5g snail tank

[austinpetemo]

im tired of looking at my 5hex having algae in it. i think im gonna take my multifaciatus fry out of it, sell them, and load it up with every snail i can find at my lfs. let it sit for a few weeks until i cant see walls cuz theres so many, and than buy a handful of assassins. ideas?

 

[jackiomy]

Well, first, Assassins generally won't eat briggs. Second, what are you going to feed the assassins after the snails are gone if they DO eat them. And I don't think briggs are going to make a big dent in your algae. You would be better off doing it the old fashioned way and clean it manually.

 

[bazil323]

Yeah. Jackiomy makes good points.

If you want something to actually clear your algae, why don't you try a nerite snail? You'd only need 1 or 2 for that size tank, and it would probably be completely clear within a couple weeks. Another option is amano shrimp, but I find that my nerites are far more efficient with algae cleaning.

That said, have you tried figuring out why there's algae? It's better to eliminate the things that are making algae grow rather than getting livestock that you don't really want just to clean it up.

 

[austinpetemo]

i dont want brigs. i meant snails as in like, ramshorn, mts, and other snails. and get a huge bunch of them in there and plop in some assassins. and theres algae cuz the fry dont always eat their food. that and theres nothing in there to control, except me cutting down the lights.

 

[NYCguppydude]

Youre talking about a 5 gal. tank right? If you were talking about a 50 gal. tank then YES I would go with your idea cause tearing down and cleaning a large tank is a bit difficult but a 5 gal. COME ON! As already said by Jackiomy just put a little elbow grease into it and as Bazil323 said you should really try to figure out why there is such an algea bloom. And don't say its cause the fry don't eat all their food:nono: You are not paying attention to some water parameter detail or something in my opinion.

 

[PuppyFluffer]

I agree with the above but can also vouch for the efficiency of a nerite to happily munch algae. I have one nerite in a 10 and 3 in a 20 and my glass is never dirty. I actually feed algae wafers to them because I worry that they don't get enough.