How many Nerite Snails in a 10g Tank?

[hansen6]

Hi guys,

Hansen from Singapore here =) I recently got about 30 opae ula from 2 local breeders and have set up a 10g tank to put them in. I would like to know how many snails could fit in comfortably, such that I do not need to use any kind of filter. I currently have about 5 nerite snails, 2 bigger ones and 3 smaller ones and I'm worried if they produce too much waste I will have to add some kind of sponge filter. Thanks!

By the way, will the snail/shrimp poop decompose over time or do I have to suck it out with some kind of gravel filter?

[Mustafa]

Hi Hansen,

Welcome to the forum!

I recently got about 30 opae ula from 2 local breeders

Even *2* local breeders? Are you sure they are breeding them (i.e. did you actually see their breeding tanks with larvae floating around, and young shrimp?). I'm just picking this up because it bugs me when people claim that they are "breeding" shrimp, when almost every time such a claim is made they simply imported some (mostly illegally) wild-caught shrimp and sell them as "captive-bred." "I'm breeding these shrimp" or "these are captive-bred" are a very common claims that people who sell these shrimp use all over the world.

In any case, I would not recommend nerite snails for various reasons. One reason is that they have very voracious appetites, so you may end up with a completely "clean" (of algae) tank. They also leave hundreds of eggs all over the glass, which can obscure the view. What I use are mostly Tarebia granifera, and some Tuberculata melanoides. Having said that, if you must use nerites, I would put in only one. At most two.

[hansen6]

HI Mustafa,

Thanks for replying! I did not actually see the larvae floating in the tanks but according to the breeders they bought their shrimps online a year ago and the latter have been reproducing pretty decently so they have excess to sell. However it is possible that perhaps they have bought these shrimps from other online sources that catch wild shrimp. I wish i came across this site earlier but by the time I started reading the forums I had already gotten the shrimp.

By the way, since I do not keep a sponge filter or any kind of bubbling device in the tank, the top is quite still and a biofilm kind of thing has formed, kind of like an transparent oil slick. Is there any way to remove/prevent this?

[Mustafa]

By the way, since I do not keep a sponge filter or any kind of bubbling device in the tank, the top is quite still and a biofilm kind of thing has formed, kind of like an transparent oil slick. Is there any way to remove/prevent this?

Hello Hansen,

You can't really prevent it. And you probably don't want to prevent it as that biofilm is part of your shrimp's nutrition. The biofilm is actually alive and the shrimp feed on it once in a while (or constantly, if your population gets large enough). You can actually use the biofilm on the water surface and the biofilm on the glass and other surfaces (i.e. algae, cyanobacteria, diatoms, bacterial colonies etc.) as an indicator for when to feed. Every two weeks generally works, but the shrimp may not even need food that frequently if you have lots of surface film and other biofilm growing in the tank. If you don't feed for a while the biofilm actually starts getting thinner and eventually disappears. That's when you start feeding again, at the latest (when it disappears).