Nerite Snails are too effective!

[Beach Cruiser]

After i cleaned up the Algaepocolypse of Neglect there was still a bit of GSA hanging around, so i added 10 olive nerites to the tank since the ramshorn snails didn't seem to eat it. 

They did such a good job on a big tank that they starved out the ramshorns! I've picked out a dozen dead big rhs in the last 2-3 days. 

I didn't dose anything outside my regular fert schedule & my local water is extremely low on metals, so i doubt it's a toxicity issue. Plenty of calcium, etc. All the other flora/fauna are fine. 

Still several small guys, so I'm hoping they make a mild comeback. I've set up a small feeding container with algae wafers & such. And have a few rocks outside growing some green stuff in aquarium water...

Never thought I'd be ADDING algae to a tank! 

R.I.P. little dudes. 😕

[Tony s]

On 6/13/2024 at 2:28 PM, Beach Cruiser said:

so i added 10 olive nerites to the tank

That's a lot of cleaning power 🤣

[Beach Cruiser]

On 6/13/2024 at 3:13 PM, Tony s said:

That's a lot of cleaning power 🤣

It's a 100ga tank, so i didn't think it was overkill. Those suckers are like the old Scrubbing Bubbles commercial! 😳

[Tony s]

On 6/13/2024 at 3:21 PM, Beach Cruiser said:

t's a 100ga tank, so i didn't think it was overkill

I hatched a clutch of mystery snails in my 75. I still have about 30 in there. Yours must be better cleaners than mine. But honestly, I like having them in there, they're so fun to watch in that large a group 😁

[Lennie]

Ramshorns eat maaaaany things that nerites don't even touch in the tank environment. I am not sure if this has anything to do with directly adding nerites. IF it does, then nerites should die even faster if it is about running out of food sources. As nerites basically eat diatoms and some flat surface algaes, while ramshorns eat basically everything decaying, commercial food, algae, biofilm, etc. Algae except hairy types basically.

100g tank would offer lots of natural growth for ramshorns to starve to death if you ask me