Originally posted by ViVi
I just began my own collection, and I recently got a Bowfish (it looks like an eel but it\'s sorta different). A couple of days later little snails start to appear every day out of nowhere. They\'re out of control and I don\'t know what to do.
Help me!
ok its late but this is kind of an Environmental question and ill try and help please pardon any spelling mistakes and possible miss use of terms.
step ID everything about the blow fishheres what to do, get a Marine book form your local Library and use it to ID the following about the Blowfish
local habitat
Food type
and espesually Possible parasites assosiated with the Blowfish
step 2 ID the Snails"capture a snale from the tank and identify it species, from this you should be able to detemine if its a known parasite of the blowfish, also you should be alble to find out how they got there in the 1st place (i.e. where they already snail eggs present on the dorsel of the blowfish)
and if so wether if it benifits or harms the fish
some parasites actually serve to benifit themselfs as well as their hosts (i.e. cleaning them)
Also look intothe possible causes of there increaes in population it may have somethign to do with the
pH of the tank water
its salinity (how nuch salt)
Amount of Ammonia
Disolved oxygen content (chemical oxygen demand and biologcal oxygen demand)
light levels
nitrate levels
you should be able to determin this from a simple aquarium testing kit
step3 removing the snails one you have determined this you can then go about talking the problem, if they are a harmful parastie then you can look into known ways for removing or killing them without resulting in harm to the blow fish
this can be done by
removing thier source of growth (food reducing a dependent environmental factors to them, if they requirethe pH to be a certian way for example)
Intrducting aquatic and tested pastisides
or introducing a preditor to the snails that wont harm or be harmed by the blowfish
