Clean Fish and Snail Tanks

I haven’t put up a new post lately ’cause of Spring Break.  I had both Saver of Bugs and Spider Bait home for a whole week!  It was WONDERFUL and much too short.

We did manage to get some work done.  Mainly a total overhaul of the Hermie tanks and a good cleaning of some smaller fishy tanks.

With life having gone to heck last spring, I’ve been a less than thorough fish mama.  While water changes were maintained, plant trimming and siphoning were neglected.  I now have jungles where fish tanks should be.  Saver also needed to take care of a couple of small tanks as well.  Enjoy the clean!

This is what the 5 gallon sides looked like before cleaning. And that’s AFTER an Apple snail I bought had scarfed up most of the algae!

Ta Da! Nice and clean! Unfortunately, this is the tank of the recovering plants. They were covered so badly with algae, that I had to remove most of the foliage. In a couple of weeks it should look much fuller and greener. You can see in the middle of the picture a young red leaf of a Rose Sword. In the back towards the top you can see the Betta I had put in the 1 gallon a couple of weeks ago. He has graduated to the 5 gallon. In the lower left rear corner you can see the snail. Note his color. More about him in a bit.  Floating in the top left corner is a chunk of cuttle bone to supply extra calcium for the snail.

These two tank residents are Corydora catfish. They are my favorite of the catfish family. They are friendly, active, cheerful little fish. Always keep at least two. They don’t do as well alone. The dark one in the front is 8 years old. I’m afraid I don’t remember how old the light one is!

Remember the snail in the corner? Because of the lighting he looks much darker out of the water. He is an Apple snail – Pomacea diffusa (formerly considered to be Pomacea Bridgeseii). They are usually known as Mystery Snails in the pet trade.
Look at the shell. The back of the shell was how big he was a few weeks ago when I bought him. The smoother clear portion is how much he grew, way toooo fast, from eating all the algae he could in the tank. The shell was perfectly clear, showing his dark body. He was growing too fast to lay down calcium and make a hard shell.

With the tank having been cleaned and his diet limited, he is now laying down calcium under the surface of the shell. YAY!  (He is hiding a bit ’cause the Betta just bumped him as he swam by.)

Side view! Old shell on left, new shell on right.

This Betta is now the resident of the 1 gallon I previously set up for the red and blue Betta. He is very, very, very, happy to have a new home!

This is Saver’s 2 gallon nice and clean. The betta is Donar. Technically this tank is too small for both. An Apple snail should have 2 gallons dedicated just to them since they are so dirty. But Saver is good at keeping up with water changes so this works for her.

Saver was babysitting snails for people, but this is the only one we could put up on the blog. (Saver’s SO’s tank.) Nice and clean! The beehive has since been removed. The snails started chewing the paint off! Two rocks were taken back to school to be decided on later.

Also this Spring Break I decided to make some Blueberry Muffins!  With real Blueberries!  Turns out they didn’t do a thing for my kids!  *sigh*

Guess I need to grease the pans better! They were still good without bottoms!

Just three more tanks to clean!  (GROAN……)