dwarf cerith as a "canary"?

hey guys,

I have a QT up and running with a couple of clowns and a royal gramma in it, I've been changing the water every other day and monitoring the ammonia religiously.

I have some live rock in there that I've seeded from my DT, a dwarf cerith tagged along with the rock and I'm wondering if he could be the "canary" in the QT? i.e. as long as he's living the fish are fine

I'm still going to continue monitoring the parameters but if I can just look in there and see that the snail is still living it would at least give me piece of mind that everything is still ok

or is the dwarf cerith not so sensitive to ammonia?

 

What does your qt consist of?? Most qt still have some form of bacteria to consume ammonia and nitrite, say a canister filter, hob filter, hob refuge, filter sponge from a mature tank.

If you have good live rock in there it shouldn't be to much of a problem unless you just have like 2 lbs in there.

 

Its a 10 gallon tank, it does have a hob filter with a bio-wheel and its about five pounds of pukani and has a mj600 for current.

 

I would think with a 1-2 gal water change every couple days you should be fine. But that is a pretty heavy load on a 10 gal. If you just has filter pad in te hang on bacteria should grow on it and suffice. But you can't have 2 pads in it and change both at the same time. You lose your bacteria then. Alternate changes. Left one week right the next week. If its a dual filter.

 

I appreciate your responses, but I was really wondering how sensitive the snail in there would be to the ammonia?

I am not going to change anything as far as husbandry goes, I'm still gonna change water every couple of days and I'm still gonna monitor the ammonia, I was really just curious

 

Man if the fish are living and don't get stressed what's point of the snail lol

But having a few in the tank could help keep the ammonia back buy consuming waste by the fish, and left over food.

 

The snail would most likely outlive a fish in a toxic ammonia environment. The ammonia burns the delicate filaments of the fish gills inhibiting the O2 absorption, basically suffocating the fish.

 

Thank you thats what I was wondering, no offense alex your comments were still helpful

 

Haha no worries. I was just bored at work lol. Guess I could have said that lol

 

I will add my opinion on QTing fish. IMO, you should only QT one fish at a time, unless they are a mated pair. The QT process is for a few reasons. First and foremost, to make sure you did not receive sick fish that would have infected your DT. In a small QT you are able to daily monitor them for any signs of illness. Second is to get it on a feeding regiment. Some fish can be tough to feed in the first place. Having them competing with other fish in a small tank is exactly the opposite of what you want. Third, water quality is difficult to maintain in a smaller tank as you know. Bad water quality completely defeats the purpose of QTing fish, as now you are subjecting them to more stress than in a larger DT. I would recommend you get a Seachem Ammonia Checker. They are very effective and will easily show you very small amounts of ammonia without having to test. And they last up to a year. Another point is if one of the fish was diseased, now you are subjecting the other fish to the same disease, in a small tank. Lastly, multiple fish in a small tank can lead to aggression, which can harm a fish between stress, physical damage, or lead to disease.

I hope this helps and you don't take this the wrong way. FWIW, I have a 10 gal QT that has been setup for months. I use a small sponge filter that was seeded from my DT before putting it in. I have a good size HOB power filter with filter pads, pico powerhead, and a Coralife superskimmer since it was worthless in my other tank (should not normally be needed). Anyways, with these and making sure to lightly feed, ammonia has been 0 since I set it up, and nitrates are always under 5. I barely even change the water.

Hope this helps!