Growing Algae?

[Zirallan]

I'm going to be going away for a couple weeks. My fish will be fed but my mystery snail takes some special effort to make sure he gets enough food and doesn't eat my plants. When I do have algae (which isn't often), he happily eats that. When it's not there, and he's not getting enough food, he munches my plants. I don't think I can count on anyone to take the effort to feed him though he does get some food from what the fish leave behind, it just doesn't tend to be enough.

Would leaving my lights on longer be enough to create some algae to suppliment him with while I'm gone? I'd really like to keep my plants intact as much as possible and since he doesn't munch them when there is algae, I figured adding some might be the best solution.

 

[chickennuggets123]

Will the tank ever have sunlight on it? (where its placed?)

 

[Aqua Tom]

put some stones in a jug of water, add a drop of amonia then leave in a sunny position. Within days you will have stones covered in algea. Just chuck them in the tank.


Tom

 

[Zirallan]

The tank never gets direct sunlight.

I'll try the stones like Tom mentioned if I can find somewhere to put it where my cats won't get into it. Silly things want to drink any water that isn't in their dish..

 

[BigbruiserAl]

mystery snail should not be left to just eat algae they will die, they need a varied diet like most animals. The death of apple snail can have a very bad effect on the fish as the amount of ammonia it wll let of is immense for its size. On return please look into or ask me how to care for them a cheap way is wafers

 

[Zirallan]

mystery snail should not be left to just eat algae they will die, they need a varied diet like most animals. The death of apple snail can have a very bad effect on the fish as the amount of ammonia it wll let of is immense for its size. On return please look into or ask me how to care for them a cheap way is wafers

He doesn't eat JUST algae. If you read the first post carefully, I point out that I normaly take great care to ensure that this snail gets a propper diet. However, and this is an important bit, I am going away for 2 weeks. I don't have anyone I know who will take the effort required to make sure that the snail gets his fair share of food. He does get some from what the fish leave behind, but not enough. I would like some algae in the tank to suppliment that WHILE I AM GONE. This is NOT a long term thing. It is a solution to a very short term problem. I don't see how wanting a bit of algae in the tank just to be sure there is SOMETHING for the snail to eat is any different then people chunking in weekend feeders when they go away.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Ah i see, what do you feed him then always looking for more ways to keep them happy?

On topic it is 1 snail to feed how are the fish getting feed mate?

 

[Zirallan]

The fish are all bottom feeders. The snail spends his time near the top of the tank. If I expect him to eat just what the fish leave behind, he doesn't get there fast enough. It took me a while to realize this (hence the munched plants) as he was in with a betta before and it wasn't an issue. Once I figured out that he wasn't getting enough, I started feeding him away from the fish. Shrimp pellets, algae wafers, betta pellets, and frozen bloodworms are all on his normal menu. Basically, if it's intended for fish and the others eat it, I offer it to him too. He's yet to turn anything down and I've yet to find anything saying any of it is bad for him. However, if you just drop them in the tank, the fish eat all but the betta pellets which end up swirling around the top until they eventually sink or get sucked up by the filter. It has been a lot of trial and error to see just how much he should be eating and I always know he isn't getting enough because he starts munching my live plants.

My fish will be fed while I am gone (I plan on portioning out every days food ahead of time) but I can't reasonably expect someone to take the 20 to 30 minutes it takes to ensure that the snail gets his food too. If all else fails, he has plants to eat but I'd very much prefer otherwise and he seems to prefer algae (when it's there) to the live plants. I see no harm in experimenting with growing some for him while I am gone.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Best thing you can do is get the person to pop in a wafer after the fish is feed, he should make it to the bottom to have a snack on, these snails will curl up into their shell and hide for weeks in swaps without food so he should be ok if hes normally well fed. One thing that does concern me is those snails dont normally spend their time at the top for any great length of time. Snails that hang around the water line is an indication there not happy, do you add any calcium to the tank whats your normal ph?

 

[Zirallan]

My PH is 7.6 and I do add calcium just for him. He doesn't stay at the water line. Just closer to the top of the tank than the bottom. He's actually fairly active, just generally over the top half of the tank and the decorations/plants and not on the bottom. He seems to dislike the cory cats bumbling into him. Unforunately, that's where he's going to stay. I had two of them in with the betta until the betta suddenly decided to kill one. I've been considering getting another small tank just for the snail.. It's just not in the budget right now.

I've tried dropping wafers in for him after the fish have their food, it makes little difference. He gets to it but the fish start bumping into him and trying to steal it and he scoots off and lets them have it every time. It's no trouble for me to take the time to make sure he gets fed and it's not often that I go away. I wasn't sure how long he's able to go without food because I've had difficulty finding much information on them. I figure better he has something than nothing. I've had this snail since he was tiny and he's worth fussing over a bit. Very entertaining little creature.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

yeah there pretty cool i have raised and sold over 2,000 of them now and they still amaze me sometimes. you can get clips from teh LFS that hold foog onto the side of the tank so bottom dwellers dont eat it migt be worth one for a couple of quid.
How do you add your calcium to your tank?

 

[Zirallan]

I have some liquid calcium that I add when I do water changes. His shell seems thick and looks nice to me but I'm far from a snail expert. Occasionally I put in a weekend feeder block (the kind with calcium as the first ingredient) and he seems to really enjoy those once the fish get bored of them. Is there a better way?

 

[BigbruiserAl]

sounds like your doing everthing right so you should have a nice healthy snail there

As i have 500+ snails at any one time liquid became expensive and i found out you can use tums, like the ones you get for hartburn. If a snail needs the calicium he should make a run for the tablet within 5 min but i doubt its better/worse then what your doing

 

[Aqua Tom]

sounds like your doing everthing right so you should have a nice healthy snail there

As i have 500+ snails at any one time liquid became expensive and i found out you can use tums, like the ones you get for hartburn. If a snail needs the calicium he should make a run for the tablet within 5 min but i doubt its better/worse then what your doing

& the snails never have bad tummies.