the tank. The only place I know they could have come from was some red leaf lettuce. I took one of them out and looked at it. It has a hard shell, is about 1/4" long, and two antenna. It can move pretty quick (for a snail). It hangs around near the surface, but generally stays in movement. When I saw two in there, they eventually came together, so I watched to see what would happen. They sort of mingled for about 10 seconds, and then went their merry way.

Are they a good/bad/indifferent thing ?

2) I went on vacation for four days, and when I returned, I found about 40 little brown dots stuck to either side of the tank. They cover a section about 1/2" x 3" on either side. They look like eggs, and the fish have nibbled about half of them already. Being new to fish in general, I didn't think I had any ready to breed. A couple of zebra's were pretty plump, though. Could they be eggs ?

Thanks for the help.

[thom336]

from that description u gave i would say their definately snails...:D
apart from that, you dont have anything to worry about from them, except the high chance of a snail 'plague'. to avoid this i would say destroy all eggs as soon as you see them, they will appear just above the water line and in the filters. however, snails are really a personal opinion. im sure some people love having acouple of hundred crawling round the tank....its up to you. there are no bad side effects of them, except afew species do release poisenous chemicals into the water...but the chances of you having them snails are very slim.

i would say that you probably do have eggs, but by the time you get this i would imagine they are all gone, and even if their not theres not alot you can do about saving them in a community aquaria. but from what fish i will hazard a guess for you in next post, as i cant see you tank incumbants while im writing this...

[thom336]

if the eggs are on the side of the glass, then its almost definately your cories...and those plump zebra danios are either females or just plain fat. could have been their eggs thou...but im not sure if zebra danio eggs are adhensive.

[thom336]

ooo...and one final thing. the snails have most likely come from your plant...hang on, how close to the surface are those eggs? they could be snail eggs come to think of it...

[im4god2]

The eggs were about 1" below the surface, stretching down for about 3", and a 1" wide path. They're all gone now, and I don't have any other new occupants.

I think I'll get rid of the snails. They're too small to be "interesting", and if they might be laying eggs all over the place, that's too bad.

One other side note: While I was on vacation, my Otto disappeared. He normally would hang around the sides of the tank, or the air stone. I haven't seen him in over two days. I've checked the floor and filter :( , but no Otto. I don't think the other guys would kill him, so I guess he just grew wings and flew away. :D

Thanks for the replies.

[ChilDawg]

Your Otto will just go into hiding for a few days at a time sometimes. I don't see "Methuselah" for a few days in my sparsely-done tank, but I always have a good feeling that he is there and he always has been...don't give up hope on yours yet!