best shrimp? snail?

[deeleywoman]

so, i pretty much felt i was set on what i want to stock once my cycle is complete, but i just can't let go of the desire to have snails in my tank, despite my stronger desire to have shrimp and being told that my shrimp would eat my snails. this is what i had decided on before now:

6 harlequin rasboras
6 white cloud mountain minnows
2 red flame dwarf gourami
3 kuhli loaches
and a handful of ghost or amano shrimp

my tank is a 16 gallon bowfront, 20" wide x 18" tall x 13" deep. half the substrate (the back and along the side panels) is river rock, while the front and middle is gravel for the kuhli loaches. i have two rock-ish lanterns to provide hiding places for the shrimp, both inside and underneath. the back is heavily planted with both fake and real plants; there are some real plants in the gravel, and three balls of marimo as well.

what i'm hoping to find is a shrimp that hopefully won't become food for the gourami or make food out of the snails, and snails that won't become food for anything. (i know that babies are always vulnerable to becoming snacks, and plan to have a small tank in the near future to house any babies or clutches i find- and darwinism isn't necessarily bad, afaic. i'm more focused on keeping the adults alive. any spawn that make it are a bonus.)

i have some pics displaying the environment i've created, if it will help any. (also, the fish types are set. it's the shrimp vs/plus snail thing i'm debating.)

whole tank | bottom portion | view from top | closer shot from top | hidey-hole 1 | hidey-hole 2
(some of the shots look distorted; that's because of the convex front)

thanks! :thm:

edit: i forgot to mention that i will be adding frogbit to the tank once my cycle is complete... doh! i just didn't want to add it now and then kill it with my ammonia dosing.

 

[jackiomy]

Talk to Bethany, she has some beautiful snails for free, just for shipping. And the rule of thumb is 2.5 gallons per snail so 2 would be great in your tank. And you can always take the clutches when they are laid and freeze them and throw them away so you don't have a population explosion. I LOVE my mystery snails.
It was the weirdest thing, I watched one of my ghosties grab a baby ramshorn and pull it out of it's shell and eat it. I didn't realize that they did that. Actually it was fine with me.
What do you mean when you say darwinism isn't bad?

 

[Jellymolly44]

I don't think a shrimp is capable of eating a snail. They don't have strong enough claws to even penetrate through the shell. Things should be fine between the shrimp and snails. I have crayfish and crabs in with my shrimp and they don't even bother the snails. Although there was a funny moment when my crab got his big o claw stuck to my mystery snail's shell.

 

[coach_z]

it looks like your heater is too far above the water. risks overheating/breaking if you have even a little evaporation

 

[deeleywoman]

darwinism- as in the slowest moving or less quick-witted snail/shrimp babies getting eating... that's nature at work as far as i'm concerned.

 

[Hebily]

I think mysteries would be big enough to take care of themselves with ghost shrimp, and I haven't had problems with pearl gourami and shrimp. I would worry about the loaches and snails... from what I hear, they love them... I think full grown mysteries wouldn't have a problem with kuhlis either... really not sure though... couldn't have imagined a ghost shrimp eating a snail...

 

[deeleywoman]

it looks like your heater is too far above the water. risks overheating/breaking if you have even a little evaporation

the heater is fine... there's a line on it indicating the lowest water level level it needs to be in, and that's still a half-inch or so below the water's surface. my tank is down about an inch atm from where i fill it to. i pay careful attention to it.

 

[jackiomy]

I think mysteries would be big enough to take care of themselves with ghost shrimp, and I haven't had problems with pearl gourami and shrimp. I would worry about the loaches and snails... from what I hear, they love them... I think full grown mysteries wouldn't have a problem with kuhlis either... really not sure though... couldn't have imagined a ghost shrimp eating a snail...

It was kinda creepy to watch, I wondered why I had all the empty snail shells on top of the sand. But I don't think they could eat a mystery snail with their little door shut, especially one bigger than a dime. I don't think Kuhlis eat snails either. I remember thinking that I might get some myself. BTW pretty cool tank.

 

[deeleywoman]

i was concerned about mixing snails and loaches, but when i opened a thread about that, i was more than assured that kuhlis wouldn't bother them.

 

[Lupin]

I don't think a shrimp is capable of eating a snail. They don't have strong enough claws to even penetrate through the shell. Things should be fine between the shrimp and snails. I have crayfish and crabs in with my shrimp and they don't even bother the snails. Although there was a funny moment when my crab got his big o claw stuck to my mystery snail's shell.

Our experiences will always vary. What species are all your crustaceans? Fiddlers are not predatory hence they are unlikely to attack anything. As for the shrimp not penetrating the snail, I would think the actual ghost shrimps don't but there are many species labeled as ghost shrimps which turn out to be otherwise. A lot of these false ghost shrimps are predatory in nature.

I think mysteries would be big enough to take care of themselves with ghost shrimp, and I haven't had problems with pearl gourami and shrimp. I would worry about the loaches and snails... from what I hear, they love them... I think full grown mysteries wouldn't have a problem with kuhlis either... really not sure though... couldn't have imagined a ghost shrimp eating a snail...

Pearl gouramis are fine but not the dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia). These wimps are very obnoxious and can easily harass the snails. Kuhlis are absolutely fine with snails. There are exceptions in most rules. Dojos, kuhlis and hillies shouldn't pose too many issues.