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Olive Snail questions

Started by Guest_jblaylock_* , Jan 15 2010 04:02 PM

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14 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_jblaylock_*

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Posted 15 January 2010 - 04:02 PM

I was looking at some plants and came across this.

http://www.azgardens...rite-snail.aspx

Are these native to Florida, I read on another site that they can be found in Florida and Central America? Has anyone tried these for algae purposes and will my darters eat them?

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#2 Guest_Newt_*

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Posted 15 January 2010 - 04:48 PM

They are native to Florida, and parts of other southeastern coastal states as well, IIRC. They are popular among planted tank enthusiasts (who usually simply call then "nerites") because they are effective algae eaters but do not have population explosions as some other snails can. The adults do fine in fresh water, but eggs and larvae require brackish. They are pretty sturdy snails, but I don't know if darters could eat them or not.

*EDIT* The olive nerite in the aquarium trade is actually Neritina usnea, but is often called N. reclivata. All above info still applies.

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#3 Guest_gzeiger_*

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Posted 15 January 2010 - 07:20 PM

I have collected a few wild ones in brackish water in coastal SC. They are very hardy and do a good job on algae, but despite intensive efforts I have been unable to get any eggs to hatch. They do however lay eggs everywhere. Darters won't eat them at the sizes normally seen for sale because they move without exposing much soft tissue, and they don't float the way pond snails do.

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#4 Guest_schambers_*

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Posted 15 January 2010 - 07:52 PM

I've kept them in a couple of my brackish tanks for a couple of years. I haven't seen any young, either. I wish I could find some more. Arizona Gardens has a minimum order amount that makes the price prohibitive. They are really nice snails.

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#5 Guest_sounguru_*

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Posted 15 January 2010 - 10:17 PM

Olive Nerites as they are commonly called are almost impossible to get to full adult in an aquarium setting. They do require brackish to complete the cycle and the amount of algae and plankton required to feed the larvae is where most people fail.

Basically the baby snails as they go thru a plankton stage are lost.

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#6 Guest_PhilipKukulski_*

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Posted 16 January 2010 - 02:00 PM

I figure I have failed 10,000,000 times to raise Olive Nerite snails from eggs.

I have found the snails in tidal areas in Mobile and in Inglis, Florida.

What is nice is that the Nerites don't eat your plants.
Also, no acclimation to freshwater used by me.

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#7 Guest_jblaylock_*

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Posted 18 January 2010 - 08:54 AM

While trying to stay as native as possible, I need something to help keep my algae under control. I do have about 6-8 otocinclus, though they stay fat, they don't even touch the algae in that 75gallon. I have some regular snails but they are slow eaters. I'd like to try a handful of these snails.

Anybody else have any ideas on algae control without going to major extremes?

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#8 Guest_gzeiger_*

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Posted 18 January 2010 - 09:55 AM

If you don't have plants, light is the major variable that's easy to control. Fish will be happy enough with a 24-watt light on a timer for 4-6 hours a day while you're home to look at them. If the tank is near a window, you can add an opaque background to block out sunlight. Even my very low light tanks have some algae, but it probably would be within the capacity of a school of ottos to control it.

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#9 Guest_PhilipKukulski_*

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Posted 22 January 2010 - 08:53 PM

Read about hydrogen peroxide on this forum.

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#10 Guest_jase_*

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Posted 23 January 2010 - 11:52 AM

While trying to stay as native as possible, I need something to help keep my algae under control. I do have about 6-8 otocinclus, though they stay fat, they don't even touch the algae in that 75gallon. I have some regular snails but they are slow eaters. I'd like to try a handful of these snails.

Anybody else have any ideas on algae control without going to major extremes?

Search old posts on the forum and you'll find lots of discussion on algae control. My (accidental) solution for the past few years has been a combination of lots of ramshorn snails and java moss. Regardless of lighting, time between water changes, etc., I'm getting no noticeable algae growth whatsoever on any surfaces within the tanks. I really don't even clean the inside of the glass on my tanks anymore. An added benefit is that the Java moss looks great and is pretty much foolproof.

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#11 Guest_jblaylock_*

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Posted 27 February 2010 - 11:25 AM

Are Ramshorn's and java moss native? I would consider going outside the native realm for algae control, but I don't want to go to far.

I read up H2O2 a while back, it seems like there was a downside for my setup, but I can't remember and will need to refresh my memory.

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#12 Guest_gzeiger_*

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Posted 27 February 2010 - 04:24 PM

There are lots of kinds of ramshorn snails. Many are native. I doubt you can determine species on commercially available ones generally, but they shouldn't be difficult to find locally. Java moss is not native but is pretty neat stuff. I can't seem to grow it myself.

The downside to peroxide generally is phytotoxicity, so if you have plants you need to be careful of it.

Edited by gzeiger, 27 February 2010 - 04:26 PM.

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#13 Guest_nativeplanter_*

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Posted 27 February 2010 - 07:22 PM

The downside to peroxide generally is phytotoxicity, so if you have plants you need to be careful of it.

I've never had a problem with peroxide except with hornwort (Ceratophyllum spp). There may be other plants it affects as well, but at 1 oz per 10 gallons I've been just fine. Great in fact.

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#14 Guest_lozgod_*

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Posted 27 February 2010 - 07:42 PM

Two things to note. One is (I am sure you are already aware) there is no need to order them online if you do not want to go out scouting for them. They are available in most fish stores. Second is I have a variety of native caught snails in my 75 gallon and have no issues with them eating any non dying plants (plant leaves). They do reproduce like crazy depending on my feeding/overfeeding of the fish. I do not mind however.

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#15 Guest_gzeiger_*

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Posted 28 February 2010 - 07:55 AM

My ramshorn and pond snails lay eggs like crazy, but only the largest ramshorns have strong enough shells to survive in most of my tanks. I also haven't seen problems with peroxide on my own plants, but I only used it twice. Googling the topic produced an interesting paper on long term effects indicating that Val can be affected significantly, but over a period of weeks following treatment. All my plants seem to die, but no idea if it was related or not.