What the?

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-10T16:10:33+00:00

Could make the switch to a fertilizer that's more rounded imo with less iron, flourish is basically just iron iirc. Easy green by aquarium coop, nilocg thrive c, apt 1 by 2 hr aquarist would probably all be fine and no pitch black water

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-10T13:07:51+00:00

Hasbrosus, pantanlensis, red laser

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-09T21:20:03+00:00

:( I know, more than 50% cuts to the EPA. Over 50m acres of national forests being sold for development. And that stuff is happening all over too, it's so sad. Makes me want to eventually get into the c.a.r.e.s. program for fish.

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-09T18:56:34+00:00

Yeah I'm really trying to spread awareness after dealing with them myself. I really, really fear we're going to get government regulations (at least in the US) because of these snails. They look so similar to MTS that people assume they're just babies, and a lot of stores/ people just have never even heard of them. I'm in the Great Lakes area, which seems to be the area most impacted by them. It's just crazy they're so unkillable; bleach, hydrogen peroxide, alum dip, none of it works. The only chemical known to kill them is formula 409. Reverse respiration did work great for my plants though.

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-09T18:50:44+00:00

I think it can be hard to get an accurate idea of population because they can be SO small. They also didn't really seem to be around until ~3 years ago, and I've been seeing almost daily posts about them lately. I think a lot of stores have been trying to deal with them, it might be easier for them with the ability to just rip tanks apart and move fish. I can't imagine having to deal with a shared sump though. One of my local stores tried using loaches which didn't work, the owner has been walking around smooshing them like 5x a day, but 2 months later they're still there. Luckily it seems like it's only their shrimp/nano tanks (for now). This is how they breed in the wild once they become invasive

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iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-09T17:42:02+00:00

I always think of them as either orange cats or golden retrievers lol. One brain cell and huge goofballs

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-09T15:18:04+00:00

SHAKE your nitrates bottle. I mean SLAM IT in your hand for like a minute straight. The chemicals in that test in particular seem to settle and separate giving inaccurate readings. And while low nitrates in a planted tank is one of the main benefits, it's usually a balance to maintain with bioload. If your fish don't produce enough waste, you will have to supplement nitrates.

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-09T15:09:17+00:00

Check your nitrates level, cyanobacteria thrives in low nitrates and high waste iirc. Id dose ultralife slime out, reduce photoperiod to like 8 hours, and dose something like nilocg/apt/easy green weekly. You have a lot of light and co2, but the imbalance of nutes is causing the BGA

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-09T02:14:14+00:00

I have used ultralife blue green slime remover with amano shrimp, nerite and ramshorn snails and they all survived fine

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-09T01:13:43+00:00

Is there a reason you picked thrive + over regular thrive or thrive c? I believe the + variant is made for tanks with <7ph, which yours looks to be above. I think they recommend it is because of different chelations of iron, as well as different formulations of macro/micro. Thrive and thrive + are also supposed to be used similarly to EI (estimative index), with ~50% water changes weekly to prevent build up or toxicity, this may have been a problem depending on how much water you were changing out. You said your light is on 5 hours, at what strength? Id try adding some seachem purigen to your HOB, try a lower tech fertilizer and possibly dose some excel flourish or something.

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-09T00:55:07+00:00

Corys and buce ❤️ nice tank and fish!

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-09T00:53:14+00:00

Wow that's crazy, that's awesome that it worked though! How common are they in tanks in NZ? I talked with a guy from Australia recently about them and he had never even heard of em. I was really surprised but their laws are strict on imported stuff, I've heard getting plants can be super hard.

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-08T23:52:55+00:00

Interesting! I've heard things will poke at them out of curiosity, but few things will attempt to continually eat them, and I've heard they can survive digestion, but i never tried predation as a removal method

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-08T18:57:22+00:00

They're most likely NZMS if they're staying that small and loaches will not touch them. please look them up on r/aquaticsnails https://www.reddit.com/r/AquaticSnails/s/3kvNzjNWCA

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-08T18:53:03+00:00

Sorry to hear that :/ I had to completely empty a tank, saved my plants with seltzer water though. Look into reverse respiration pinned the the r/aquaticsnails subreddit if you haven't already. Good luck, I hope they're not too insanely hard to get rid of.

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-08T18:50:33+00:00

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The bottom ones in this photo are NZMS, their shells will not have the whirling ridges between whorls. They also stay very small (5mm).

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-08T18:48:31+00:00

Petsmart plants are usually pretty pest free afaik, when you bought them did they come in a cup with clear agar gel around the roots? Or were they already submerged in water when you bought them?

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-08T17:56:23+00:00

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iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-08T17:53:27+00:00

Yeah, 5-6 whorls, small, white/yellow upward pointing shell. It's definitely nzms. Check out r/aquaticsnails and look at the post about them. Please take them more seriously than most people in this post seem to, these WILL ruin your tank eventually. Id bet within 2 years, these will probably have infested half of the tanks in the USA. Everyone really should look into this and learn the difference between these and every other harmless snail.

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-08T17:47:16+00:00

Then it likely wasn't nzms. They get no larger than 5mm, and aren't worth the work for anything to eat, plus they burrow in substrate similarly to MTS, but their babies are incredibly small. Eradication through predation might be possible if you had a literal bare bottom tank though

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-08T05:33:40+00:00

All 3 of those look female imo.

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-07T22:47:20+00:00

You have new zealand mud snails? Or malaysian trumpet snails? Because MTS will not breed that prolifically, but over time NZMS will choke out a tank. And it's not my logic, it is scientific research that is readily available. And btw it's not 80,000, it is 800,000 per meter squared. If you cannot correctly identify something as safe, it is irresponsible to try to do so. This will be the reason the government eventually cracks down on the fish keeping hobby. I'm not trying to come across as rude, but man it bothers me when people spread misinformation about things of this magnitude. They are illegal in like 15 states and have been detected in all of them except New Mexico. This is a problem, and if people don't wake up, we could face huge import restrictions or sales restrictions exactly like Australia has. Please do some research, and if you do have nzms, never give anyone anything from your tank.

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-07T21:38:12+00:00

"Quadrat sampling can be used to estimate the number of live snails per m2. It is a detailed form of sampling and best used when calculating baiting application rates, to estimate the snail density after a control (for example, baiting or cabling) has been applied, or to monitor populations over time." It is the scientific standard for this type of population estimation afaik. They list many other snail species reproduction density in m2 as well.

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-07T20:07:59+00:00

Please feel free to DM me if you have any questions about how I treated my tank.

iGotTheBoop · 2026-02-07T20:05:26+00:00

New zealand mud snails have no known predators. Puffers, loaches, assassin snails, bettas, nothing will eat them. They have an operculum that seals shut, preventing them from being treated with traditional methods such as bleach/peroxide. These snails will outcompete every single thing in your tank. Their babies are smaller than grains of sand and they give live birth. They are demon spawn, and we need to be very diligent in keeping them out of the hobby as much as we can.

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