Feeding Algae to Snails.

[swankyspoon]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for all of your help so far!

I have a 10 g tank with 4 guppies and 1 ruby nerite snail. My tank does not have a lot of algae, so I bought all vegetable algae discs to feed the snail.

The only thing is that the snail doesn't show a lot of interest in the algae discs. I will put him/her on it and keep the guppies away but the snail will move off the disc and suck on the rocks. The guppies are show a lot more interest in the algae than the snail!

Should I assume my snail is getting enough food off the rocks?

 

[siva]

Nerites can be very difficult to supplement. Possibly the most difficult algae eater that I have personally kept. I wouldn't expect it to eat wafers or veggies. Some may though, so it can't hurt to try. And it's fine for your guppies too, they are omnivores. As long as the tank was matured for a bit before you added the nerite, it should provide enough algae for it to survive on.

 

[swankyspoon]

Okay. Thanks. I will let the Nerite do his/her thing. The tank has been set up for 16 months or so, so I guess that's established, and we started it as a guppy tank three weeks ago.

 

[bruinsbro1997]

IME my nerites only and will only eat algae. They cleared off three rocks that had algae for a year on them in a day. I would say that's all they like.

 

[GTFCTIM]

You could put some rocks in a glass container with tank water in, and leave it in a window that gets a lot of sun. Then after around a week the rocks will be covered in nice green algae and you can put them in the main tank.

If you have enough rocks you can swap old for new and have a constant supply of green rocks.