Neon Tetra Help, Please, Thanks.

[myswtsins]

What is your pH and what are you "bringing it down" to? So the neons are acting completely fine now, no more problems? Look around the tank for the missing one too, sometimes they jump.

The snails are malaysian trumpet snails and quite large to have been hiding in plants added yesterday. But they are the best of the "pest" snails IMO because they don't breed as quickly as others and will turn over the substrate. Your substrate is a bit large for them though. But anyways if you don't overfeed the tank they should be just fine OR you can just pluck em out, they're big enough.

 

[Neutral_Water]

What is your pH and what are you "bringing it down" to? So the neons are acting completely fine now, no more problems? Look around the tank for the missing one too, sometimes they jump.

The snails are malaysian trumpet snails and quite large to have been hiding in plants added yesterday. But they are the best of the "pest" snails IMO because they don't breed as quickly as others and will turn over the substrate. Your substrate is a bit large for them though. But anyways if you don't overfeed the tank they should be just fine OR you can just pluck em out, they're big enough.

Yep it appears so my neons are still alive eating etc my PH is around 6,6 a greenish colour however I did suffer with one lost (I assume due to the trip home and stress cause it got placed in its bag with a quite high drop), I did buy some albino cory paleatus to clean my substrate. So what do I do with these snails? Leave them or what, are they breeding size and how big do they get? What is Your opinion should I keep em, will it benefit my tank? Btw cheers for identifying them, you clearly have a vast knowledge on aquarium species : )

 

[myswtsins]

Is 6.6 the pH of the tank currently, with pH down or is that the normal untreated pH?

The snails are about preference. I personally always like some MTS (malaysian trumpet snails) in my aquariums but never choose to have ramshorn or pond snails (if I get them though I don't stress over it). Some people have great difficulties with snails breeding out of control but that is usually do to overfeeding. They do prefer a higher pH and hardness than the neons though and depending on what your natural pH is (which you should return to if reasonable) they may not thrive anyways. MTS get about an inch long.

What do you mean by "clean your substrate"? Cories are not "cleaning" fish in the typical sense of the word. Some people even sell them as poop eaters, which NO fish is. They will eat leftover food on the bottom but your gravel is so large that most food that hits it will end up sinking into the cracks where they can't get it. Leading to hungry cories and polluted water. Make sure you gravel vac well during your weekly water changes to get that gunk out of the substrate. Cories prefer a small soft uniform substrate, like sand, that they can sift through with their barbels.

How many cories did you get? They prefer groups of 6 or more and this species gets to almost 3" long so that would be a lot for this tank. Plus you're tank is still new and you just added the neons you should be waiting to add new fish.

 

[Neutral_Water]

Hey thanks again for responding, I'm just wondering if i were to switch it out to sand or something lighter wouldn't the fish kick it up often and I would end up with a very messy tank? I also fear that the sand will get stuck in the gills, yes untreated PH is hovering around 6.6-7.0 I have kept my Cory rather well fed and they are always busy tiring themselves with eating, so back to topic I should switch to sand? Would it be harder to clean and more dangerous to my fish's respiratory systems? Thanks again for the help, your a lovely bloke

 

[myswtsins]

Not a bloke but I'll accept the lovely part. Many people use sand without any of the issues you are worried about. It is advised that you use a decent sand though, stay away from cheap play sand, pool filter sand is a good choice though. Any of the numerous aquarium specific sands work too of course. There are tons of options out there.

Issues with sand are... compacting which can create dangerous gas pockets, avoided by not putting too much sand in and having sifters or MTS to stir it up. Also, plants don't always do great in sand but I've seen many people using sand and have great plants too, need to pick the right plants is all. Some people complain about vacuuming as well because it gets sucked up easily so you need to do a swirl and vac motion. Never been a big deal for me as the sand always stays clear with proper flow.

Your pH is fine btw, slowly stop using the pH down stuff.

 

[Fiscian]

I also fear that the sand will get stuck in the gills

not an issue

 

[Neutral_Water]

Not a bloke but I'll accept the lovely part. Many people use sand without any of the issues you are worried about. It is advised that you use a decent sand though, stay away from cheap play sand, pool filter sand is a good choice though. Any of the numerous aquarium specific sands work too of course. There are tons of options out there.

Issues with sand are... compacting which can create dangerous gas pockets, avoided by not putting too much sand in and having sifters or MTS to stir it up. Also, plants don't always do great in sand but I've seen many people using sand and have great plants too, need to pick the right plants is all. Some people complain about vacuuming as well because it gets sucked up easily so you need to do a swirl and vac motion. Never been a big deal for me as the sand always stays clear with proper flow.

Your pH is fine btw, slowly stop using the pH down stuff.

Yep, I want some relatively waited down sand I'm just wondering how much sand would be most optimal for cory's I have come to realise my neons love to hide in substrate too so i'll take your advise and replace it with some heavyish sand particles and keep my Cory a bit more satisfied. But you said plants don't do well in sand? What else could I use I mean I don't think it's possible to put some soil down there right? I'm thinking of getting a piece of drift wood so some algae can grow on it. I'll be getting the sand tomorrow I'm just confused on the amount, I'm not to worried about my trumpet snail, though I have really come to enjoy him but as of now I mean he kinda just chills on the walls of the tank most of the time. Anyways thanks a lot madem for your input : )

 

[myswtsins]

Your neon hide in the substrate??

Depends what type of plants you keep. If you keep a lot of stems plants substrate really doesn't matter. If you want to keep a lot of root feeding plants (like crypts, swords etc) then you will want to add something to the sand for nutrients, root tabs. A soil layer on bottom can be, it's called a dirted tank but that's a whole big topic to get into.

Why would you want a piece of driftwood for algae to grow on?

If you are just putting sand in for aesthetics then an inch or less is enough and will prevent compacting. If you want rooted plants then 2"should do it.

 

[Neutral_Water]

Hey apologies for not posting for a while btw myswtsins thank you for telling me about the sand I have since taken some sand and flushed it out for two days with the hose, boiled it for 20minutes, filtered it for 3 days. I have since gotten a 110 litre tank, a 1000 litre turbo charged filter with spare parts, two 200 watt heaters each for a total price of $100 and got given two buckets of gravel substrate for free, but decided to use sand instead and it works wonders. I have collected plants from the lake in our backyard and planted it, I also decided to take some land moss types and test it, and found a pretty compatible species so I soaked some in two days in comparison to another and found it to produce a lot more oxygen compared to another type and have since placed in a crap ton. I have used the filter on the original tank and let it run for three days in the new tank, and filled 1/3 of the new tank with the matured tank water and let it run till it cleared. Here is what happened in pictures all the way up till today (I added the fish just two days ago and the shrimp/snails four days ago) , I would like to thank you all especially myswtsins and everyone else for the help during the first few days of purchasing the neons, since then I have gone out with a few mates to collect some mosquito fish, shrimp and driftwood which I baked for 1hr and 30mins soaked in hydrogen peroxide for 20mins and water logged for five days all taken from the Avon River, WA, Anyways I truly am really grateful to all of you guys what a bunch of legends you are.

 

[SnakeIce]

Neons are a prey fish and use group behavior for safety. The behavior you described, keeping low to the gravel in a group, and staying put with opposing fin flicks is part of their defense behavior. Totally expected in an unknown area like after being introduced to a new fish tank. They don't know what monster might be lurking so they sit tight while they check things out. Once they figure out there isn't a monster around they will swim around the whole tank.