Snails VS Algea Eaters

[bugaboo]

Hi, I have been reading this forum for a few days now and noticed quite a few people here have snails. I have two 10 gallon and one 5 gallon and all of them have Chinese algea eaters in them since the tanks do receive a lot of sun light. I have noticed that the 5 gallon resident has been chasing the male swordtail lately so I researched this algea eater. I didn't like what I found. All three have been in their tanks for over a year now with no problem up until now but I am now having second thoughts about having them at all. Should I trade them in for a snail for each tank? The only problem I have about snails is they give me the creeps because I see them as slugs with houses and I worry about the tanks being over run with them. Can one turn into many? I do have live plants along with silk plants in all the tanks. Other than the nasty facts I found on those algea eaters, I have had these tanks up and running for 3 plus years with no problems or fish loss. All of them would be considered overstocked but I do weekly water changes with bi-weekly gravel cleaning and weekly water testing that are always good. The tanks are all community and the fish (other than the algea eater and female beta's) have all been in there for 2-3 years. OK, as I am typing I looked over and noticed my female sword is giving birth.

I do like the way these algea eaters keep the tanks clean but in the long run, would it be better to switch to the snails and would the snails do as good of a job as these algea eaters? If I get snails, do they also eat the algea wafers that I feed the algea eaters? Or since the two algea eaters in the ten gallons aren't bothering the other fish should I keep them and then move the one from the 5 gallon into the 29 gallon after it completes its cycling? I just set that up 3 days ago and am doing a fishless cycle on it.

I am assuming that these algea eaters are now full grown since they are all over a year old. They look to be about 4 inches in length.

Sorry this is so long. I would appreciate any all advice or information on what to do regarding snails vs algea eaters.

The female beta's (all are babies right now) are eventually going to go into their own tank.


Thanks in advance,

Char

10 gallon

2 female beta's
1 bronze green cory cat
1 khuli loach
2 white skirt tetra's
2 silver hatchet's
1 head and tail light
1 chinese algea eater

10 gallon

4 neon tetra's
4 head and tail lights
3 female beta's
1 bronze green cory cat
1 chinese algea eater

5 gallon

1 chinese algea eater
1 many-spotted cory cat
1 male swordtail
1 female swordtail
1 khuli loach
2 female beta's

4- 2 gallon tanks each with a male beta

1 29 gallon cycling

[born2lovefish]

In my opinion snails are worthless. They have very tiny mouths and they do not eat that much, however, they will make a feast of your live plants. The chinese algae eaters do a ok job. I just bought three 3inch ones and they seem eat a little algae. My pleco is smaller than just one of the chinese and he cleans up my tank way better. The chinese algae eaters will dart around the tank and if you ever want to move them to a different tank you will have a hard time netting them. The pleco is calm and you can net them fairly easily. Hope this helped.

[Lobo.]

while many snails eat live plants, pond snails and mts dont, and yes individually, they are worthless, but they are group feeders, eating the algie off of every nook and cranny in the tank. i have what some may call a snail problem, with maybe 50 snails in my tank (30 gallons) or more.but i have placed several different species of snails in my tanks, they compete and the mts will even eat a snail occationally (the mts are very cool looking anyways while the others are boring), the only problem i have is with any snail that is ramshorn size or bigger, these snails can and will eat live plants, but i have indian fern that is rampant and i depend on my ramshorn to 'prune it'.

also if your tanks have been fine for such a long time, why change what is doing so well? but yes the snails (if you get the small ones and have enough of them, which you will if you feed them algie wafers) will do just as good as the fish, but the fish are probably more interesting. id stick to them

also your sig is a lil long... you might want to place that info in your personal page, or only show it when you start a thread :OT:

[DeRo316]

bristlenose plecos seem to be the best cleaners that I have found + they dont get that big so you can keep them in smaller aquariums. They clean better than all the other plecos Ive had and way better than snails.

[bugaboo]

Thank you all for the replies. I believe I will do what Lobo suggested and stay with what is working. I will keep my eye on the guy in the smaller tank and move him if he becomes more aggressive towards the male swordtail. I did start to get worried when I saw that with age, they tend to get aggresive and can start eating the slim off the other fish.

Lobo, sorry for the confusion with the signature, actually I don't have one. I put that info as an after thought in case someone reading might see that there could be a potential problem with the algea eater with any of the fish I have. I should have put that above my name. When I come up with a signature I promise to have it short and sweet, LOL.

Thank you all again,

Char

[RTR]

CAEs are fairly good algae grazers when yong, but with maturity they shift to higher protein diets. If you consider them temporary fish and can trade them in, they are fine. Otherwise you may end up with one CAE in each tank, and nothing else. Solitary adults do well - with a richer diet than algae of course, and might like a bit larger tank than yours.

[RockabillyChick]

CAEs are very agressive as adults, and can grow to about 5-6 inches. a better option would be a few otocinclus catfish. they stay small, are very peaceful, and are wonderful algae eaters.

[Aqualung]

In your case, it would be a good idea to remove the CAE's. Your tanks are very heavily stocked and CAE's are a bad fit for your tanks, not to mention the other negative qualities of those fish. If you feel that you must have algae eaters of some sort, then snails are definitely your best bet.