Olive Nerite Snails in GSP Tank?

Legacy · Post by **Legacy** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 2:15 am

Hi,

I have a pretty serious Green Hair Algae bloom in my 37g Tall GSP tank right now. It's been getting progressively worse over the last 2 months and I'm ready to do something about it. I'm not sure if it's all hair algae because I also have the green slime on the glass.

Anyway, I'd like to try out some Olive Nerite Snails to eat all that algae. I'm aware that being in brackish water they may reproduce. I imagine that the babies will just get eaten by my 2" GSP. I don't know if the adults would be eaten or not.

Is it safe to keep these snails in my tank? I'm afraid of potential over-eating. What do you guys think? Is this an option?

Post by **Pufferpunk** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 3:04 am

Puffer say--YUM, snail in my tank!

susiejames101 · Post by **susiejames101** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:53 am

My Congo puffer kills giant snails in one bite! He doesn't really eat snails apart from nibbling at the odd tiny one on the glass , so I thought I would put a few adults in his tank to breed but he took exception to them and killed them all off in a couple of days! He lives alone now apart from the odd shrimp that manages to escape for a few hours before he fancies some lunch!! lol
Sue

Rocker · Post by **Rocker** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:10 am

susiejames101 wrote:My Congo puffer kills giant snails in one bite! He doesn't really eat snails apart from nibbling at the odd tiny one on the glass , so I thought I would put a few adults in his tank to breed but he took exception to them and killed them all off in a couple of days! He lives alone now apart from the odd shrimp that manages to escape for a few hours before he fancies some lunch!! lol
Sue

Just shows the difference in puffer behaviour. My congo will not touch snails or shrimp at all!

susiejames101 · Post by **susiejames101** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 12:19 pm

Rocker wrote:
susiejames101 wrote:My Congo puffer kills giant snails in one bite! He doesn't really eat snails apart from nibbling at the odd tiny one on the glass , so I thought I would put a few adults in his tank to breed but he took exception to them and killed them all off in a couple of days! He lives alone now apart from the odd shrimp that manages to escape for a few hours before he fancies some lunch!! lol
Sue
Just shows the difference in puffer behavior. My Congo will not touch snails or shrimp at all!

What does yours eat Rocker, the only food I can tempt mine with is large bloodworm and only if they are live and wiggling, and he does eat ghost shrimp when I can get them, He does eat the very occasional small snail from the glass but absolutely everything else I have offered him he turns his nose up at!! I do sometimes worry that he doesn't get a very varied diet!!
Regards
Sue

Rocker · Post by **Rocker** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 1:10 pm

Musell, FD krill, frozen krill, clam, prawns, cockle

susiejames101 · Post by **susiejames101** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 1:24 pm

Rocker wrote:Mussel, FD krill, frozen krill, clam, prawns, cockle

Thanks Rocker, I have tried all of those and he turned up his nose in disgust!! lol, maybe he wasn't quite hungry enough. He does love his jumbo blood worms and they are his staple diet. I just wish he would be a bit more adventurous with his food!
Sue

Rocker · Post by **Rocker** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 1:29 pm

Have you tried a piece of food on a skewer? I used the wooded BBQ (kebab) ones. I drag the food through the water and even the picky eaters go for it. I had a proble with one of my suvattii not eating to start with. Just kept tapping him on the nose gently with the food on the skewer. Eventually he attacked it abd realised it was food.
Another way is to 'bob' the food in the water on the end of a piece of cotton.

susiejames101 · Post by **susiejames101** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 1:42 pm

I have put food in the current which is quite fast and it resembles something live and swimming but apart from the large bloodworm or live shrimps (which he eats whole!!) he turns his nose up at all other food offered. I did get him to bite a thawed frozen shrimp once but he spat it out and dug in disgust!! We have had him over a year now and he is happy and healthy I Will get some wooden skewers and have another try though. He is quite a character and seems pretty stubborn too lol
Is a bit like having more children, having 3 puffer tanks lolol
Sue

Legacy · Post by **Legacy** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 3:00 pm

Sorry to get back on topic, but was this a:

"yes get snails"
"No, don't get snails"
"Wont hurt to try it"

Rocker · Post by **Rocker** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 3:02 pm

I think you question was answered in the second post. Snails are puffer food. You can try but I am not familiar with these type of snails. Will they adapt to bw to sw conditions?
What salinity are you at now?

tekknoschtev · Post by **tekknoschtev** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:43 pm

I tried, once, a marine snail in my puffers tank (which is also marine). It didnt end well for the snail. That being said, snails for marine environments are far to expensive to be puffer food. My sister's 55gal planted tank (freshwater) is more like a snail tank, and occasionally we'll grab a few smaller snails and give them to my GSP, I dont feel bad about them being in saltwater (which they dont adapt well at all) because they dont even get a chance to fall to the bottom of the tank before Penguin has torn through them.

Post by **RTR** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 2:06 am

Nerites are FW/BW/SW snails. The Olive Nerites will withstand any of those 3 conditions. Many of them require SW to breed and later migrate upstream to FW. The Olives do deposit eggs in FW routinely, but no babies survive. Rumor has it that they will suvive and grow in FW in green water, but I have not yet tried this myself.

Legacy · Post by **Legacy** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 2:09 am

Rocker wrote:I think you question was answered in the second post. Snails are puffer food. You can try but I am not familiar with these type of snails. Will they adapt to bw to sw conditions?
What salinity are you at now?

Nerite Snails can be used in Fresh/Brackish/Marine. Nerite Snails are commonly used in freshwater aquariums because they're excellent algae eaters and WILL NOT reproduce in freshwater conditions because they need brackish for breeding purposes.

In this case my tank is 1.012SG and the Nerite Snails will reproduce. They also often times hang out above the water line... this is because they're from tidal regions and like to live above the tide line. This would mean that they might very well be out of the reach of the puffer at times.

The most important question here, being that I am aware that snails are part of their diet, is if having snails in the tank will be a danger to the puffer because of a chance of over-eating? Will she actually eat until she's dead in the case of hunting?

This is the question I need answered if possible before I try these guys out and kill my puffer.

Thanks,
Dave

Phaedrus · Post by **Phaedrus** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 2:36 am

Generally, puffers will eat as long as there is something available. I know that my GSP will take his fill and get so big he just has to go rest for a while and won't keep stuffing himself because food just won't fit anymore.

If they over eat, they will poop it out, mostly undigested. They probably won't eat themselves to death, but it does pose a polution problem.

There is no easy way to get rid of algae in puffer tanks because puffers like to eat our helpers. The only algae cleaner in a puffer tank is you. :p

Try addressing the root causes of the algae bloom by doing water changes, vacuuming, and limiting light exposure.

Putting the snails in there won't hurt your puffer, but it won't help with the algae either, and might actually make it worse from the extra waste produced from over eating.

The Puffer Forum

The Puffer Store

Olive Nerite Snails in GSP Tank?

Olive Nerite Snails in GSP Tank?