absolutangel04
Daphnia are People Too.
I currently have diatoms in a tank with nerites, and in my case, they don't like to eat it. I had ottos in one tank who gorged on it (and typically are fine a betta), but I am not sure if that always happens. The nerites don't touch the diatoms on the plants or decor. I am actually going to put a rubberlip pleco in there I think (or trade out a bnp from a different tank), but whatever I put in there will be for looks and my enjoyment and I expect to do a lot of supplemental feeding.Thank you for all that Angel! That's exactly the sort of summary I was looking for. And thanks especially for understanding that I'm not trying to avoid cleaning, I'm just really curious.
I do have one question - does anyone eat diatoms? Especially a someone a betta might be ok with, at least for a little while? His tank is super yucky with brown algae, I know everyone said leave it and it'll go away ... It did completely flake off the ornaments (where it first grew) but now it's going gangbusters on the glass. I keep reading "once the silica is gone" but I used sand in there, and I don't know much about much bit it seems to me there'd be tons of silica in sand.
Betta Bob, in his little tank, does seem more peaceful than his predecessor who bit the snail's antennae off. Also that pair was in a 1 gallon back before I knew better. I'm very tempted to drop my smaller snail in there under close supervision for a little while, then put him back in the big tank when it's cleaner. Those snails are definitely more "dirty" than a betta, I learned that the hard way.
Also, bettas generally do not play well with mystery snails in the long term. You will of course hear lots of people tell you that it worked for them, and it can work. But, bettas tend to pester the mystery snails and bite off their optical stocks and antennae in many cases. The bonus of nerites is that they pretty much stay in their shell, thus exhibiting a less tempting target for the betta (or any other potentially nippy fish).
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