Keeping Snails, Shrimp, and Floaters

[Kurt Brutting]

How does everyone keep floating plants with shrimp and snails without lids? I would love to grow floating plants where they crawl out from the top, but I’m worried I’ll lose my nerite & mystery snails & shrimp! All of my aquariums have lids with the black rim around it  with escape artists living in them. 
With that said what are the best floaters with lids and how high should the water line be or is there a way to achieve this look without losing my inhabitants? I see pro aquascapes with no lids ton of floating plants and invertebrates, are they not worried of losing them or am I over thinking it? 

[Guppysnail]

I run the same tanks with lids for my shrimp and snails. I’m unable to keep surface floaters alive with the humidity.  I go the route of floating other plants. I have used anacharis, hornwort, cardinals, ludwigia, water sprite, water wisteria. Many plants can be floated and will orient themselves to look like a “mat” floating in time. Hope that helps. I would not keep my snails without lids either. They are adventurous.  

Edited March 22, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Odd Duck]

You can use a lid with floaters, but they don’t really like a lot of spatter or condensation dripping on the leaves.  If they have enough light, they do tolerate it better since it tends to dry off the leaves.  I have lids on nearly every tank where I have floaters.  Some are snug fitting lids, some don’t have the back trim strips on, but some do.

Floaters like some air circulation above the leaves and they like a bit of circulation under the surface, but prefer minimal surface agitation.  Putting a floating ring either around the plants or around the surface agitation will work.  The pic is from a while back of my 20 long which has a tight fitting lid and decent water circulation.  At the time of this pic it had pea puffers so plenty of food (they’re messy eaters leaving lots of good remnants).  There is a sponge filter off to the left practically under the floaters and they still tolerated it.  You can see they aren’t growing as thick on the left.  You can get much stronger color with more light.

 

If you look close you can see not only flowers but tiny, pink fruit.

Other floaters like similar conditions.

Oh, and I tend to run the water level up pretty high so the water isn’t visible from the side.  The floaters don’t like being pressed against the glass so thin them often enough to prevent them building up too thick.

Edited March 22, 2022 by Odd Duck
Typo

[Kurt Brutting]

@Odd Duckand @Guppysnailthank you that is very helpful.