# I only have a third of a clue of what's going on...



## Rye (Apr 6, 2011)

Last June I bought a five gallon tank on impulse mostly. I still only have one tank... I named all the fish?

There are two mollies, three... the internet says they're glowlight tetras, and two golden apple snails.

I'm pretty sure the mollies are of opposite gender, and I got the girl a few weeks ago. I think she's pregnant and if she's not what are the odds of it happening? It is a kind of small tank...

Are the apple snails supposed to move mostly/only at night? 

I got the tank, and then there were tiny snails everywhere. Then all the tiny snails disappeared. Then the tiny snails came back. Should anything be done about them? 
Also, one exceptionally large tiny snail would climb up the tank wall and float around on the surface for a while. I tried pushing it back to the glass, and it promptly climbed back up to a different part of the tank to start floating again. 

Also, there's a dark algae on one of the plants... how do I get rid of that?

Many thanks for anything and everything!


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## Rye (Apr 6, 2011)

Oh! I almost forgot. I looked around, but remain clueless. Does anyone know what happens when a silver and creamsicle molly are crossed? 
Anything with black makes spots, but I don't have any mollies that are black...


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

the little snails wont hurt anything.. they may actually help to clean everything up. so no worries. When they float, this is normal also.. not sure why they do it other than a fast mode of transportation. 
Is the algae black and stringy? slow your feeding, do water changes, and decrease your lighting periods.. that'll all help.


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## chris oe (Feb 27, 2009)

Apple snails are active all the time, pretty much, not just at night. They'll eat flakes off the surface of the water if they know food is there sometimes, they'll go look around for some. They also sometimes form a funnel with their foot and try to pull food into it. They also like to let go the side and glide down rather than climbing all the way down. Lots of fun. They can also leave the water and wander around, sometimes you'll find them on the carpet if your lid has big enough openings. Just put them back in, they can survive days out of the water. 

The tiny snails, are they cone shaped? If so, MTS, they're good snails, people buy them for a decent amount of money on aquabid. Feel lucky they're there, they're like earthworms, they'll dig around in your gravel turning it.


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## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

chris oe said:


> Apple snails are active all the time, pretty much, not just at night. They'll eat flakes off the surface of the water if they know food is there sometimes, they'll go look around for some. They also sometimes form a funnel with their foot and try to pull food into it. They also like to let go the side and glide down rather than climbing all the way down. Lots of fun. They can also leave the water and wander around, sometimes you'll find them on the carpet if your lid has big enough openings. Just put them back in, they can survive days out of the water.
> 
> The tiny snails, are they cone shaped? If so, MTS, they're good snails, people buy them for a decent amount of money on aquabid. Feel lucky they're there, they're like earthworms, they'll dig around in your gravel turning it.


never knew snails are this fun lol 

i had one golden snail for 4 months kinda fun  but only when he came hunting food near to my ram and my ram used to push him all the way across LOL 

then i fed him to a puffer fish . now i have 2 very little snails in the tank that came in may be with plants but they are red and black blend into gravel and i cant even spot them lol


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## Sravis (Mar 29, 2011)

So far what i read says that movement and life cycle are directly related to tempurature ; meaning that in a tank that is 86 degrees youl have a fast snail but he may not live to his two year normal life cycle, but if you have a tank that is 70 degrees they will move slower and live longer. Somewhere i read that keeping your tank between 76 and 80 is optimal i dont know if it is true however, I keep my tank at 78(f) and my snail is fairly active and playful, hoping he lives a good long time.


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## Rye (Apr 6, 2011)

The algae is only stringy on the rock; on the plants it just sort of covers the leaf part... It kind of reminds me of the algae in the pool after the winter cover comes off, only less green. I'll try the water change, and less light and feeding.

And the largest small snail I ever saw was only a quarter of an inch or so? They have kind of a see-though brown shell, but by the sound of things they're good for the tank. 

I think the apple snails are just weird.... I came home and one was upside down on the gravel and the other was hiding. I flipped it over and dropped in an algae wafer. Then they both decided it was a good time to wake up and start moving.


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## Sravis (Mar 29, 2011)

They are playful and each will act in its own mannerisms so yes maybe they are just wierd


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## ReStart (Jan 3, 2011)

If a female Mollie is healthy and there is a male around, she is pregnant, always. The babies will get eaten unless you separate them or some may survive if you have lots of floating plants where they can hide.

I don't like snails of most any sort so I'd have a solution to that but lots of people do like them. Each to their own.

Reduce the light, as others have said. Scrape the algae off the sides of your tank, or at least the front view side. I keep a bit on the back for my Otto. 

I took some plants out of my 10g the other day and just wiped the algae off the leaves. I took some algae covered rocks out and soaked them in bleach solution then *rinsed the crap out of them *and put them back in. It looks a lot better now.


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