xenxes's Marina Betta Kit 0.5g - Nano Herb Garden

[xenxes]

Current Status (7/4/12)
No longer doing anything with this, just threw it outside waiting for teardown.

"Tank" Progression Link

Serving as my nano plant nursery! See below pic for 9 day growth of clippings and HC (please disregard the avocado pit):

Now a limnophila aromatica herb garden






Old RCS / nano nursery Pics:


1/27/12


2/5/12

Equipment:
- Marina Betta Kit (got it when $7)
- Hagen Elite Mini filter ($7) + 1 mini-packet of carbon, and 1 mini packet of biomedia (both cut and sowed) + cut some of the inside sponge to superglue to intake.

Fauna: 6 RCS, unknown # of pond/ramshorn/MTS snail hatchlings, nematodes, copepods, ostracods

Flora: HC + random clippings @ back, frogbits, RRF, salvinia minima, dwarf watter lettuce, duckweed, water lettuce

Original Post:
--------------------------------

So I got this 1/2 gallon Marina Betta Kit and decided to throw in 10 male Bettas.



Just kidding

Got this as a shrimp quarantine tank ($7) and because it looked neat, but ended up populating it. Grabbed a Hagen Elite Mini filter ($7), stuffed the hell out of it with sponges (superglued to intake also). Make-shift 3 layer filtration: added 1 mini-packet of carbon, and 1 mini packet of biomedia (both cut and sowed). Flow @ a trickle. Output angled up to water surface to create movement and not dislodge sand.

Fauna: 12 RCS, 3 MTS
Flora: HC, frogbits
Substrate 1/4" soil, some Fluval plant stratum, Tahitian moon sand & small gravel (only had white) cap

Water top-off daily, 30-50% change/week. I think the size works for RCS, but I'll be moving most over to my 9g when it arrives (unbroken hopefully).

[Basil]

Wow that filter fits?? Crazy!

[xenxes]

So I saw this tiny gold spec on the side of my tiny plastic cube last night:




And tonight:






I hope those are baby MTS and not some plant-eating pond snail?

[DanCottle]

Those are "pond snails" they only eat decaying plant matter not the live stuff, but are hard to get rid of.

[xenxes]

Originally Posted by DanCottle

Those are "pond snails" they only eat decaying plant matter not the live stuff, but are hard to get rid of.

Are they the same as mystery snails? Not sure where I would have gotten them I washed everything off pretty well before setting anything in. Hopefully my other tanks didn't get them.

Forgot to do a status update: all 12 cherries alive. Hope they survive in this little thing until I can get my 9g cycled.

Saw some tiny specs of dust flying around, but they're baby RCS! Counted about 5 or 6 zooming around in the front of the tank, not sure if they came with or just popped out. Can't really capture them on camera, need an amazing macro lens for that :/

Anyway some shrimp pics (Day +2):

[xenxes]

Couple of those snails quadrupled in size in another day:





Pretty shell, so football shaped = pond = bad? More seem to be appearing everyday.

[diwu13]

Start smooshing them. Free food for the shrimp!

They probably came in as eggs on the frogbit or something. It's so hard to catch all the eggs, and then they start multipying fast

[acitydweller]

maybe you shouldnt have made the 10 betta comment. hehehe... anyway, yeah those snails may start overrunning if left unchecked. What kind of lighting are you using? great work on the tank filter. i had two of these marine tanks but ended up getting a 4 gallon evolve instead.

[bastage]

Originally Posted by diwu13

Start smooshing them. Free food for the shrimp!

Whoa does that work ok? I have a pond snail outbreak happening in a tank with RCS & that would be much quicker then throwing them outside.

[diwu13]

Originally Posted by bastage

Whoa does that work ok? I have a pond snail outbreak happening in a tank with RCS & that would be much quicker then throwing them outside.

This will 100% work. Start off by squishing any big ones you find, this'll stop the egg production. Using your finger works best :P! When the pond snail population starts to get lower to a tolerable level, only squish babies. The adults will keep making eggs so you have a never ending free food supply for shrimp

And it's super funny watching shrimp fight over a smooshed snail.

[bastage]

Originally Posted by diwu13

This will 100% work. Start off by squishing any big ones you find, this'll stop the egg production. Using your finger works best :P! When the pond snail population starts to get lower to a tolerable level, only squish babies. The adults will keep making eggs so you have a never ending free food supply for shrimp

And it's super funny watching shrimp fight over a smooshed snail.

I Shall try this.. Though I dont want a never ending supply.. I have a 29 gallon tank that belongs to the RCS & a couple of mystery snails that breed like crazy anywho.. I want the little buggers GONE..

[FisheriesOmen]

when i saw the title of .5g betta tank i almost raged on this forum :/ I use to have those snails in a 5 gal and yes get rid of them...fast! they will literally infest the tank and you'll see them all over the place.

[diwu13]

Originally Posted by bastage

I Shall try this.. Though I dont want a never ending supply.. I have a 29 gallon tank that belongs to the RCS & a couple of mystery snails that breed like crazy anywho.. I want the little buggers GONE..

Might be harder to find them in such a big tank, but do your best! As long as you cut down the bigger ones (I would say larger than "__") the cripple the population.

Originally Posted by FisheriesOmen

when i saw the title of .5g betta tank i almost raged on this forum :/ I use to have those snails in a 5 gal and yes get rid of them...fast! they will literally infest the tank and you'll see them all over the place.

As long as you don't overfeed their population won't bloom.

[xenxes]

Originally Posted by diwu13

Start smooshing them. Free food for the shrimp!

They probably came in as eggs on the frogbit or something. It's so hard to catch all the eggs, and then they start multipying fast

Gross :/ I accidentally smooshed one with my planting tongs earlier while trying to move them to a tupperware (want to see what they look like fully grown), threw it out instead of feeding it, suppose it'd be good protein supplement.

No snails in other tanks with same frogbits, maybe the fish/ghost shrimp are eating them.

Moved 6 more cherries over to the 20g (removed swordtail and blue platys back to the LFS), don't know what I'll do with the female betta (impulse buy), she's in a quarantine container.

[philemon716]

A betta will take care of those snails in no time...just sayin'.