Ok..started with darter PROOF..but realised how ridiculous that request would have been..
Anyway, I like snails, like what they bring to a tank, and just like seeing em..but my darters like them better...
I've tried all manner of things, and nothing lasts more then a week or two. Even MTS, I put in over 4 dozen as a "starter culture"..and within a week, I had a nice bunch of additions to the snail shell graveyard that the substrate is quickly turning into.
Any ideas on anything that can survive, yet won't destroy my plants?
Darter/mud minnow resistant snails?
Started by
Guest_Nightwing_*
, Feb 05 2008 12:42 AM
11 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_Newt_*
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Posted 05 February 2008 - 01:02 AM
Ok..started with darter PROOF..but realised how ridiculous that request would have been..
Anyway, I like snails, like what they bring to a tank, and just like seeing em..but my darters like them better...
I've tried all manner of things, and nothing lasts more then a week or two. Even MTS, I put in over 4 dozen as a "starter culture"..and within a week, I had a nice bunch of additions to the snail shell graveyard that the substrate is quickly turning into.
Any ideas on anything that can survive, yet won't destroy my plants?
You're just going to have to get some big operculate snails, I guess; large ramshorns might work. I don't know how plant-compatible they are.
#3
Guest_teleost_*
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Posted 05 February 2008 - 09:20 AM
I'm not sure large snails will work. I've kept some robust snails with fantails only to see them go one by one.
#4
Guest_uniseine_*
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Posted 05 February 2008 - 10:50 AM
How about Olive Nerite snails?
I have seen Nerites strip a tank of ALL algae in a week. Known NOT to eat plants. Will not reproduce in fresh water (but will lay tiny white egg cases on the glass).
Nerites are also called marble snails. The shells are so hard that a handful of snails sounds like a handful of glass marbles when shaken.
Found in slightly brackish estuaries around Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. USDA says these snails are okay to ship.
I have seen Nerites strip a tank of ALL algae in a week. Known NOT to eat plants. Will not reproduce in fresh water (but will lay tiny white egg cases on the glass).
Nerites are also called marble snails. The shells are so hard that a handful of snails sounds like a handful of glass marbles when shaken.
Found in slightly brackish estuaries around Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. USDA says these snails are okay to ship.
#5
Guest_dafrimpster_*
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Posted 05 February 2008 - 05:41 PM
I have trap door snails with my darters. They are livebearers and the babies are born pretty large. The adulst are golfball sized. Mine are only with rainbow darters so your mileage may vary with others and mudminnows.
#6
Guest_arnoldi_*
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Posted 05 February 2008 - 07:05 PM
Olive nerites are not bothered by my snubnose, redline, rainbow, orangethroat, roanoke, and gilt darters, as well as my mudminnows and bluespots.
Greenside darters are the real snail killers I believe. I think Drew has some olive nerites with those but I'm not sure.
Greenside darters are the real snail killers I believe. I think Drew has some olive nerites with those but I'm not sure.
#7
Guest_killier_*
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Posted 05 February 2008 - 08:35 PM
I have nerites with TN,cumberland snubnose fantails stripetails, rainbows, blackbanded, logperch, redline, swamp, orangethroat, and greenfin have had no problems
trapdoors eat plants by the bucketload
trapdoors eat plants by the bucketload
#8
Guest_sumthinsfishy_*
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Posted 05 February 2008 - 08:39 PM
I currently have a golden apple snail in with my rainbow, logperch, mudminnow, and northern longear (I've read that these enjoy snails), and it only eats my algae, not the plants at all.
It's about the size of a large marble.
It's about the size of a large marble.
#9
Guest_Nightwing_*
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Posted 05 February 2008 - 08:46 PM
I may just try to get a colony going in my soon to be set up dwarf crayfish tank...and feed in the larger adults as they get big enough to "maybe" hold their own.
I have a feeling that the greenside darter in my tank is the cuprit..although I've watched the rainbows take snails. They grab them, and shake t hem like a dog! Mud minnes seem to do the same thing.
I have a feeling that the greenside darter in my tank is the cuprit..although I've watched the rainbows take snails. They grab them, and shake t hem like a dog! Mud minnes seem to do the same thing.
#10
Guest_smilingfrog_*
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Posted 06 February 2008 - 03:47 AM
I had 5 of what I think were called banded mystery snails. Not native, but they left my plants alone and held up quite awhile against my snail killers. I don't know whether the fish eventually killed them or just ate them after they died, but I would eventually come home to find a large bluntnose minnow swimming around with a big chunk of snail meat which I'm guessing he stole from the rainbow darters. The last one of the mystery snails died last summer. The darters were added in May 2005, the snails had been in there for about a year before that. Like you said maybe not darter proof, but at least darter resistant. They were about the size of a large marble, and had bluish stripe pattern on the shell.
#11
Guest_arnoldi_*
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Posted 06 February 2008 - 09:13 AM
Well the common wisdom is that if you have a snail infestation in a native tank go with greenside darters, they are the clown loaches of the temperate world.
#12
Guest_Irate Mormon_*
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Posted 06 February 2008 - 07:03 PM
The thing to do with the MTS is to get them established first, then put the fish in.
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