A few weeks ago, we bought some snails to deal with a brown algae problem we had been fighting for months. I went to the LFS with the intention of getting a couple of nerites. We have a 27 gallon cube and when I discussed it with the guy at the store, he told me he had a dozen in his 25 gallon tank. I figured we would start with half of that and see whether we needed more. I also fell in love with the Mystery Snails in the adjacent tank. Purple shells and white bodies (with neon orange eyes!)...they were so beautiful that I bought two of them as well.
Our new invert buddies seem to be doing well so far. The nerites cleaned up the algae in three days and our tank looks sparkling clean now. And the Mystery Snails? Well, let's just say that they are starting to freak me out. I'd estimate that they have doubled in size in the short time we have had them in our tank. The small one's shell is about an inch in diameter and the big one is twice that size. I measured it's foot as it was scooting across the glass the other day and it was 2.5" long! I've been supplementing their diet with algae wafers, since we don't seem to have any naturally occurring algae in the tank anymore. Our water is super hard (natural pH well over 8), so I haven't put cuttlebone or anything in the tank. Their shells look just a bit ragged on the surface in the new growth area but they seem pretty solid. The "ragged" bits look like a thin film peeling off the surface in patches
My concern is whether we have too much snail for our tank right now. Are these guys hungry?? Or is their crazy growth spurt a sign that they're happy? We don't have very many fish right now (just one Dwarf Blue Gourami with possible iridovirus and a small school of Harlequin Rasboras), so we don't have very much waste at the bottom of the tank. Are the snails going to get desperate and start snacking on their tankmates? I caught the bigger Mystery Snail attached to the smaller one a few days ago. Not sure whether they were copulating or cannibalizing but I pulled them apart, just in case.
So, anyone care to give me some suggestions? Anything I should watch for? Should I be thinking about re-homing one of these slimy beauties before it gets munched?
Our new invert buddies seem to be doing well so far. The nerites cleaned up the algae in three days and our tank looks sparkling clean now. And the Mystery Snails? Well, let's just say that they are starting to freak me out. I'd estimate that they have doubled in size in the short time we have had them in our tank. The small one's shell is about an inch in diameter and the big one is twice that size. I measured it's foot as it was scooting across the glass the other day and it was 2.5" long! I've been supplementing their diet with algae wafers, since we don't seem to have any naturally occurring algae in the tank anymore. Our water is super hard (natural pH well over 8), so I haven't put cuttlebone or anything in the tank. Their shells look just a bit ragged on the surface in the new growth area but they seem pretty solid. The "ragged" bits look like a thin film peeling off the surface in patches
My concern is whether we have too much snail for our tank right now. Are these guys hungry?? Or is their crazy growth spurt a sign that they're happy? We don't have very many fish right now (just one Dwarf Blue Gourami with possible iridovirus and a small school of Harlequin Rasboras), so we don't have very much waste at the bottom of the tank. Are the snails going to get desperate and start snacking on their tankmates? I caught the bigger Mystery Snail attached to the smaller one a few days ago. Not sure whether they were copulating or cannibalizing but I pulled them apart, just in case.
So, anyone care to give me some suggestions? Anything I should watch for? Should I be thinking about re-homing one of these slimy beauties before it gets munched?