Snail Question
- Thread starter Dwohlge1
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
mfdrookie516
Aquarium Free - 2+ Years
No, snails have a very small bioload.
neilanh
Sliced Bread
agree, go nuts. Snails won't affect much of anything.
I agree. The only issue is that if you go overboard, there may not be enough food source to support them and a dead snail will foul your water. You can always supplement with algae wafers, veggies, etc. but then you run the risk of overfeeding and fouling the water. Stock gradually and conservatively until you know the balance of your tank. Inverts will do better generally in a more established tank that has had time to accumulate film and algaes. How long has your tank been set up?
Mr. Limpet
Aquarium Advice Addict
Dwohlge1 said:
Snails are great to watch, I have a Apple (mystery) snail in with my fancies, but its clean up ability is limited. When I added a second dark shelled Apple, my first one made a beeline for him and it looked like it was trying to pull it out of its shell. He got rehomed to quickly, so be aware.
Mr. Limpet
Aquarium Advice Addict
siva said:Mr Limpet do you think they were mating? Mine do that
You think? Seemed more like a territorial thing since the apple snail has been in there for a long time, but I've never had 2 snails at once.
Mr. Limpet
Aquarium Advice Addict
Dwohlge1 said:
So you're cycling with fish? You should read up on "cycling with fish" in here.
I recently got 6 and put the 4 purples in one tank and the 2 magenta in another. I don't know how to sex them yet but I'm hoping they will breed. The purples are always all wound up together..sometimes one is all hanging out of it's shell..no one ever seems hurt and I've never heard of them being aggresive towards eachother. I just assumed it was mating *shrug*
I have read a lot of information on cyclying with fish on this site. I wish I would have found this site before I bought my tank/fish. Fishless cycling is the way to go. Cylcing with fish is so much work, I can't wait for it to be over.
Mr. Limpet
Aquarium Advice Addict
Dwohlge1 said:
Just gotta keep up with the PWC and testing (liquid?) till you get cycled.
Good luck!
Shadowraven
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Really I always thought snails had a large bio-load. Especially apple snails. I have a crap ton of snails so that's a relief
They do have a large bioload, for a snail. But it's still pretty minimal... unless they die. Several of them will do no harm, but they will need more than detritus to eat if you don't want them to starve. I've made that mistake before myself.
Be sure to feed them some decent sinking food so they can find it. That should keep them in top form.
Shadowraven said:
Do they make food for snails? I would prefer them self sustaining. I may just add one or two more over the next month after my tank is cycled. I noticed mine likes to hang out on the live plants? Is it feeding on them?
dkpate
Aquarium Advice Addict
When I feed my mystery, I put the wafer in the very corner of the tank, take her from wherever she is, and set her right next to it. She has learned to guard her wafer very well from the bratty betta. She wraps her foot around it, to where only her mouth is able to get inside her foot where she has it.
She wraps her foot around it, to where only her mouth is able to get inside her foot where she has it.
Shadowraven
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Any sinking food should do, snails aren't too picky. I imagine that dkpate is referring to algae wafers.
These kinds of food are readily available at your LFS.
These kinds of food are readily available at your LFS.
Oh, well I alternate between sinking pellets and flakes. Do smails provide cleanup for these type of food as well?
Nope, I don't think so. I have some snails in a bare bottom tank right now and if uneaten flake is sitting at the bottom, the snails do not clean it up. They go right for algea wafers though. They are just algea eaters from what I can tell
How long have you had the snail? Are you still seeing algea in the tank? If after having the snail for a month or so you are still seeing algea in the tank than add another. If 2 take care of all the algea then I wouldn't add more. If you have the right snail to algea ratio you should be fine without worrying about supplement feeding. Really, with any algea eater, you should throw a wafer in there at least sometimes though, to make sure they are getting enough. They should be plant safe. If you think they are damaging your plants than you definitely need to be supplementing them with wafers.
