Crustaceans For A Comunity Tank

[Plecc]

Hi all,
I would love to add some sort to crab, lobster or shrimp to my community aquarium, which are the most suitable to be housed in a 120L fresh water tank without access to the surface.
In my tank i currently have
4x cory
2x pleco
4x platy
and 6 tetra
and too many snails, if its a crustacean that will eat snails all the better.

oh, are clown loaches any good at controlling the snail population?

 

[ZoddyZod]

I would say shrimp. Any lobster/crab and you are risking them eating/nipping the fish. Also, you'll struggle to find a crab that is purely aquatic (doesn't need land) and that doesn't prefer brackish water. The only one I've read about is the Thai Micro Crab, which is less than an inch big.

Still, there's lots of different shrimp to choose from.....

 

[mattlee]

Hi all,
I would love to add some sort to crab, lobster or shrimp to my community aquarium, which are the most suitable to be housed in a 120L fresh water tank without access to the surface.
In my tank i currently have
4x cory
2x pleco
4x platy
and 6 tetra
and too many snails, if its a crustacean that will eat snails all the better.

oh, are clown loaches any good at controlling the snail population?

loaches do eat snails but clown loaches need much more room than what you have im affraid..... most crabs need access to air so the water level would have to be dropped slightly and a ramp would be required for them to climb up, lobsters will eventually eat your fish probably at night while they sleep and shrimp eat algae.
if you have a snail problem try putting a lettuce leaf in the tank weighed down on the substrate and im the morning a lot of snails will/should be on the leaf, keep doing this and eventually most snails will be caught. if you want instant action there are chems available to kill snails that are supposed to be fish friendly but ive never used any so cant really comment, although i would rather not go down adding chems into the tank road just to be safe

 

[Plecc]

Hi all,
I would love to add some sort to crab, lobster or shrimp to my community aquarium, which are the most suitable to be housed in a 120L fresh water tank without access to the surface.
In my tank i currently have
4x cory
2x pleco
4x platy
and 6 tetra
and too many snails, if its a crustacean that will eat snails all the better.

oh, are clown loaches any good at controlling the snail population?

loaches do eat snails but clown loaches need much more room than what you have im affraid..... most crabs need access to air so the water level would have to be dropped slightly and a ramp would be required for them to climb up, lobsters will eventually eat your fish probably at night while they sleep and shrimp eat algae.
if you have a snail problem try putting a lettuce leaf in the tank weighed down on the substrate and im the morning a lot of snails will/should be on the leaf, keep doing this and eventually most snails will be caught. if you want instant action there are chems available to kill snails that are supposed to be fish friendly but ive never used any so cant really comment, although i would rather not go down adding chems into the tank road just to be safe

Thanks for the feedback guys,
Think i will do my best to avoid any chemical treatments, as a last resort i can always pick them out one at a time.
I have been using the lettuce leaf trick, every other day or so, but using cucumber instead. This worked so well the first couple of nights i tried it, but now I'm lucky to find one or two on the cucumber in the morning.
Is there any other fish that are suited to a 120L freshwater aquarium that would pick off snails?

A few shrimp sounds like a plan, is there any i can get that are particularly large and colorful?
Also how do i feed them are they happy just on leftovers and algae wafers?

 

[eschaton]

Shrimp are a good option. I would suggest Amano shrimp to start with. Cherry shrimp are another possibility, although with your stocking, at the very least the babies would be eaten, and it's possible the platies would bother the adult shrimp.

It's not quite right to say crays aren't community friendly. There are a number of dwarf crayfish which do just fine in mixed community tanks. However, if you are in the UK like many posters this may not help you. IIRC, only the "Yabbie" is traded in the UK - the other species we have access to in the U.S. are banned, as unlike the Yabbie they aren't tropical, meaning they could get introduced to native waters and displace local species. You could look for assassin snails if you dislike the current snail population - they will hunt down and kill your other snails.

 

[Plecc]

Shrimp are a good option. I would suggest Amano shrimp to start with. Cherry shrimp are another possibility, although with your stocking, at the very least the babies would be eaten, and it's possible the platies would bother the adult shrimp.

It's not quite right to say crays aren't community friendly. There are a number of dwarf crayfish which do just fine in mixed community tanks. However, if you are in the UK like many posters this may not help you. IIRC, only the "Yabbie" is traded in the UK - the other species we have access to in the U.S. are banned, as unlike the Yabbie they aren't tropical, meaning they could get introduced to native waters and displace local species. You could look for assassin snails if you dislike the current snail population - they will hunt down and kill your other snails.

Thanks for the info,

Just spent a while checking out assassin snails, they sound like one of the best options for permanently controlling my massive live-bearer snail population, fortunately one of my LFS's stocks them.
One of the sites i checked out said that assassins lay eggs rather than being live-bearers, is this correct? and if so does this mean they will reproduce slower than my common snails? (Don't want to end up with hundreds of the assassins instead)
Also when the assassins run out of common snails to munch on, will i need to get any other food to supplement their diet apart from regular flake, algae wafers and some blood worms occasionally?

 

[eschaton]

Thanks for the info,

Just spent a while checking out assassin snails, they sound like one of the best options for permanently controlling my massive live-bearer snail population, fortunately one of my LFS's stocks them.
One of the sites i checked out said that assassins lay eggs rather than being live-bearers, is this correct? and if so does this mean they will reproduce slower than my common snails? (Don't want to end up with hundreds of the assassins instead)
Also when the assassins run out of common snails to munch on, will i need to get any other food to supplement their diet apart from regular flake, algae wafers and some blood worms occasionally?

Assassin snails do breed in tanks, just not as fast as other snails. The price is coming down, and you can find them on sites like aquabid where they are very affordable. Once all the other snails are gone they'll eat detritus, leftover food, and possibly algae, just like any other snail.