oh I'm glad things turn out fine with them.
People said their eggs could be annoying but their hardwork far outweigh their drawbacks. The eggs only can hatch in brackish if I'm not wrong.
mike.d wrote: ↑Thu Nov 23, 2017 5:56 pm
The reason I'm looking for snails is my tank has a ton of algae. I probably have 75-100 opae in a 10 gallon and they just can't keep up. I'm hoping the snails will balance things out a bit.
The way to best balance things out if you're having such an algae problem is to stop feeding until all the algae is gone or very little is left. A nerite snail doesn't treat the root cause it just treats the symptoms of the problem. And as I always say, the brackish water snails here (T. granifera, M. tuberculata) are perfect as they have similar requirements to Supershrimp and won't compete with them for food like nerites do.
I haven't fed anything since I set up the tank in June. But I do have a fairly strong LED light. So far the nerites haven't been able to keep up with the algae either aithough they are making a dent. When I put them in I had almost 100% coverage with algae on all the glass, except for a bit I scraped off with the last top-off. Now it's about 33% coverage on the glass with algae still on the gravel and some on the rocks and some floating on top. I can see the glass starting to cloud again where they had cleaned and there are clear nerite tracks in it.
If the nerites end up cleaning it too much (or they start multiplying) my plan is to drop them in my cichlid tank and buy some of your snails. I really like the look of the zebra nerites and I'm guessing I got 2 males, since I don't see any eggs. Right now I'm liking the balance: Shrimp, some algae, nerites...
So glad things are working out for you mike.d.
Oh I have an extra tank too, im thinking the same that if they clean too much of it, I will throw them in another tank .
I bought another female for my nerite. She is decorating her eggs all over. Funny though, some of the eggs are gone, as if it was scratched off?
I sometimes saw 1 or 2 of them picking on those eggs.
I wonder if opae ula eat them, I might want to crush those eggs to see if they would come and munch it.
mike.d wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2018 9:09 am
Thanks MrsT. I really appreciate your nerite suggestion. I would not have known about them had it not been for your responses in this topic.
Are you saying your shrimp are eating the nerite eggs? That would be interesting.
You are welcome mike.d, I dare not suggest you purchase more than 1 but since you have extra tank then I'm guessing you are able to handle them fine .
Yes I'm suspecting my opae ula eat nerite eggs.
I have seen them kept picking on the eggs. I read somewhere that they actually consume a lot of stuff ..biofilm, algae, dirt, bacteria, bloodworm, crushed snail eggs. I've to experiment it when I have the time. Later I will attach a gif here to show you a nerite egg (i assumed its an empty shell) loosely floating around.
I'll be back later.
I thought I read somewhere that nerites will breed in brackish. But not if the shrimp get to them first! Great video. That's encouraging. At least you won't have a lot of egg rings on your hardscape.
mike.d wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2018 8:51 pm
I thought I read somewhere that nerites will breed in brackish. But not if the shrimp get to them first! Great video. That's encouraging. At least you won't have a lot of egg rings on your hardscape.
strange right? But incase they do hatch they unable to survive long, they need salt water to survive certain period.
Anyway I'm ok either way , if they really survive in my tank i would probably sell them off later but i am equally happy if the shrimps eat them.
I will take a test next time to see if the shrimps come munching it when I crush them.