Pest or potassium

[HayleYoyo]

Hey guys,

My tank has had pond snails in it for a while.

For the most part they have been fine. I added a bunch of new plants, and Co2 to my tank, and two things happened.

1. My snail population exploded
2. I stared getting holes in my plants.

At first I associated both of these to the fact that new plants will had ‘melt’,  and that resulted in more food for the snails.

I essentially ignored the snails, trimmed the plants, and got on with my day.

It’s been a few weeks, and the snail population hasn’t gone down. Yesterday I did a BIG trimming on the leaves. I cut off anything with holes, or that didn’t look good.
This morning, I found more holes.

Could this be a fert problem? More potassium maybe?

[Gilbotron]

Sounds/looks like nutrient deficiency. You can either add nutrients, or reduce lighting (time on and/or intensity) so plants don't try to outgrow available nutrients.

Common snails generally only eat dead/dying material unless they are starving.  They also reproduce as much as their available food supports them, so if there is a lot of decaying plant matter, they would definitely explode in pop. Also, planting a bunch of new plants probably stirred up lots of detritus which would also add to readily available snail food.

Ideally if you get your nutrient deficiency corrected, and don't drastically change tank feeding, the population should naturally dwindle over time. If you are concerned about too many snails you could add 3 botia's  but then you won't be able to keep snails in that tank. Zebras and Kubotai are both awesome. Skunk Botia's will also do the trick but they can be kind of nasty sometimes (biting your hand).     

[HayleYoyo]

Would 3 botia bother my Nitrite snail?

[Gilbotron]

Big nerites, probably.  Small nerites, definitely. They aren't picky and will eat any snail (shell and all). Even if the snail is too big, they will sometimes rip it out of the shell and go to town. Not sure about large mystery snails or apple snails.

Only snail I've been able to keep with them is Malaysian Trumpets (because they live under the substrate), but they still manage to pick them off when an opportunity presents so its hard to maintain a large colony of them.

[HayleYoyo]

Interesting. I'm not really a fan of buying a fish to handle my snails.

I much rather figure out what's going on.

The ferts I'm using aren't high in macro nutrients, so I bought some easy green. Hopefully that solves the issue.

[tanksalot360]

How about snails to handle your snails? Assassin (sp. helena?) snails are experts at eliminating pond/bladder snails. Might suit smaller tanks better longterm. Otherwise I like yoyo loaches.
Is that a taiwan lily? or hydrocotyl sp.? These plants are definitely prone to melt, especially when the lighting changes or you add co2 etc. Add root tabs will help with nutrient uptake, especially welcomed by lily plants. Alternatively, the hydrocotyle group tends to melt in an absence of iron (as a general rule) and can be used as a guide to replenishing trace minerals in my experience. Your new ferts should help. I never follow directions on the liquid fert bottles though, make sure to start with 1/2 doses.
But most plants just require an upgrade to lighting if issues are prolonged.

Potassium pinholes are common on hygrophilia species, so if you have some you can confirm more than one plant with symptoms.

I would be interested in your experience with easy green. Keep us updated!

[HayleYoyo]

I'm not sure what it is. It doesn't look like Taiwan Lily or Hydrocotyl sp. it's like Hydrocotyl, but doesn't have a 'clover' shaped leaf. It also grows a long stem. It doesn't seem to 'carpet' like Hydrocotyl does. It actually didn't melt, the two others I planted at the same time did. This one did well, but now has all the pin holes.

Easy green does look as easy as they say. My tank is sitting at 30ppm Nitrates, which is plenty. So I haven't added it yet

[Gowalkitoff]

Pennywort?