Hey! I hate to have my first post here just asking for help, but Im a worried snail papa. My tank has been going for about 2 months now. Its 5 gallon fresh blackwater setup with 8 neocaridina shrimp and 1 mystery snail (as well as a half dozen bladder snail hitchhikers). Herbert the snail had some growth on him today when i got home. This morning it wasn't there but i did just add some alder cones (presoaked) for tannins yesterday. Im thinking its just a microfauna bloom or bacterial growth from that, but I want to be sure. Im still new to having a tank so its all searches and guess work. I went in with some tweezers and gently brushed most of it off of him, it came off in strings of brown clumps. He seems to be acting normal now, just grazing and cruising around the tank so i dont think he's destressed. Anyways thanks for taking the time to read this mess. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
I've seen people ask this before when I used to use reddit. It's just snail poop. Nothing to worry about. Watch out with black water setups and snail and shrimp though. The tannin are acidic so you should to do regular partial water changes to keep the ph stable and keep lots minerals in the water.
I was kinda afraid that might be the case (from pure embarrasment :P). I do think ive been feeding the tank too much recently so its very likely. I keep a piece of cuttlefish bone in the tank as well as some ground up eggshell in the substrate for calcium and water hardness. Water tests always show upper safe range for hardness and PH is constant around 7.8 with near 0 nitrate/ite. Im a worrier, so i just wanted confirmation i suppose. Thanks for the feedback :)
Well, your tank looks great so that worrying must be paying off.
TY! <3
Its been awesome watching it develop. Even the little things like plants i thought dead starting to show themselves. Its always something interesting to watch!