Snails??

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mistyk11

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Feb 7, 2003
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So California
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I don't post a lot but I depend on this site a lot to help me out with my tanks. I have a question. I have a 10 gallon fresh water tank that has a dwarf african frog, a cory, some sort of orange tetra and 1 small black ghost knife(yes I know he won't last long in the 10 gallon, he will be moving into my 55 gallon as soon as we move into our new house in 3 weeks). I do not have any real plants and I have natural colored gravel. I have discovered small, pin head sized dots that are hard (like gravel) and white in color on the sides of my tank. There are no spots on any of my fish. I think they are some type of snails since they do travel around the tank (very slowly) but I can't find any sites that might have pictures or info on them. I tried taking some pictures to post but I can't get a clear enough picture to post. Any thoughts to what it may be? I've read up on ick but I haven't added anything new for quite some time now and there are no spots (nor have there been any) on my fish. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
And by the way, none of my fish are in any distress or show any signs of illness.
 
Could be snails--in SW, there are a number of micro inverts that build stony casings, but they are not in FW. Hmmm...The white is odd, since most snails are natural colors--browns, etc. Is there an obvious opening? How small is small?
 
Firstly, do be aware that cories prefer to be in groups of a minimum of three. They are skittish fish and I assure you yours would be happier with some friends. Also, the "orange" tetra you have...do you have any way of telling us the name? Is it a serpae or a glowlight? Or, gasp, some sort of dyed fruit tetra, ie Mixed fruit tetras? At any rate, tetras are schooling fish and really ought to be treated as such. Just a thought.

Also, as for the spots. It can't be ich - it only is visible as cysts on fish. don't worry about that. Do they crawl slowly on the glass or do they seem to jump around? Water fleas (can't recall their "true" name) are tiny white bugs that jump around on the glass. I know yous aid they are spots, but if you look really closely, do they look like little white strands, or worms? If so, they are probably planaria and possibly some sort of nematode. Neither of which is harmful to your fish - they just indicate a source of excess food is present. (Just saw you said "slowly" so its probably not a water flea)

Keep your eye on them. If they are snails, they will grow and it will be easy to identify them.:) They are probably snails that came as eggs the last time you upt a fish in , it happens all the time.
 
They move very slowly. I've been watching to see if they get any bigger but I haven't noticed them growing.

As for my fish, I rescued them from my father who decided he didn't want the tank anymore and he had this small mixture of fish in them. I don't normally deal with small fish, I prefer Oscars and other large ciclids so I will have to look into the orange fish and get back to you on what his true name is. He is definitely not a glow tetra or neon tetra since I do know what they are. I do not plan on adding anything else to this tank, just letting these guys live their lives out. With my 55 gallon tank and soon to be possible 100 gallon tank for my oscar, that will be plenty for me to take care of!
 
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