View Full Version : 3 Quick question
Nightmare10
04-17-2003, 2:15 PM
I have a tank right now, obviously ........... with a bunch of chiclids in it and a ton of live plants. Now the problem i am running into is that i have a very slight algea build up and i am going to put some ramshorn snails in the tank. My three questions are:
1) I have read that these types of snails will not eat the plants, is this true or are people lying to me?
2) I have heard the certain fish will eat ramshorn snails or at least pick at them, is this true and if so are chiclids one of those "certain fish" and how much should i be concerned?
3) If i can't put ramshorn snails in the tank, then what type of algea controllers should i put?
Thanks for the info.
Nightmare
ChilDawg
04-17-2003, 2:19 PM
Your cichlids are likely to mess with snails, but we would need to know what types of cichlids they are first.
Ramshorn snails don't often eat plants...but they'll climb all over them to eat the algae which is on them.
We would need a lot more info about the tank and its current inhabitants to be able to tell you more.
Yup fish sizes and the tank size would be helpful and amount of fish and snails as well if possible.
Nightmare10
04-17-2003, 2:26 PM
30g tank
5 chiclids (just added 2 new ones)
None are bigger than 1.5"
30 Ramshorn snails (got them for $4)
Nightmare10
04-17-2003, 2:35 PM
to be honest, i really don't remember off the top of my head
I know one was a fire belly and one was a ram, but the others were in a store which had all chiclids in one tank and they said to point and pick. They weren't individually labled.
ChilDawg
04-17-2003, 2:36 PM
The Firemouth will probably go nuts on the snails if he gets hungry.
Nightmare10
04-17-2003, 2:40 PM
but is that the only one i will have to worry about? and is it only if he gets hungry?
ChilDawg
04-17-2003, 2:41 PM
I cannot tell you if that is the only one about which you would have to worry because we don't have IDs for all the fish in your tank. Looking back, the biggest worry is some of those cichlids in a planted tank. However, I have heard of FMs eating snails, and I don't know if they would do it only if hungry or just for something to do and eat at any given opportunity (my apologies for posting the hunger thing...sometimes fish just out and out kill and eat because it's possible).
Nightmare10
04-17-2003, 2:48 PM
Well, i guess the only way to find out is to try. Thanks for the advice and hopefully i won't have a masacre.
Sumpin'fishy
04-17-2003, 3:00 PM
Even if your fish do go to town on your snails, they probably won't knock out 30 snails at one time......Add them at night with the lights out so they can spread out and hide! Your Snails may be able to procreate fast enough to keep up with periodic losses....maybe not. If they can't keep up with the fish eating them, who cares....you got 30 fish who will work at your algae until they become free delicacies for your fish! What a bargain! That's what my idea was with adding Ghost Shrimp to my cichlid tank. They would go to town on them and kill every one they saw the first day (I added them in full daylight too). The few that would survive the first day would slowly be dwindled down to nothing.....the whole time cleaning up my substrate of extra food! Sometimes I'd find them when doing a serious tank cleaning.....several weeks later!
AWESOME deal!