I feel so stupid

danilykins · 01-05-2011, 11:58 PM

Ok, so I have had my tank up and running for a couple of days now. I have activflora as a substrate in the tank. I put some fish in with my snail and shrimp. My snail has been holed up in the treasure chest all day. So i check to see if he is ok. Well he was just laying in there, so Im like uh oh, this isn't good, so I took him out and checked him out.. he was up in his shell. so I was like WTF this is the second snail in a month... I put him back in the tank, he came out of his shell, I was like YEAH he's not dead... but he was acting weird.. so I got an idea, the substrate I have in there was sticking to him. So I checked the ingredients to that.. It has both copper and sodium in it!!!!! So I took him out and put him in the 10gallon, and Im praying that I didn't kill him. But needless to say, his home will now be in the other tank *sigh*

jrman83 · 01-06-2011, 05:56 AM

API sells a copper test kit for your water. I don't know too much about shrimp, but believe they don't like copper either.

PolymerTim · 01-06-2011, 08:49 PM

Wow, that's a bummer. I hope you get things worked out.

One tip I ran across for snails is that if they are shut up tight they are not dead. They have to exert a force to remain completely closed. When they die, the operculum (trap door) is typically in kind of a half-open / half-closed state. Then being mostly water, they start to decompose very rapidly, so it will be pretty obvious in 12-24 hours.

danilykins · 01-06-2011, 08:57 PM

Yeah he is fine, he is in the other tank at the moment and sucked onto the glass. I emailed the company of ActivFlora to see if they had any suggestions for the set up. I'd hate to have to pull everything out and start over with a different gravel set up, because this one looks so nice.

James0816 · 01-07-2011, 07:32 AM

Usually those substrates are just trace and shouldn't be enough to harm inverts. But as mentioned, if in doubt, get a test kit to be sure. It's always worth having that extra bit of security.

And if you suspect him passing ... do the sniff test. You'll know for sure. ;oP

01-05-2011, 11:58 PM	#1 (permalink)
danilykins danilykins's Photo Gallery Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 655 Feedback: 0 / 0% Said "Welcome to Aquarium Forum" 49 Times Said "Thanks" 109 Times Was Thanked 75 Times in 71 Posts	I feel so stupid Ok, so I have had my tank up and running for a couple of days now. I have activflora as a substrate in the tank. I put some fish in with my snail and shrimp. My snail has been holed up in the treasure chest all day. So i check to see if he is ok. Well he was just laying in there, so Im like uh oh, this isn't good, so I took him out and checked him out.. he was up in his shell. so I was like WTF this is the second snail in a month... I put him back in the tank, he came out of his shell, I was like YEAH he's not dead... but he was acting weird.. so I got an idea, the substrate I have in there was sticking to him. So I checked the ingredients to that.. It has both copper and sodium in it!!!!! So I took him out and put him in the 10gallon, and Im praying that I didn't kill him. But needless to say, his home will now be in the other tank sigh __________________ Tank: 29g:guppies, balloon mollies, swordtail, 2 mollies Hex: opaline gourami 10g 1F. betta

01-06-2011, 05:56 AM	#2 (permalink)
jrman83 ....has no life.... jrman83's Photo Gallery Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 9,468 Name: Ben Location: White Plains, MD My location Feedback: 16 / 100% Said "Welcome to Aquarium Forum" 3,396 Times Said "Thanks" 478 Times Was Thanked 2,431 Times in 2,286 Posts	Re: I feel so stupid API sells a copper test kit for your water. I don't know too much about shrimp, but believe they don't like copper either.

01-06-2011, 08:49 PM	#3 (permalink)
PolymerTim PolymerTim's Photo Gallery Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 116 My location Feedback: 0 / 0% Said "Welcome to Aquarium Forum" 32 Times Said "Thanks" 0 Times Was Thanked 46 Times in 40 Posts	Re: I feel so stupid Wow, that's a bummer. I hope you get things worked out. One tip I ran across for snails is that if they are shut up tight they are not dead. They have to exert a force to remain completely closed. When they die, the operculum (trap door) is typically in kind of a half-open / half-closed state. Then being mostly water, they start to decompose very rapidly, so it will be pretty obvious in 12-24 hours.

01-06-2011, 08:57 PM	#4 (permalink)
danilykins danilykins's Photo Gallery Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 655 Feedback: 0 / 0% Said "Welcome to Aquarium Forum" 49 Times Said "Thanks" 109 Times Was Thanked 75 Times in 71 Posts	Re: I feel so stupid Yeah he is fine, he is in the other tank at the moment and sucked onto the glass. I emailed the company of ActivFlora to see if they had any suggestions for the set up. I'd hate to have to pull everything out and start over with a different gravel set up, because this one looks so nice. __________________ Tank: 29g:guppies, balloon mollies, swordtail, 2 mollies Hex: opaline gourami 10g 1F. betta

01-07-2011, 07:32 AM	#5 (permalink)
James0816 James0816's Photo Gallery Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 2,455 Feedback: 13 / 100% Said "Welcome to Aquarium Forum" 0 Times Said "Thanks" 34 Times Was Thanked 526 Times in 454 Posts	Re: I feel so stupid Usually those substrates are just trace and shouldn't be enough to harm inverts. But as mentioned, if in doubt, get a test kit to be sure. It's always worth having that extra bit of security. And if you suspect him passing ... do the sniff test. You'll know for sure. ;oP

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