mass on cherry barb

Question
We have a female cherry barb with pink mass on left side. I'm confident the mass is not eggs. I can't determine if it's an injury, but don't think so, although at times it appears that maybe a bit of it is protruding out. Hard to see with her darting about like they do. None of the other fish seem to be bothering her, as I would expect from a fish with an injury and part of its insides protruding. I treated the tank with Melafix. I took pictures and will send them if you want to look at them, but they aren't as easy to see as I had hoped for. The fish was most uncooperative.

We also have a population explosion of ramshorn snails. Can they tolerate 60-65 degree temps and be moved into the horsetanks with the goldfish, to be freed in the spring into the two goldfish ponds we have in the backyard  where they can take their chances? I am removing dozens of them at a time from the aquarium. Isn't this species found in rivers? Can they be relocated there in the spring? How many snails can a 30 gallon tank support? Living in the freshwater tank are five barbs, six glo-light tetras, seven guppy fry, a dozen adult guppies, and one six inch pleco. The snails are eating the live plants, which are developing black fuzz. What is black fuzz?

So it seems we have a tank full of problems. We do add salt, although I have no idea why. Someone said "you need to add salt", and like children, we obeyed. I scanned the questions you've already answered, and appreciated reading your comments about adding too much de-chlorinator. I'm guilty of not measuring, which I'll begin doing, and encourage my husband to do also. He is in charge of adding water to the ponds in the summer and caring for the horsetanks and filters that we have for the fish to winter over in.

Tell me what you think.

Thank you.

Carol Schneider

Answer
Dear Carol,
I'm honestly not sure about the female Cherry barb. Of course without a picture it's very difficult. It may be an injury or maybe possibly even a tumor. Seeing a picture would be most excellent. If you like, you could post the picture under "Tropicalresources.com" forum where I can easily go there and see it. To make it easier, here is the link to the 'freshwater emergency' forum-
"http://www.tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=5"

Just let me know when you post it (if you want to) and I will be happy to go and see it.

Treating with Melafix is a good way to start with trying to help the poor Cherry barb. She may have had a really bad injury that is going to take long while to fully heal. I'm glad no fish are picking on her, that helps a lot. The best advice I can give is to be sure to keep her water very clean. Try to do water changes as frequent as possible. If you could manage 20-30% everyday that would be wonderful, clean water does wonders for healing fish wounds. And I would continue with the Melafix if you can.
Basically all you can do for the cherry barb is take the best possible care of her and hope for the best.

Ramshorn snails are well-known for having population explosions! It is said that an overpopulation of snails is often due to an overabundance of food for them. Cutting back may help but I know it's really hard when you have a pleco to feed (because of the sinking foods required) and it seems even a little bit of food can keep an already strong population to keep growing bigger. Snails usually get into your aquarium by hitching a ride on live plants or in the bag when you bring new fish home. They can slip into your tank unnoticed and start a whole new population.
One of the best and natural routes to take when battling snails is to have known snail-eating fish. Loaches are very well known for hunting down snails and are good at keeping the numbers in check. Both the Clown loach and the Yoyo Loach are avid snail eaters. But keep in mind the Clown loach has the potential to grow quite large. Yoyo loaches can grow to 6 inches but commonly stay at around 4 inches usually.
To read more about loaches, visit here-
"www.loaches.com"

Ramshorn Snails should survive just fine in the horsetanks where the temperature is 60-65F. I believe the Ramshorn snail is from South America..However there are actually several species of snail commonly called Ramshorn so I can't really be sure of that. I do know that the "Pond Snails" are typically native around here and can sometimes get into your aquarium from a natural pond or lake (such as bringing in aquatic plants or maybe rocks into your tank)

Usually ramshorn snails do not eat healthy live plants, only touching the decaying parts that they find. If they really are eating the live plants, getting rid of as many as possible is definitely in order. Moving them into the horsetanks and then into your ponds is perfectly fine. The goldfish may eat some of them but snails are hardy and as you know reproduce rapidly and they should do well in the outdoor pond. But be sure that you do not ever release any snails into a natural water source. It is not known that these particular snails are native and introducing a 'foreign' species could wreck havoc on the whole system.

Since your 30gallon is pretty well stocked already, it would be best to not allow too many snails to accumulate. Removing them into your ponds will allow natural predation to control their numbers and in your aquarium you might want to add a trio of yoyo loaches to help things out.

The black fuzz you explained about it something I've never had to deal with in my planted aquarium. It is sometimes known as black beard algae and unfortunately is often very difficult to get rid of.

Here is a link to a website about algae including pictures for indentification. It also explains about beard or brush algae and the algae eaters that may be able to control it.
http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9

The best advice I can give on this is to remove as much as you can (I know that this is difficult though) make sure your lighting is not on for more than 10-12 hours a day, and perhaps try inroducing a known black beard algae eater. Another thing I would try is putting a very large mass of hardy and very fast growing aquatic plants to try to outcompete the black beard algae--this has been known to work. Also try to maintain excellent water quality through very frequent water changes and gravel vacuuming.

Actually aquarium salt is not needed in a freshwater aquarium and can bother certain scaleless or delicate fish like catfish or loaches. I don't know who started the whole "add salt" thing but I do know that its not necessary for healthy and thriving fish. It's best to leave aquarium salt out of your aquarium. However, when a fish is sick with an illness salt can be an excellent side treatment along with a medication as salt can help kill certain bacteria or discourage parasites.

I really hope this helps and thank you very much for your nice comments.

Best of luck with everything!!
Karen~