# Help. White dots takeing over tank



## Kitsune_Gem (Jun 16, 2011)

So I have a 55 gallon cichlid tank at my moms.

All she does is turn on and off the lights, and feed them once a day.

We have not added anything new into the tank in a very long time.

The water test as follows

Nitrate-0
Nitrite-0
Hardness-150
Chlorine-0
Alkalinity-180
P-7.2 (the ph randomly drops on me, and never stays up high enough, currently working to solve this with API Cichlid ph buffer.)


I have these little white dots that have seem to appear out of no where and have taken over my tank! I'm at my whits end with these things! 

I do have snails in my tank, but they are snails that will not breed in fresh water, (Tracked Snails)

I have no clue what they are or how to get rid of them.. Someone please help me out here!

Also, my water is a weak tea color, even after water changes it goes back to being a weak tea color, any clue whats causing this?

I know the photos are not great, but its the best my phone can do. I will get better photos tomorrow if needed. 





































They are everywhere! My rocks, my uv sterilizer! My walls! Its driving me up the wall!


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

I have some red spotted nerite snails (same thing), and they will indeed breed in frehswater. I see them do it all the time. It's not that they can't breed in the freshwater... it's that the eggs won't hatch in freshwater! And those are most definately eggs.


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## Kitsune_Gem (Jun 16, 2011)

Oh no!! How do I get rid of them! The snails do such a wonderful job and my cichlids wont eat the snails. Its driving me bonkers! Should I just get rid of the snails, and stick to algae eaters, Ive had a strange bloom of algae recently.. I put it up to my pleco being to big to get to the bad spots.. Its time to trade him in for a smaller one.. I want to do otocinclies(Sp?) but I fear those would get eaten, 

Thank you so much for letting me know what this is!


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

No problem! The ones on smooth surfaces should come off pretty easily by scraping them with a credit card. As for the ones on the rough surfaces, I would try buying a toothbrush and scrubbing at them. (I think having a toothbrush handy for tank cleaning is a good idea, anyway.)

How many nerite snails do you have? These guys are not asexual. There does need to be a male and a female for them to breed. One way you could stop this is if you watch them and when they start breeding, see which one is on the shell of the other. That will be a male. Get rid of either all females or all males. 

Do you have any driftwood? I find that mine lay ALL their eggs on the bottom of my driftwood, it's really the preferred location. If you add a piece of driftwood, they MIGHT just lay eggs there... making it easier to deal with.

Another option is to get rid of the nerite snails and look for something else altogether. There are other snails you can try. 
Apple snails are another one that will only breed if you have a male and a female. And they lay their eggs above water in clusters, so they are easy to remove. But I leave mine. Because I have found that the babies make an amazing cleaning crew, and then as they get bigger, I can sell them or give them away to the LFS. They will not eat your plants! They like leftover food and algae.
Malaysian trumpet snails are also cool. They are livebearers, so no eggs. They do not need to be paired up to breed. One contains all the sexual organs needed. So they will multiply - but only enough to cover what food source is available to them. So if you have an explosive culture of trumpet snails, you know you are overfeeding. They also do not eat live plants... just rotting plants, detritus, and algae. During the day, they usually burrow under the gravel and clean it. During the night, they come out and clean the glass and decor. These guys are cheap to free. Just go to any fish store with live plants and look for them. They often aren't advertised.


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## Kitsune_Gem (Jun 16, 2011)

Pffffff I think I have 5? Maybe more... The main reason I got them is because mom hates snails, and these guys don't really come out of their shell that much. No drift wood.. Just the rock in the photo.. That's gonna have to get bleached >< 

My tank is acrylic.. 

I can't get apple snails to live on me.. Even at my store they die if they are in the main system. We have to keep them in a different tank. 

Have you ever heard of bumble bee horned snails? Those guys do an amazing job, but I dont want to deal with these eggs again.. http://makemyhobby.com/images/pets_aquatic/GA-30131.jpg those thingies

I might be able to get my hands on those trumpet snails.. Ill pop next door tomorrow morning and see if they can order me some.. I work in a petsmart and have a LFS right next door haha, it comes in handy a lot. 

We cant even do live plants in our tanks.. Our fish love eating them.. So we use fake.


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

Oh.... I forgot to address the cichlids. For apple snails, I'm not sure. Some of my fish nip at the apple snail's feelers, and they are fine. It's not life threatening.. they just learn to tuck the feelers in. I'm not sure how much cichlids would harass them.

With malaysian trumpet snails, pretty much the only fish that will eat them are clown loaches and goldfish. They have very hard shells, and spend a lot of their time hidden.


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

Yeeeah I've seen that happen at PetSmart! Is there something you treat all your tanks with every night? Apple snails can't handle any ich medications or anything like that.


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## Kitsune_Gem (Jun 16, 2011)

egoreise said:


> Oh.... I forgot to address the cichlids. For apple snails, I'm not sure. Some of my fish nip at the apple snail's feelers, and they are fine. It's not life threatening.. they just learn to tuck the feelers in. I'm not sure how much cichlids would harass them.
> 
> With malaysian trumpet snails, pretty much the only fish that will eat them are clown loaches and goldfish. They have very hard shells, and spend a lot of their time hidden.




Mine eat pond snails.. http://pondplantsdirect.com/image/fish/snails.JPG those things.. they eat them


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## Kitsune_Gem (Jun 16, 2011)

egoreise said:


> Yeeeah I've seen that happen at PetSmart! Is there something you treat all your tanks with every night? Apple snails can't handle any ich medications or anything like that.




Quick Cure

That explains it.. So its not the water, but the chemicals? My manager and I where like "whyyyyy dont die!" So we threw them in a tank not connected to our system, we still lose a few here and there, but they are doing well now.

I guess I can try an apple snail, they are on sale for like a buck right now


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

Yep! Its the quick cure! I had an ich outbreak in a tank with an apple snail, and I moved him to a quarantine tank before treating the main tank, and left him there long enough for any ich that may have hitchhiked on him to die off.


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## Kitsune_Gem (Jun 16, 2011)

egoreise said:


> Yep! Its the quick cure! I had an ich outbreak in a tank with an apple snail, and I moved him to a quarantine tank before treating the main tank, and left him there long enough for any ich that may have hitchhiked on him to die off.


Yea we treat every Tuesday after the shipments come in in-case something hitchhiked along. To bad it does not kill off those pesky pond snails.


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

Too bad you don't carry assassin snails!


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## Kitsune_Gem (Jun 16, 2011)

egoreise said:


> Too bad you don't carry assassin snails!


What are those? I might be able to get my hands on the next door


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

Glad you asked. They are so named because they dine on other snails!


... and they look *really* cool!


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## Kitsune_Gem (Jun 16, 2011)

Oooo those look like the ones in Australasia beaches that if you pick up you could die from.. Um.. Cone snails? Well that's what they remind me of, and I can get those next door! I got some for my friends baby cichlid tank before.

They have some pretty cool snails next door.. 

I really wish we could order fish.. we have a set thing.. 

We did just start to carry Half moon and Dragon scale bettas though


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

ooooooh it would be really neat if the PetSmart here started carrying halfmoons!


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

The petsmart here just started... I want one of the snails... They're cool and probably hardy and might get along with bettas...


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## Kitsune_Gem (Jun 16, 2011)

The half moons and dragon scales we got where true dragon scales and half moons, my manager and I where worried they would be... I cant wait till we get one in that I fall in love with. 

Its like 6 something for the half moon, and 8 something for the dragon scale,


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Better than petco... Though petco has a price matching policy that I love!


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