Growing algae for nerites

pik01

pik01

AC Members
Sep 28, 2008
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San Jose, California
Hornsby, my Clithon corona, doesn't seem to take to the fresh veggies as much as my brig pigs do, and I thought I would try and intentionally grow algae on rocks for him to eat. Currently I have a handful of 2-4" rocks in a small bucket of water sitting under a 6500k 15 watt CFL for 12 hours a day. I sprinkled some fish flakes into the water. Any idea how long it will take to grow some nice (normally completely unwanted) algae for Hornsby to eat?

Are there any improvements I can make to the algae culturing setup? I really have no idea how much it will take to sustain him, plus a few more nerites that are soon arriving. Should I get a bigger bucket? Bigger and/or more rocks?
 
Introduce some algae from your established tanks to quickly obtain algal growth. The trouble with nerites is they prefer algae more than anything else so it's down to luck to make them eat veggies. I was able to see three nerites eating on a cucumber slice luckily with some diffusas also carrying on with their meal. Get a bigger bucket and more rocks. The more algae supply, the better. A basin is better by the way.
 
Lupin said:
Introduce some algae from your established tanks to quickly obtain algal growth. The trouble with nerites is they prefer algae more than anything else so it's down to luck to make them eat veggies. I was able to see three nerites eating on a cucumber slice luckily with some diffusas also carrying on with their meal. Get a bigger bucket and more rocks. The more algae supply, the better. A basin is better by the way.
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Thanks lupe, but my tank is fairly untouched by algae (only set it up a few days ago since the original one cracked). The plants have been picked clean by the amanos =/

Figures I'd be the only one in the world short on algae.
 
Hmmm...Maybe ask your LFS for some algae loaded rocks. You really need the algae to immediately get some food supply if you don't want to wait for a few more days. I find starting without algae quite a PITA because I can be impatient at times and simply introduced a rock loaded with a fair bit of algal growth and managed to get plenty in 3 days.
 
Are you scared they'll die from not having algae to eat? Because they won't, they'll find other diatoms to eat that you probably aren't seeing. If you keeping giving them a source of spot algae to feast on, you'll end up with a ton of pesky snail eggs on your glass. Be happy that they completed their job and are just doing upkeep to maintain a spotless tank.
 
Yadokari said:
Are you scared they'll die from not having algae to eat? Because they won't, they'll find other diatoms to eat that you probably aren't seeing. If you keeping giving them a source of spot algae to feast on, you'll end up with a ton of pesky snail eggs on your glass. Be happy that they completed their job and are just doing upkeep to maintain a spotless tank.
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thanks for the reassurance, I just don't feel comfortable not seeing it feed very much.
 
My Clithon will eat snail jello made from "first peas" baby food. Have you tried snail jello?
 
You could put some small rocks or pieces of driftwood in a small clear cup (like what bettas come in) filled with water and sit it in a window sill that gets direct sun. The algae will grow fairly quickly this way. You could also use smaller rocks to grow algae on, as single bb clithons, IMO, don't plow through algae. They seem to take their time with it. If you had a little group of these guys though, Your 4" rocks would be just fine.
 
Lol, you saw my back room algae farm
Keep the lights on 24hrs a day, if you have to got to a LFS and ask for a scraping from the underside of a lid, that would be a good seed culture.
Oh BTW your package is in the mail today
 
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