How many is too many snails?

[redberries]

Hi all, first time posting but I’ve done a ton of reading here in the forum!

I bought an ecosphere from a flea market about 2yrs ago never knowing how terrible it was until I started doing my research. I wanted to switch to a larger tank and add more to the two shrimps I had originally bought to give them a better home. I cycled my new container until it grew visible algae and ordered 10 shrimps from Mustafa about 1.5yrs ago and they have happily lived since (no berried females though, so not sure what I’m doing wrong).

I have a ton of brown algae in my current tank, it is turning my white sand substrate into a brown color down below the surface where the shrimps cannot get to, and a lot of brown algae growing on the walls of the glass. I do not keep the tank in a very sunny place, it only gets indirect light. I am purchasing all of the new items to switch and cycle a larger tank (1 gallon) and I’m planning to buy 10 more shrimps for a total of 22 and was thinking of getting 10 snails from Mustafa as well to help with the algae. Is 10 snails too much for 22 shrimps in a 1 gallon container?

I ordered a API test kit, waiting for it to arrive to see what the levels are, but I do have eggshells in current tank, and I have coral pieces for the new tank. Any thoughts to why my shrimps are not having eggs?

Greatly appreciate any insight!

[Varanus]

The snails are very small, so ten shouldn't be a problem.

[Nellyville41]

You kind of have no choice on the snails. It’s sold as a pack of 10. And that’s fine for the tank. I have a 1 gal at work with it and 10 shrimps in there. My 3 gal at home has 10 snails and 21 shrimps in there. The snails have since reproduced at home and I have 2 berried females after 6 5 months or so. I’ve counted at least 5 new baby snails so far as well. The tank at work hasn’t produced any new borns. As far as your tank, just takes time. Sometimes it takes longer compared to others. For your brown algae problem, hopefully it won’t come back when you switch to a new tank. I don’t have access to indirect sunlight so I bought a lamp with a sunlight bulb and a timer

[Super Jess]

10 snails will be fine, and should help with the algae and your substrate. Are you feeding at all? If you are, your best course is to stop feeding until the algae overgrowth is gone. It sounds like your snails and shrimp will be well fed for a while. The snails will self-limit their population according to available space and food, as the shrimp do.

My shrimp took 2 years to begin reproducing. I chalk it up to chilly water (Vermont is cold), a cross-country move, and then another move before they finally got settled and stable. I got them set up in their final iteration last November, and they finally berried this April. I think they just sort of hung on until conditions were right, then with warm spring temps they exploded. I had 18 shrimp, now there are 18 babies plus another 9 or so still to hatch. It just took a while for them to get going

[redberries]

The snails are very small, so ten shouldn't be a problem.

You kind of have no choice on the snails. It’s sold as a pack of 10. And that’s fine for the tank. I have a 1 gal at work with it and 10 shrimps in there. My 3 gal at home has 10 snails and 21 shrimps in there. The snails have since reproduced at home and I have 2 berried females after 6 5 months or so. I’ve counted at least 5 new baby snails so far as well. The tank at work hasn’t produced any new borns. As far as your tank, just takes time. Sometimes it takes longer compared to others. For your brown algae problem, hopefully it won’t come back when you switch to a new tank. I don’t have access to indirect sunlight so I bought a lamp with a sunlight bulb and a timer

Sounds good!
Yeah, the snails come in a pack of 10 and I was worried that having too many snails would eat up all the algae and not leave anything for the shrimps eat.

[redberries]

10 snails will be fine, and should help with the algae and your substrate. Are you feeding at all? If you are, your best course is to stop feeding until the algae overgrowth is gone. It sounds like your snails and shrimp will be well fed for a while. The snails will self-limit their population according to available space and food, as the shrimp do.

My shrimp took 2 years to begin reproducing. I chalk it up to chilly water (Vermont is cold), a cross-country move, and then another move before they finally got settled and stable. I got them set up in their final iteration last November, and they finally berried this April. I think they just sort of hung on until conditions were right, then with warm spring temps they exploded. I had 18 shrimp, now there are 18 babies plus another 9 or so still to hatch. It just took a while for them to get going

I do feed the shrimps, I have tiny shrimp food pellets and I feed once every 4-6 weeks. It could be that I was just giving them too many pellets, so I will stop feeding them for now until some of the algae gets eaten up. I do notice that when I feed them, the shrimps get more active. I've read on other threads that the shrimps sometimes don't move much because there is so much algae around for them to eat, so I think getting the snails will help.

So exciting on having berried shrimps! I'm hoping that once I can get the bigger 1 gallon tank cycled and everything moved over, hopefully my shrimps will start reproducing the more shrimps, the more fun they are to watch!

[sweetdase]

I actually don't even have any snails in my tank.. Although I am planning to get some, eventually. The tank is full of algae and I do periodically clean the tank with those tank scraper things which stress the shrimp pretty bad (I know, I know, bad owner), but at least the shrimp can eat it a lot easier and I can see them! However, that did not stop them from becoming berried. I had my shrimps for 4 years and they only started to get berried a few months ago in March (from my other thread I started). Clearly, my shrimps seem to be off compared to normal shrimps as it took 4 years to get berried and 2 months to have larvae. So I guess there is the potential you'll just have to wait

[redberries]

I actually don't even have any snails in my tank.. Although I am planning to get some, eventually. The tank is full of algae and I do periodically clean the tank with those tank scraper things which stress the shrimp pretty bad (I know, I know, bad owner), but at least the shrimp can eat it a lot easier and I can see them! However, that did not stop them from becoming berried. I had my shrimps for 4 years and they only started to get berried a few months ago in March (from my other thread I started). Clearly, my shrimps seem to be off compared to normal shrimps as it took 4 years to get berried and 2 months to have larvae. So I guess there is the potential you'll just have to wait

I've never cleaned the glass before, as I know the motion can disrupt the shrimps and my current tank is way too tiny to be able to clean easily. I'm guessing I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope it doesn't take 4 years! Although I am on about 1.5yrs now and still nothing

[Mustafa]

Just stop feeding until you see berried shrimp, and get the snails if you want. You don't have to worry about the snails eating up everything and leaving nothing for the shrimp...it won't happen....ever.