...... the snails are only showing what's going on in the tank and should stabilize at a certain population as the tank matures......
Whew! That's a relief. However, you have to admit that, if you have never observed it before, the way the population appears to explode is very alarming.
I have been keeping my eye out for snails since I spotted 'Beasty-001', and they just seemed to magically appear over-night. Getting old, my vision is not good so I didn't really notice them until the larger ones got to a few millimetres long. After spotting the first couple of big ones, when I scanned my plants and habitats for more, I gradually became aware of what looked like an army of very tiny locusts munching on my plants.
To get over my initial shock and alarm: Yesterday, after my post, I went out to Melville to get some more plants for the rock pile that forms the entrance to the caves. [Lanceolata, Coin and Nana] While there, after eight straight days of no nitrites, no nitrates and no water changes, I also treated my tank to 4 black kuhli loaches. Installing the plants and kuhlis gave me a chance to take a really close look at the snails and it is maybe(?) not as bad as I initially thought. Taking a closer look, they are actually different sizes [ages?] So, it is obviously something that has been slowly cooking away for a while and not the impressive example of Malthusian population growth I first feared.
By the way, I overheard a couple of staff talking, and I am now certain that fish from Melvilles' was the source of the snails. (All the more exotic plants I bought on-line came in Tropica 1-2 grow tubs or similarly branded blister packs ... etc)
Irvine