New member has question

[Bigguy]

Hello all. new member from Nebraska with questions about Snails.
I have several tanks with cichlids in each. question is, what type of Snails can I put in each tank, hopefully all differant Snails, and will my cichlids get along with them. or, do I just put another tank together with a lot of differant Snails and Shrimp in it.
Thanks
Bigguy

[Lupin]

Glad to see you posted them in the right forum, Bigguy.:thumbsup:

What species are these cichlids? You might want to choose your snails carefully as most snails are very vulnerable to attacks particularly the apple snails. I keep apple snails, trumpets, ramshorns, assassins and nerites myself although a few others keep more snails than I do.

The other thing you need to make sure is you have the right pH preferably no lower than 7.4. Hardness levels should not be too low as well which otherwise will cause the pH to dive and erode their shells badly. Acidic water erodes their shells very badly. You can maintain high pH by using calcium carbonate. This is accomplished by adding crushed corals, crushed seashells, limestones or aragonite. Adding calcium enriched foods in their diet also helps a lot.

If you hope to get a tank just for snails, certainly, you can. You could mix the apples, nerites, trumpets and ramshorns altogether but with ramshorns and nerites, you might want to make sure they get adequate supply of algae. Nerites in particular are extremely tricky to supplement prefering nothing but algae. Apples will eat just about anything as well as the MTS.

See this thread for links to foods that we give to our snails.:)
Freshwater Invertebrates- FAQ sticky (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189718)

Check this link for snail database. It also includes some crabs, shrimps and crayfish. It is not complete yet but we continue working on that.
FW Inverts Profiles (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168438)

Hope this helps!

[martineargent]

Hi Bigguy,

Well dude, Both the options are correct in their respective stand. You can keep them together or separately as it doesn't matter in any case. But to look different,You can keep different snails in one tank. All you have to rearrange in good manner as it is very simple task.

Thanks

[1oooop]

I'd research the snails I want and ask if they're compatible with the type of cichlids I'm keeping...

[excuzzzeme]

Cichlids enjoy the taste of snails. Many cichlids will eat snails rather quickly. I keep my snails in a snail/shrimp tank for that very reason. I personally enjoy having a tank dedicated to them as it enhances their chance of survival.