Marian's Aquarium

A young woman who is overly in love with her aquatic pets makes a blog in their dedication and her pets become loved and famous

[snail-mama]

I use omega one betta buffet pellets. I heard they're the best ones out there from many people.

Thanks!

[snail-mama]

Sad Goodbye

Once again I am the carrier of bad news, Goldie has passed away.

It makes me sad because she as the baby of my first two snails Leotardo and Beatrice and they both died shortly after I got them and Goldie was only 10 months old or so. I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I keep them in a nice tank, I make sure they have food and calcium, I don't know what else to do or what I'm doing wrong. Goldie was my first snail that I've had from a baby. I just feel so bad.

[snail-mama]

Swanson being a babe 

[snail-mama]

Betta Food

Right now I have Swanson oh pellets, he doesn't care for freeze-dried blood worms.

What do you feed your betta? Brand? Type?

[snail-mama]

Question!

I've been looking at Swanson lately and I can't help but feel that his tail/fins aren't as nice as they could be but I don't know if thats just me or what. 

What do you think? Do you know of anything that I could try that would help his tail/fins out?

[snail-mama]

My tank as of right now. As always I'm open to suggestion so if you have any go right ahead :)

[snail-mama]

One last one for today because he is so perfect <3 :)

[snail-mama]

More Swanson because I mean, look at him!!!

[snail-mama]

Here is

Goldie (the biggest one)

Gary (the blueish one)

and Larry (the black with gold stripes)

At the moment Terry is sleeping so was unable to join the snail pile which is a almost 24/7 activity. There is almost never one snail on its own. Almost always there are two are three or all four of them crawling all over each other. Such weirdos.

[snail-mama]

"ey lil mama lemme whisper in ya ear"

OK, so I when to try and get more photos of the snails but they were all sleeping and Swanson I guess was feeling like a ham and was like "ME! ME! ME!" so I was like "OK MAN CALM DOWN!" and so I ending up getting about 100 photos of Swanson before my camera died. And wouldn't you know it, as soon as my camera died, one of the snails woke up and as I'm typing this is going by my face on the glass. What the nerve he has. 

Anyway here is my yawning fish and he looks so cute and funny and I love it. 

FUN FACT the other day marked the year anniversary of me getting Swanson, so yay!!!

[snail-mama]

Update:

The last 4 months of my life have been really crappy so I'm sorry for the lack of posts on here but I promise to put up more soon!

Right now, my tank is of course Swanson.

Thank god Goldie is also still very much alive and I have 3 newish apple snails who you all will get to meet soon, Gary, Larry and Terry. ( I let my sisters friend name them) They are all very well and full of life.

[snail-mama]

Mercutio has passed.

Again, it seems I am the bringer of bad news. If you read my last post about my little underdog Mercutio, you know that he has been acting quite off lately. Unfortunately since that last photo I took of him, he had not moved for over 24 hours and I felt it was time to take him out. I can really only attribute this to old age because I honestly can't think of what else it would be. He is currently sitting in a cup of tank water on my desk, and though I'd like to believe he'd come back again, I know I'm just fooling myself. I'm not as upset as I feel maybe I should be but Mercutio outlived everyone except Swanson. I've always wanted a snail tattoo and I think whenever I get the money to get one, I will have it designed after him, like all the lines and tones of his shell because such a trooper and a successful underdog deserves to be immortalized on my body and not only that but 'pest snail' or not, he was not pest to me and I loved watching him grow and explore. He was a hella rad dude and I'm genuinely sad that he had to leave me so soon.

[snail-mama]

Another less glared photo of my tank and a more clear photo of my newest plant which is some type of java fern I think. I should know what it is cause I bought it like 2 weeks ago but nope, haha, threw the package and never committed the name to memory!

[snail-mama]

Mercutio: Baby, a few days ago, and now.

Okay, so before I begin, this guy is a fuck'n weirdo who doesn't give a fuck.

As you can see in the FIRST image, Mercutio is practically a baby and that is when I first found him just wandering in my tank around March 4th and inducted him as an official part of the family. He's been quite the trooper outliving 3 apple snails and being the only original member of my tank to remain other than Swanson.

In the SECOND image, he's being a fucking nasty weirdo and that was the first time I've ever seen him that far out of his shell like that. This picture was taken only like 3 days ago.

In the THIRD image, is from last night. He's been like that all night and today (it's 12:11pm my time). Now I'm sure some of you might be thinking based off that last picture that he may be dead, and honestly, I really don't know. That is a complete honest answer and here is why:

Since I've come back to school he has been acting very weird. For the first few days he didn't move much, and then he stopped all together and laid on the bottom of the tank motionless and semi out of his shell for about 8-12 hours. I thought for sure he was dead, so upset at another loss so soon and close to my others I scooped him out and placed him in a cup of aquarium water and left for class not wanting to deal with it until later. When I got back from class, he had moved and was attached to the side of the cup and I was happy but also confused because when I scooped him up he was completely unresponsive. So I placed him back in the tank as up-right as possible next to some food so if he wanted to eat and was too weak to move, it'd be right there for him. Unfortunately, again the next afternoon he had still not move from where I put him and was limp outside his shell so, again, I put him in a cup and left him and again he was still alive and even more active so I was like 'cool' and put him back. he moved slightly in circles on the bottom of the tank for a few days and then I went camping. And when I got back I couldn't even find him until I looked next to the cleaner (the while thing in the second picture) and he was wedged on in/between it and the filter and so I slowly moved it out and thats what he looked like and I've never seen him like that. After I moved him out of that wedge (worried that maybe he was stuck?) he moved over the cleaner and onto the side of the tank then about halfway out of the water and stayed their for the rest of the evening. The next morning I woke up and when I turned on the light I noticed a rather gross film of what I'm guess was his snaily mucus on the top of the water along with the fact that he still hadn't moved. So I gently knocked him down to clean the mucus off the water an d he seemed okay with it. He actually move around for a bit, climbing up the log (and then proceeding to dangle from it for 12+ hours) and moving to hide under the rock with Goldie who hides there during the daylight hours.

Now, he is still in the same spot and hasn't really moved at all since that last photo. I'm going to let him be until later tonight or tomorrow morning. I know that if he is dead leaving him in the water is not only sad/mean but is not good for the water, but I have ammonia remover if I need it. I'm honestly hoping that he is just being his odd self, but with all this strange behavior, I'm worried that another one of my dear friends may have passed. I also think, that maybe his shell is to big for his body. I know it is kind of hard to tell from the photos, but he has grown A LOT and is now almost twice as big as the algae wafers he used to eat and I've noticed it's hard and almost impossible it seems some day for him to even move because his shell is so big.

If anyone has any advice or comments or questions feel free to message me

[snail-mama]

UPDATE:

Well, first off, i would like to welcome my new followers and say thank you for choosing my exquisite aquarium blog to follow and hopefully enjoy!

I've had a very busy but boring summer and also filled with some unfortunate and sad incidences with the death of two of my apple snails as well as my cuban land snail and the deconstruction of my terrarium. While I am still heart broken over my losses and upset over having to decommission my terrarium life must go on. I am now back at college, finishing up my senior year to obtain my Photography and Digital Imaging degree (with some complications, which you can find in detail if interested on my photography blog marianmadonna  within the next few days). 

At this point this is what my tank looks like. When I got home one of my plants also almost died but is now making a comeback (the small plant in the front right side, I don't remember the name but if you know please feel free to tell me!) and I've gotten a sort of java fern which is next to the other two plants on the left and it hard to see in this picture.

SO, now all I have is Swanson, my beautiful betta boy who will of course get many posts because he is so active and cute, Mercutio, my ramshorn snail who I thought would breed and be a pest but has turned out to not only remain solo, but is now a some what of a special needs snail (he gets his own personal update within the next day or so and it is quite interesting I think), and Goldie, my only surviving apple snail and also my only surviving apple snail baby that was breed and born in my tank who is roughly 6 months old now and is also quite weird and will get his own update.

Again, thank you all for sticking around and I hope we all enjoy what is in store for this year! Also, thank you to those who offered their condolences to me during the hard times I had dealing with my snails passings. It was and still is very hard and I still feel a sense of guilt even though I know I did all that I could. Please know that I try all that I can to give my babies, and I mean that literally I love my betta and snails like freaking children, the best and most comfortable home I can.

-Snail-mama

[snail-mama]

Small but sad update...

Once again I am the barer of bad news. Chance (the cuban snail in my terrarium) has passed away as well as the blue baby snail that I never publicly named Baby Blue. 

I confess that I feel largely responsible for their deaths. For Chance, I feel it was a lack of warmth and proper knowledge of his environment and diet on my behalf that lead to his passing. For Baby Blue, I feel it may have just been a lack of a proper diet and consistent tank lighting. I know it sounds weird, maybe. While I work a regular 40hr work week, I am still rarely ever home. I come home maybe every 3-5 days to clean the tanks and refill the auto feeder (that works very well) but I usually leave the light off and let the tanks be lit by natural light from the two windows in my room. I do this because I feel it is better to just have what natural light they can get and that be it than be light for 3-5 days which raises the tank temperature and doesn't give them at least a slight day/night schedule.

Either way I feel I could have avoided this, but I'm not giving up hope on the rest of my team. Which, I also think I've been too busy to update everyone on which is I have 2 unidentified garden snails which I believe had babies, because I have 2 small baby snails that I can only see when they want to be seen. Also I still have my Goldie (the yellow apple snail baby, named after the character from Sin City). And of course Swanson is still around, bless his little betta soul for putting up with my shit.

I'm so so sorry, I feel like shit.

[snail-mama]

I'm sorry to hear about your snails, bud.

Thanks bud, i appreciate it. They're in a better place now.