White Cysts on Tank and Bog wood

[Owch]

Iâ??ve been keeping fish for around 2 years now, when I first started my main tank got a dose of white spot, this was followed by the appearance of white oval shaped cysts, 2-3mm long by 1-1.5mm wide, on the tank glass and underside of bog wood. These were explained to me as the reproduction stage of the white spot protozoa and that they burst releasing free swimmers back in to the tank to attack the fish again.

Treatment with a white spot cure worked very well and the fish got better and the cysts all burst (but left a hard shell on the tank and bog wood, these scraped off OK though)

Recently these cysts have returned but none of the fish in my tank are showing any of the signs of white spot. I have tried upping the temps to 32*C, but it runs at 30*C anyway.

The only fish showing anything different are a group of 3 gouramis that have some possible white patches on their tail fins (although I could be just imagining this ).

All tank parameters are fine
NH3, NO2- = 0mg/l
NO3- = <5mg/l
pH = 6.6
Temp = 30*C
kH = buffered to 70mg/l with NaHCO3(tap water is less than 10mg/l)
gH = 60mg/l
180 litre tank filtered with a Juwel internal and Hydor Bio flo attached to the outlet.


Fish:

3 Gouramis
2 Upside Down Catfish
1 Weather Loach
2 Clown Loaches
2 Zebra snails
1 Flying Fox
4 L333's (these are new, about 2-3 weeks)

[MatsP]

Any snails in the tank?

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Mats

[barksten]

2 Zebra snails

[Owch]

Now then, thats got me listening. What would this have to do with snails?

As stated I have 2 Zebra Snails, and today I cought them "at IT", if you know what I mean. Getting Jiggy with it Will Smith Style.

Would they be snail eggs?

[MatsP]

Snails will lay eggs in "lumps" that are covered with some sort of slime. I'm sure that they may sometimes have a more noticable hard surface to the slime, whilst others are softer.

I'm not saying IT IS snails eggs, but it does sound like it [and I didn't even see the snails on your list of inhabitants, thus my question].

--
Mats

[Barbie]

Zebra nerita snails lay individual eggs that are small elongate ovals on the glass and other surfaces. They're white, and about the size of a pin head if not a bit smaller. I would definitely bet that is what you were seeing. Cysts from parasites are MUCH smaller, IME. Different snails reproduce in different ways. Mystery snails actually climb up out of the water to lay their eggs above the water line in large colorful clumps. I wouldn't panic at this point, if the fish look healthy that is. Nerite snails don't usually hatch in aquariums as the water conditions aren't a match to what they need. It will be interesting to see if yours manage it. Do they look like this?



Barbie

[Owch]

MatsP, Barbie

Im guessing that you are both correct, the picture that Barbie has shown are of the exact same species of snail that I have.

Now, I dont want to get rid on these little egg laying beasties, so if I split them up will the egg laying stop?

Thanks for all the input ladies and gents, its stopped the panic.

Thanks

Tom

PS, Barbie, are you the lady I need to speek to for advice on breeding L333's?

[MatsP]

Owch,

I wouldn't have thought that splitting snails up would actually stop them laying eggs. I'm not sure if ALL snails are hemafrodites, but I know that most of them are, so a single one is able to "selfreproduce". This is why it's often quite hard to get rid of (pest-)snails once they have established themselves in a tank.

As to L333 breeding, I'm sure Barbie can answer your questions, but I personally would recommend that you read the Shane's world "reproduction" articles, particularly ones that relate to Hypancistrus species, as H. sp(L333) is similar when it comes to conditioning and breeding, and this would be a starting point. For specific L333 breeding questions, you should ask in the Loricaridae forum. That serves two purposes:
1. You get more than Barbies view of things.
2. Everyone else has the chance of learning something at the same time as you do. Sharing information is what the forum is about, and it helps everyone if we talk openly about things, rather than directing questions to a person in particular. I know for sure that Barbie agrees with this.

[Of course, before you ask questions on L333, you may want to do a forum search, to see if your question has been answered before. It's very possible it has...]

--
Mats

[Owch]

I figured they would keep on squitting out eggs regardless, Escargos anyone

I did pop a post on the Loricaride forum regarding L333's, but just got the stock answer of 'check the Shanes world article'. I just wanted Barbies personal account of Hypancistrus breeding while I had got her attention.

[MatsP]

Well, you didn't exactly ask any particularly SPECIFIC question on your L333 post, which means that Barbie or anyone else with experience would have to splurge out all (or most) of their general knowledge on breeding such a fish. Whilst that may be quite an interesting task the first time you have to do it, it does get a bit tedious after the umpteent time you write the same(ish) text. And as Laurab did point out, L333 are very similar to L66 and L260, so the breeding articles in Shane's world are relevant and useful. Also H. Zebra is similar, so that would probably also help.

If you have some SPECIFIC questions, and those aren't covered already in (for instance) Shane's world, I'm sure Barbie or anyone else with knowledge would be able to answer.

The problem with unspecific questions is that it pretty much is open-ended to answer them, whatever someone writes, it's probably not exactly what you ACTUALLY wanted to know, so you'll still come back and ask more questions. It's therefore more likely that you get some decent answers if you ask specific questions. This usually still leads to new questions, but at least it's a point to start from, rather than a "braindump".

By the way, if you haven't bred any species of Loricariidae, it's generally considered a good idea to start with an "easy" one, such as Common Bristlenose

Ancistrus sp(3)

. This is along the lines of "walking before trying to run", as one of the more difficult parts is to keep the fry alive and growing AFTER the spawn, and it's much better to learn that on something that will most likely spawn again within the next few weeks, should you fail in the first attempt.

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Mats

[Owch]

Its a recent spawning of Ancistrus sp.3 that's given me the taste for breeding, and I saw the group of L333's at a very reasonable price, so thought, why not!

I suppose the post was a little vague, I'll go and spruce it up a little.

Thanks again

Tom

[Barbie]

I DEFINITELY strongly recommend reading the articles in Shane's World first. The internet lecture by Larry Vires, the Ancistrinae lecture, the articles on L260 and L46, anything Hypancistrus related will give you insight into your upcoming project. Once you have an idea of how to proceed (and the articles DO cover all that), then we can attempt to steer you in the right directions. It's way easier than expecting all of us to keep retyping that information over and over ;).

As to the snails, if the eggs aren't going to be fertile anyway, don't bother separating them. If you DO get babies, they're actually a highly desirable snail. I wouldn't mind buying another dozen at some point ;).

Barbie