Snails...

[melissa1977]

I am almost done planting my tank... finally.
I ve adjusted the light level to 2.1 W per gallons on my 20 g high tank ... as per Rex advise...

I ve just introduced some dwarfs bacopa in my tank. I did not sanitized them before putting them in my tank, i was scared of damaging them.

Now there is some little snails (about 1/16 an inch) watering around the bottom of my tank (about 2 as of now). There is no fish yet in the tank. Im planning on getting a figure 8 puffer, some glassfish and couple of bumblebbe gobys (slightly brackish tank).

I really don t mind the snails, I actually find them cute. The only thing that is starting to scare me is that i read that some species could be plant eater. Does anybody knows if the snails usually introduced in the tank by plants are the one eating them

Otherwise my Puffer would most probably end up eating them... But still, im getting scared for my plants.

Thank you

Melissa

 

[melissa1977]

I forgot to ask another question...

I have some little green algae on two branches of my dwarf bacopa i ve just introduced yesterday. Should I take them out of my tank or just leave them there hoping for the algae to vanish ??

 

[Lance M.]

The snails that come with the plants don't eat plants. Many people think they do so they just get rid of them. They are very cool scavengers that will multipy very quicky if you overfeed or there is an abundance of food for them. Some bigger snails that don't eat plants are Japanese Trapdoor snails. I had four of them but one died and I found out yesterday he'd been replaced by a baby trapdoor. These snails are very cool. They are nocturnal and will burrow into the substrate during the day. They will not multipy rapidly since they reproduce sexually instead of other snails, including the ones that come with the plants, that reproduce asexually. They are also livebearer snails, so there won't be clumps of eggs on your plants.

You could probably just take out the bacopa and scrape off the algae or let the snails eat it.

 

[Lance M.]

O and I don't thing glass catfish are compatible with that puffer and the gobies. Glasscats are slightly sensitive to water conditions and I don't think they will go in brackish water, I might be wrong. Anyway I know you will have to have a group of around seven at least. It must have the company of its own kind. and they get about three inches long.

 

[melissa1977]

Thank you for the informations...

I want to get glassfish not cat glassfish. It s those ones that are painted sometimes... I don t want any painted one of course !!! It s so sad that people make these little creatures suffer that way.

 

[vega]

maybe you want to REALLY to think twice b4 getting a puffer. they are more suitable for single species tank. they also prefer live food.

 

[melissa1977]

Im aware of that.

That s what I like about puffer fish. I really like their look and personality 8) . They are fascinating little fishes.

I read a lot and asked questions to several different person about their experience.
I decided to raise my own snails to feed my puffer !!

I know for a fact that bumblebee gobys are compatible with puffer fish (to a certain extend) as for the glassfish im pretty sure they will be ok since my tank is heavily planted (lots of hiding places).

I will start by introducing the puffer... couple of weeks later I will add a couple of bumble goby and I will see how thing are going. If everything is going good I will add a school of glassfish.

I pretty sure things will be ok.

Thank you for your concern it is really nice of you.

 

[marcus russo]

From my experience the glasfish even the non painted ones do ok in brackish but are highly suseptable to ick

 

[melissa1977]

marcus ...
How could I prevent this from happening to my glassfish ??

 

[marcus russo]

Well you already have the main problem fixed if you are going brackish. The only other problem i see is them getting bullied by the puffer which the stress can cause them to have a lowered immunity which in turn would increase their suseptabilty to contacting ick and other diseases.