Fertz and Invertz?

[ricoishere]

A question regarding fertz and inverts: it seems like my inverts (zebra snails, red spotted snails, pretty expensive) don't do well. Then I started reading the ingredients in Seachem have copper. Esp flourish tabs. Now I wonder if there is a correlation. Has anyone experienced this? If so, are there any fertz that don't have copper? After realizing this, I immediately ordered calcium carbonate to add to my aquariums.

[Cavan]

The amount of copper in both us very, very small. In the past, I've dosed fairly heavily with Flourish while also having an invert population that...flourished.

[jcali10]

Flourish Comprehensive Cu is 0.0001%. Flourish Tabs Cu is 0.001%. I have been trying to raise a colony of RCS shrimp in my 2.5G planted tank, and had half of them die on me, so I quit dosing Flourish Comprehensive, Iron, and Excel, and they did much better. But I think it may have been the Excel that they were sensitive to. I was dosing 5 drops of Comp. and Iron daily and 15 drops of Excel daily.

[ricoishere]

Flourish Comprehensive Cu is 0.0001%. Flourish Tabs Cu is 0.001%. I have been trying to raise a colony of RCS shrimp in my 2.5G planted tank, and had half of them die on me, so I quit dosing Flourish Comprehensive, Iron, and Excel, and they did much better. But I think it may have been the Excel that they were sensitive to. I was dosing 5 drops of Comp. and Iron daily and 15 drops of Excel daily.

Thanks for this. I removed the Zebra snails from my 47G and see how'll they'll do.

[PadreJP]

Can't speak much about specialty snails, but I know hardcore dwarf shrimp keepers will be pretty emphatic that the best option for an invert tank is absolutely no ferts at all; if that isn't a possibility, then the absolute minimum fertilizing you can possibly get away with.

If one were to make sweeping generalizations (!!!), it is safe to say that exotic freshwater inverts overall are more sensitive to water chemistry than freshwater fish. Thus, levels of chemicals that are absolutely fine for a fish tank are often *not* fine in an invert tank.

But as always, YMMV.

(On a side note, what sort of symptoms are you seeing that are telling you the snails aren't doing well? Lethargy? Shell disintegration? Deaths? etc.)

[ricoishere]

Can't speak much about specialty snails, but I know hardcore dwarf shrimp keepers will be pretty emphatic that the best option for an invert tank is absolutely no ferts at all; if that isn't a possibility, then the absolute minimum fertilizing you can possibly get away with.

If one were to make sweeping generalizations (!!!), it is safe to say that exotic freshwater inverts overall are more sensitive to water chemistry than freshwater fish. Thus, levels of chemicals that are absolutely fine for a fish tank are often *not* fine in an invert tank.

But as always, YMMV.

(On a side note, what sort of symptoms are you seeing that are telling you the snails aren't doing well? Lethargy? Shell disintegration? Deaths? etc.)

Mainly shell desintegration and then death. I removed all snails from that tank and placed them in one that does'nt get fertz. I start calcium over the weekend. We'll see what happens. Thanks.

[DelawareJim]

What's the pH? Are you dosing CO2? How many ppm? The carbonic acid from the CO2 may be causing the shell disintegration. Even in my low tech tanks with no CO2, no excel, if I neglect water changes and the pH drops too far I notice shell disintegration.

Cheers.
Jim

[ingg]

What's the pH? Are you dosing CO2? How many ppm? The carbonic acid from the CO2 may be causing the shell disintegration. Even in my low tech tanks with no CO2, no excel, if I neglect water changes and the pH drops too far I notice shell disintegration.

Cheers.
Jim

Ayep. I remember Jeff resorting to supergluing them in one of his tanks, high CO2 level injections chew 'em up.

[Jeff120]

Scratch the super glue I idea, lost a few in the name of science!