Mystery Snail

[ThatCrazyFishLady]

Hello all!

Alright, so I've officially made the move to college with my 10g. If you can't tell by the picture, my tank is heavily planted. So, after being here for about three months, I finally see this bugger around my fish tank. It is huge! It actually surprises me that I have never seen it before, considering I have red cherry shrimp in there that I see much more often. So I'm wondering what this little hitchhiker is and if I have anything to worry about with it.

Also, I have a concern with one of my bettas. This is my first time owning bettas, and the genius in me decided to create a sorority of females. Of course, after owning cichlids for so long, I figured it wouldn't be that hard to care for these bad boys. Now, there is no aggression due to the heavy planting. However, I'm concerned about one of my females. She has been very lethargic lately and her abdomen has been more swollen than it usually is. I've been watching her rigorously for dropsy, but her she just doesn't LOOK that part. My water parameters are just fine and the other bettas are active and feisty just as usual.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Looks like a pond snail maybe? Dunno. I'd be surprised if there's only one though. I too have kept sororities of female bettas in my 55g community tank with plants. Up to 6 female bettas at a time. They were a family favorite for sure because of their personalities. Problem was, over the course of a year or so, I lost them one by one from bloat of some sort. All I could attribute it to was they would overeat big time, because the variety of fish in with them all ate at different rates and these little piglets would get too much of it. FWIW, none of my tanks see more than 20ppm nitrates between weekly water changes, so I don't believe it was nitrate exposure.

 

[ThatCrazyFishLady]

Thank you so much for the information! My betta did die, I was suspecting it would be soon. I even performed a few water changes, but the outcome did not change. Her body shape was the same as when I bought her when I found it, so I'm wondering what the heck happened. And thank you for the snail name, I'm hoping it will help with the untamable algae that I mistaken thought would make the tank look better.