Hello,
Recently there has been a spike in the snail breeding within my tank. I have the snails from Mustafa website. Has anyone else had similar problems with these snails? I really don't want to take any of the snails out as I don't want to kill them but I'm worried it will negatively affect my shrimp. I've had two berried females over the past month (for the first time) and both dropped their eggs and I'm worried it's due to the overpopulation of the snails. What should I do?
Over Populated Snails
Moderator: Mustafa
Re: Over Populated Snails
How often do you feed the tank? In my experience the shrimp outcompete the snails for food and this keeps the snail population from growing too much, provided that you only feed occasionally and no more than the shrimp can finish off in a couple hours.
So the easiest answer should be to decrease how much you are feeding and/or how often. This should inhibit the snails from getting enough food to breed.
As for the females dropping their eggs, its actually pretty normal for the first time supershrimp moms to drop all or most of their eggs, perhaps due to inexperience (though we don't really know). Many users have reported it. They tend to be more successful on their second try, so you probably don't have anything to worry about.
So the easiest answer should be to decrease how much you are feeding and/or how often. This should inhibit the snails from getting enough food to breed.
As for the females dropping their eggs, its actually pretty normal for the first time supershrimp moms to drop all or most of their eggs, perhaps due to inexperience (though we don't really know). Many users have reported it. They tend to be more successful on their second try, so you probably don't have anything to worry about.
Re: Over Populated Snails
Actually I haven't fed them in a couple of months. When I do feed them though it seems as though only the snails eat the food (spirulina powder).
Re: Over Populated Snails
If the shrimp aren't showing interest then it means they are getting plenty of food from the biofilm in the tank itself. With that in mind I wouldn't feed at all for a month or two more, then try and see if the shrimp show more interest. In my tank for instance a feeding brings out basically the whole population for a frenzy of activity that lasts for a few hours.
Tiny pellets may work better than powder as well, as that way you can keep better track of whether the food gets eaten or not. With a powder it may be easy to miss that there are a lot of leftovers. It would also mean that next time you feed you can try just one or two pellets and see if the shrimp show interest. If they swarm the pellets then you can add a few more (depending on your tank's population) and if they don't then you can remove them.
Do you have a lot of visible algae in the tank? Perhaps wait until that substantially decreases before you try to feed again.
Re: Over Populated Snails
There's a lot of algae in the tank but they never seem to eat it, I only ever see them foraging for food on the bottom of the tank in the sand. They're also very active which surprises me as I would expect them to be less active with the abundance of food in there (since they don't have a need to move around and search for food). But in the picture I attached you can see some of the new baby snails that have recently appeared.
Re: Over Populated Snails
Don't do anything about the snails. They'll regulate themselves over time. You do seem to have LOTS of nutrients in your tank judging by the hair algae growth. So, yes, stop feeding...you may not have to feed for months or even year+ judging by that growth. Even that poor algaeball/mossball is overgrown with that hair algae. The snails love snacking on the dying hair algae so that may be another reason why they reproduced so much.
I usually recommend taking out that hair algae altogether. It usually causes nothing but problems. It overgrows everything and shrimp get caught in it and die...especially baby shrimp, but I have seen adults trapped in it too. You want surface growing algae...not hair algae.
I usually recommend taking out that hair algae altogether. It usually causes nothing but problems. It overgrows everything and shrimp get caught in it and die...especially baby shrimp, but I have seen adults trapped in it too. You want surface growing algae...not hair algae.
Re: Over Populated Snails
Hah, you can send me your extra snails, mine seem to be dying off. 
No idea why, the shrimp are happily multiplying. But my snails are in a bad way and my macroalgae isn't growing either.
No idea why, the shrimp are happily multiplying. But my snails are in a bad way and my macroalgae isn't growing either.Re: Over Populated Snails
Wait Mustafa why do you sell the hair algae if you don’t recommend putting it in your tank? Also for my case do you recommend taking it all out of the tank?
Re: Over Populated Snails
For clarity, the algae Mustafa sells is not hair algae. If hair algae is in your tank I presume it came from somewhere else.
Mustafa's macroalgae is called a Chaetomorpha on his site, and wikipedia says hair algae are species of Bryopsis.
Re: Over Populated Snails
Mine is the macroalgae that Mustafa sells. I thought hair algae was the same thing so thanks for clarifying!
Re: Over Populated Snails
Noting that it is the macroalgae from your store Mustafa would you still recommend that I remove it? I don’t want any of the babies getting trapped in it when they hatch!
Re: Over Populated Snails
We are definitely having the opposite problems with our snails and macroalgae!!
Maybe differences in the amount of light our tanks get since the snails like to eat the macroalgae?Re: Over Populated Snails
If all that green mass is the macroalgae then it should be fine. Shrimp do sometimes get pieces of it stuck on them but it doesn't trap them, they just swim around with it as it decays and munch on it until it comes off.
I think this may all be a misunderstanding, since your picture makes it look like there is another algae mixed in with the macroalgae. I think that is what Mustafa was referring to as hair algae, but perhaps the picture was misleading.
Re: Over Populated Snails
No idea. My spouse has an office tank too, similar in size to mine with similar decor (most of which came out of the same package) and the same lamp. He has a giant, thick, fast-growing chunk of chaeto that started as a little clump taken from mine, and snails proliferating apace. Neither of us has fed much, but the bit of food we've fed also came out of the same package. We have sand from different sources and lava rocks from different sources, but most everything else is the same. No idea what's different about my tank.
Re: Over Populated Snails
Mustafa you might be right about there being hair algae in my tank. I certainly did not put it there but now that I’ve looked closer at the mass on the right of the rock it does look like it has small hairs coming out of it. Maybe it came from my seafan? Someone else in this foreum posted about hair algae growing from their seafan. Not quite sure how to remove it all since it’s everywhere but I ordered some long tweezers and will try to remove as much as I can with those when they arrive