# A couple questions



## soccermouth (Jan 19, 2005)

1) A couple weeks ago my heater in my 29 gallon tank quit working and my tank temp got down to around 65 degrees it took me a couple days to notice and my beta started acting really lazy. He sits on the bottom or on plants and doesn't move much. He doesn't eat like he used to. I thought he was going to die but he's continued to live for about 3 weeks now. He still is lazy and he seems like he's gotten a bit smaller (though that could just be my imagination). I wasn't sure if he had become damaged from the cold water or what. None of my other fish (guppies and rosboras) seem to have been affected at all and really the only reason I noticed the water was a bit cold was because the betta started acting lazy. Anyone have any idea what is wrong with the poor guy?

2) 2 days ago I took the guppies out of my tank as they were starting to get too numerous and I was tired of trying to pawn them off on people and flushing them when no one would take them so that they wouldn't kill off my other fish. I picked up 8 neon tetras and an albino cory (i think they're called cory's) because I love neon's and I hadn't had a bottom feeder in a couple month and figured I needed a new one. I have live plants in my tank and had been having a snail problem from not rinsing my plants well enough when I bought them. I got some stuff called had-a-snail and used it about a week ago as the directions said to. ZERO snails died. I couldn't find a single dead snail. So I used a bit more like the directions said. Still nothing so I used about twice as much as the directions say to use and most of the snails seemed to be dead yesterday. I certainly didn't see any crawling around and saw plenty of dead ones but my hornwort (which I have anchored) was destroyed. I've had it for about 8 months and it has done great. I have good lighting and use plant food pellets. The stuff has always grown amazingly well but suddenly yesterday when I get home from work the plant is ruined. All that is left is stems. The leaves are all floating and blocking up my filter and sitting on the bottom. None of the other plants were affected at all. I don't know if it was the cory or the had-a-snail. Anyone have any insight?


----------



## AquaFanatics (Jan 19, 2005)

This is for Question 2)
I'm pretty sure it's you medicine that kills your hornwort. I've lot of snails in my tank with lot of plants in it. None of my plant were harm atleast till now, a year and a half later.


----------



## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Well it wasn't the cories. Could have been the had a snail med. They are usually are copper based. It should have been cleated but in any case, it could have had an adverse affect.


----------



## soccermouth (Jan 19, 2005)

I didn't think it was probably the cory but I thought it was weird that none of the other plants seemed to be affected at all. Not even any of the other finer leaved plants. Hornwort is probably the most hardy plant i've ever tried so I thought it would have outlasted the others if that were the problem.

No ideas on the betta then?


----------



## Guest (Jan 20, 2005)

to get rid of snails with no harm elsewhere add 2-3 copper pennies to ever ten gallons , the copper will kill the snails but harm nothing else , for future usage that is .


----------



## judya (Jan 23, 2005)

Did you raise the temp back up to where it was originally. That is probably what affected the betta. I suppose he could have gotten an intestinal blockage when the temp went down. Is he puffed up at all, is he eating?

Cories don't tend to hurt plants. Maybe the snail med., maybe the change in temp? Are you sure he's a cory, and not another sort of catfish - one that eats plants?

Otherwise, it's hard to diagnose sometimes.


----------



## soccermouth (Jan 19, 2005)

It's definitely a cory. I'm not sure why the hornwort died. The rest of the plants are doing great. I guess it's just the had-a-snail. The beta is in much worse shape right now. I think i'm going to lose him. He's not really bloated and he eats some. He's just laying on the floor of the tank on his side barely breathing.


----------

