Aliens
Posted by Anja on July 27, 2012 at 16:48 | Last modified: July 27, 2012 16:48
I’ll never understimate the bioload of snails again
Posted by Anja on July 12, 2012 at 17:47 | Last modified: July 12, 2012 17:47I just cleaned out the little 2 gallon tank to prep for the Triops. I was going to move them over next week, but it turns out we’ll have to be away for the weekend, and I don’t want them to starve. So I started dribbling a bit of tank water into their critter keeper last night and set to clean the tank out today.
There hadn’t been anything significant in it since the brigs, I’d just been using it as a holdover for plants and as an emergency QT or nursery, but there hadn’t been any emergencies, so all it held was some MTS and pond snails. That also meant it hadn’t been cleaned in ages. With the high plant content the water parameters were fine, and I’d originally planned to just clean the glass, pull out the algae (it had been sitting by a window) and do a complete water change, but the muck I stirred up changed my mind. Ewwwww …
I ended up rinsing the gravel in significant amounts of clear, but tank ready water, filled it back up only a quarter and dumped a handful of Elodea back in.
I brought the critter keeper upstairs to adjust to the temps in my office (30°C right now) and will be trickling fresh dechlorinated water in until it’s full. Tonight or tomorrow morning I’ll move the terrible two over with all the water and plants they were born in and hope that will make their move as gentle as possible, and that they’ll find enough left-over detritus in the gravel and plants to survive until Monday.
Tags: Triops longicaudatus | Categories: 2G Brigs | Comments Off on I’ll never understimate the bioload of snails again | Permalink18°C – sun and scattered showers
Posted by Anja on May 5, 2010 at 16:39 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 16:35Things are humming blooming and popping open everywhere. It’s a joy to run around outside with or without the camera. Last weekend I finally got rid of the ugly plastic planters in front of the house and replaced one with the tub I had the pond lily in last year.
The lily unfortunately didn’t make it through the winter, so I potted up some of the papyrus divisions and one of my peace lilies in there and today added the baby minnows, who were rapidly outgrowing their refuge in the snail tank.
Tags: Cyperus papyrus, Spathiphyllum, Tanichthys albonubes | Categories: 15G Mini Pond, 2G Brigs | Comments Off on 18°C – sun and scattered showers | PermalinkMore White Cloud babies
Posted by Anja on February 8, 2010 at 23:36 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 20:41I transferred about 10 of them to the brig tank today, since they don’t reliably stay in the breeder. There were five or so left in the breeder, and I saw one or two zipping around free style in the tank. We’ll see how each group fares, I guess.
I tried to take a picture of the little guys, caught one. Note the frogbit above him for size comparison:
Brigs
Posted by Anja on September 15, 2009 at 09:01 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 00:53J gave me a li’l clutch of eggs, which I carefully deposited on the inside rim corner of the tank, just under the cover. They were still moist this morning, but I put an extra drop on them, just in case. Keeping my fingers crossed now. Oscar and Felix will be quite surprised to see the clutch. I hope I didn’t set off a male identity crisis.
Tags: Pomacea bridgesii | Categories: 2G Brigs | Comments Off on Brigs | PermalinkOscar and Felix got Shrimp Company
Posted by Anja on April 6, 2009 at 20:34 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 20:36
Oscar the brig, hunting for tasty morsels at the surface.
Posted by Anja on January 22, 2009 at 17:56 | Last modified: July 11, 2012 16:57
Aquired two Brigs at the mini auction
Posted by Anja on November 18, 2008 at 20:26 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 20:31Since they seem to be both male, I named them Oscar and Felix. They live in the little 2G tank:
The nano apparently already had a snaily inhabitant
Posted by Anja on March 7, 2008 at 18:47 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 18:56He looks different from the ones I had so far. This one is about 1,5 mm. Ramshorn?
Looking around for the macro snails, I noticed that there’s also a batch of eggs on the Vals:
And here I thought I’d be bored waiting for the fish. ;o)
The eggs seem to be hatching. There are teensy snails in the nano now:
About the size of a quarter pin head. I left the side of the tank in the picture when I cropped, so you get the thickness of the glass and the silicone strip for scale.
And? Is that a Physa?
Anyone want to hazard a guess? To me those triangular horns (see 2 pics below) look quite different from the one I first fished out and think is a physa. But I find it hard to get relevant info on the net. The pages that are there all seem to be disagreeing as far as taxonomy is concerned.
And another one:
Both have been kicked into the nano. I also found more leaves with eggs (they were on the Crypts), which I at this point just threw out. I’m sure there’ll be more.
Found another one in the big tank.
And here’s the captured snail
Posted by Anja on March 6, 2008 at 18:43 | Last modified: July 11, 2012 17:01… that I think belongs to the eggs (or vice versa). It looks like a tadpole snail (Physa), about 2-3 mm:
I put her and the leaf w/ eggs in the nano tank. I was afraid she’d run out of oxygen in the jam jar. Here she’s on her way to the surface to get some air:
Takin’ a deeeeep breath.
Happily munching away.
Here’s a better picture of the eggs:
It’s easier to photograph in the tank than in the jam jar. ;o)
A view of the nano tank after replacing the twisted with the straight Val:
If you look closely, you can see a speck on the glass; that’s the snail heading back down after her breather.
Tags: Physa | Categories: 2G Brigs | Comments Off on And here’s the captured snail | Permalink