critter to eat snail eggs

[Jay_S]

Ok here is the question. Is there a tank inhabitant that will clean the eggs that nerite snails leave around?

My tank is a 20 long. substrate is the black carrib sea eco complete gravel for growing plants. the lighting is a fluval aquasky *the color changable one*. the filter is a marineland penguine 350 with a course black sponge on the intake as a pre filter *and too keep critters from getting hurt on over volume intake*. and a cheapo preset 78 degree heater.

the living occupants of the tank are
3 marimo balls
1 package of bulb water lilly onion and some third kind of bulbed plant. all unsprouted so far
1 red "half moon" betta named "fish"
And depending on fishes appitite there will be 20 - 40 ghost shrimp *paleomontes* and or red or orange colored neocardina - or cardina davidi
and in the future some zebra danio's *the purple and green colored ones*

So with that said I am looking for is if there is a critter who would eat the egg sacks of the nirite snails that i plan to put in. I don't like the idea of having to spend alot of time manually ceaning and scraping eggs off of every thing. Yes I know this makes me lazy but my goal in this tank is in this order;
number A have a happy home for fish.
letter 2 a visually appealing view for me
thirdly not have to over due the maintenance and by that i am talking weekly water changes light gravel vaccuming and glass cleaning

so that is my question and if nerites snails don't fit in to that i'm totally ok with it i will puick up some rabbit snails *orange 2* *black 2 *

below is pics of my tank sorry they are crappy my phone camera suck trust me it is more clear and viberant in person.


View attachment 217759 View attachment 217759 View attachment 217760 View attachment 217759 View attachment 217760 View attachment 217761

 

[tanker]

I do not think Nerite snails can breed in fresh water.

 

[Tifftastic]

Sone people say that nerite snails will lay a lot of unfertilised eggs. I've never personally experienced this. But I also think, from watching my betta eat small ramshorn snails, thar he and the zebra fish may pick at eggs.

 

[Jay_S]

yeah but do ya suppose that he'd be able to keep up with them? if they hatched and he was able to eat them it would be one thing but i've seen pics of nerite snail eggs in aquaria and nope not appealing. with that said is thier another snail that would do the sme job as nerite and mabey breed enough to support an assasan snail population? I 've been researching them and seems tha they eat left over protine ritch food like the betas.

basically I know i've only got around a half to three qurtes of a cubic yard of tank and it's too small for a true aquatic enviroment with out an out side hand in it however a certain level of mutualness

you know?

 

[Kannan Fodder]

My BN pair readily eat any fish food that makes it to the bottom of the tank. They forage the tank, and I don't have any algae, but they love Tetra crisps, algae wafers, bottom feeder pellets, brine shrimp, bloodworms, etc.

 

[Tifftastic]

If you don't wanna deal with too many offspring or eggs, I would just skip snails all together. I always love rubber lip plecos, they're like the BNs but have super huge lips and it's kind of adorable.
I've never had a problem with my nerites laying eggs, so I don't know if a betta could keep up. I expect my lizard cats and tetras took care of the egg problem before I could notice it was there.

 

[Aquaticfrog32]

Yep, If you really don't want to do it, skip it. I think that your fish might eat the eggs. From my experience, fish eat anything they think is even slightly edible. Ha, like my dog.

 

[Jay_S]

If you don't wanna deal with too many offspring or eggs, I would just skip snails all together. I always love rubber lip plecos, they're like the BNs but have super huge lips and it's kind of adorable.
I've never had a problem with my nerites laying eggs, so I don't know if a betta could keep up. I expect my lizard cats and tetras took care of the egg problem before I could notice it was there.

I don't mind dealing with off spring *i've kept mollies* but having to up root plants and decorations to razor blade off eggs that don't hatch. i'd be game with a bunch of snails that reproduce like mad. and throw in some assasin snails and let them balance out. as long as it is safe for the betta. just like i'm fine with having shrimp in the tank even if the betta eats some of them. but i'm not game for cleaning that.

btw not looking for a pleco or other "bottom dewelling fish" since floor space is owned by the shrimp betta and plants/ decorations etc. it would get uncomfortable for them no?

 

[Kannan Fodder]

Yup, that picture is exactly what happened when I added nerites to the 46bow. The fish didn't touch the eggs, and the betta wouldn't eat the eggs in his tank either. None of the fish at work eat the eggs either. This is why I stick with ramshorns and pond snails, and something in my tanks is eating them because the pond snails are actually disappearing. In fact, there are actually no pond snails left in my 180 except for the few in the sump.

My BNs got along fine with the ghost shrimp in my 29g. The tank is heavily planted with plenty of hiding places, including mopani wood for the BNs to poke around. I'd see shrimp and my male BN sharing the cave, and the shrimp would also climb all over the wisteria. My male BN does love the Tetra crisps, so he does chase everything away from his favorite feeding area at feeding time.

 

[Tifftastic]

Having the shrimp there shouldn't bother a small pleco in terms of space.
If you want snails though, I'd go with ramshorns. They'd be easier for an assassin snail to keep up with, plus they're cute. The betta will also likely eat a few of the smaller ones and if you don't over feed they won't explode in population.