thoughts on a critter to eat the chewed up plant roots that continually clog my filter intakes, in my silver dollar tank

[Magnum Man35 149]

I had a ton of pothos roots in one tank, and I turned that into a silver dollar tank, in hopes of a natural control, of the over bearing roots…

that worked out quite well, but with a side effect, my hang on tank filters continually plug up with chewed on pieces left from the dollars…

literally once a week, I need to remove these from the filter intakes to maintain flow…

I’ve tried adding a few neocardia, as well as a few of the orange dwarf crays, but think they get snacked on, maybe because the bright colors, so I’m looking for a critter who would find these accumulations on the filters appealing, and would either blend in, or be big enough not to become snacks…

I ran across these shrimp from Dan’s, and they appear to be unidentified, larger than a neocardia, would blend in, not being a bright color, and by description should eat up the left overs from the dollars… anyone familiar with these shrimp??? or have any other recommendations for a fish, or other critter that could cohabitate with the dollars conditions, and find the plant chewing, that harbors green algae appealing???

Green Leaf Algae Eating Shrimp, (4 pack) (Caridina cf. typus)

Green Leaf Algae Eating Shrimp, (4 pack) (Caridina cf. typus) for sale from Dans Fish at $29.99 each. Shipped Next Day Air.

dansfish.com

 

[Magnum Man35 149]

most AI / on line information appears to be pulled from the Dan’s site, they appear to be native to the Australia area

 

[GaryE]

Those roots are very tough and fibrous. I can't think of any creature that would chow down on pieces more than it would join the silver dollars on attacking the intact Pothos roots. I would install more easily cleaned large sponge pieces on the filter intakes, to slow the inevitable clogging from that mix. When it comes to 'natural' controls on things in our tanks, I always remember this strangely wisdom filled childhood poem:

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly,
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her;
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a bird;
How absurd to swallow a bird!
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a cat;
Well, fancy that, she swallowed a cat!
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!

There was an old lady that swallowed a dog;
What a hog to swallow a dog!
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a goat;
Just opened her throat and swallowed a goat!
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a cow;
I don't know how she swallowed a cow!
She swallowed the cow to catch the goat,
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she'll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a horse...
She's dead, of course!

 

[Back in the fold1]

Don’t your various plecostomus suckers eat stuff like that ? I’ve heard they even gnaw on wood .

 

[Magnum Man35 149]

I’m really down on plecos right now, and there is not one in that tank right now… perhaps need to revisit them in this tank… was going to try some oto’s, but they sold out before my last order went through

 

[TwoTankAmin29]

All of my filter intakes are pre-filtered and have been so for decades. I do this in two ways. For the ones with higher intakes I use the ATI pre-filters. But I use their Replacement Pro Sponges which are coarse and come in several sizes. I also make my own pre-filters using Poret foam. I prefer to use the 10 ppi for this but will also use the 20 ppi.

I still run a couple of the older Marineland H.O.T. Magnums loaded with their micron cartridge for mechanical filtration. I even have a pre-filters on the intakes.

The pre-filters I make with Poret starts as a small block. The I use a scissors to cut an X ibto one ned which goes deep enough to allow and intake to be inside the foam. The X is similar to what Swiss Tropicalsl does for their cubefilters. I then slide and intake tube into the slot. This lets me hold onto the foam as I use a scissors to cut the block into a decent shape.

I do not have pics of the Poret pre-filters but before I found Poret, I used the AquaClear foam to make the prefilters. I used a 110 block of foam for this as it is their coarsest foam. I actually replaced a couple of my pre-filters this past week.

The most important thing to do with the intake filters is to rinse them weekly. Even if that is all I have time to do on a tank in terms of weekly maint., I make great effort to prevent intake filtration from clogging. This can cause a motor to burn out if it gets clogged to where it is collapsing inwards and preventing the needed intake flow.

When it is time to rinse intake sponges, I use a fine mesh net which I allow the intake foam to be inside of so when I remove the foam, as it is being detached, it lets go of a bunk of the gunf one the outside of the foam back into the tank water. I used a brineshrimp net for he homemade pre-filters and a bigger net for the ATI pre-filters. I hate seeing a cloud of gunk letting a cloud of it back into the water when removing the foam. I use the bigger net on Poret cubefilters when I remove them.

I use a number of AquaClear hang-ons, When I remove the home made pre-fillters, I remove the entire intake tube along with the pre-filter. I do not turn off the filter. When I have rinsed out the foam, I return the intake assembly to the filter, but I keep it raised up so the filter does not restart yet. During the last part of doing the refill part of the water change, I will re-seat the intake so the filter resumes working.

Finally, when cleaning my canister pre-filters I often do not turn off the filter. I can remove the pre-filter, rinse it out and return it to the intake in under 2 minutes. Canisters and my lone AC 110 have ATI pre-filters. This includes the pair of H.O.T. Magnums.

 

[Magnum Man35 149]

I got 8 of the green leaf eating shrimp… they blend in, we’ll see how fast they learn… if they stay in the algae covered roots, you would never know they are there, but these are so active they keep swimming into the silver dollars faces… of coarse they try to eat them. but they are so fast, I don’t think any were caught in the 1st half hour, but sooner or later someone is getting a shrimp dinner

 

[Back in the fold1]

sooner or later someone is getting a shrimp dinner

Isn’t that what the little water bugs are for anyway ?

 

[Magnum Man35 149]

 

[Back in the fold1]

Man oh Man ! Those shrimp look awfully vulnerable in there and those Silver Dollars look like they will decimate them once they get their first taste .

 

[Magnum Man35 149]

30 minutes before darkness falls, and at least several of them are still there l, hiding in plain sight, you can see a dollar belly just above the shrimp

 

[Magnum Man35 149]

I saw one of the shrimp free swimming this morning, 2 dollars took a swipe at it, but not like they were hunting it, more like swatting at a pesky fly… you would think they would learn to stay away from the bigger fish, but I’ve also not seen one get munched yet… they are faster and more active swimmers than my neocardia