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Pet Forum / Aquaria / Cichlids / October 2004do snails ruin cichlid eggs?
Two of my three tanks are infested with a very small almost brownish looking snail. What's the deal? They are in a 75 gallon tank that is home for a tanganyikan population which includes frontosas, compressiceps, calvus white, leleupis, and juies. I am worried that these snails may somehow eat the fish's eggs. I love to watch these fish breed so any help would be appreciated. MTS will eat fish eggs but only if they can get near them! I'm sure the Tanganyikans will be able to handle it. **So long, and thanks for all the fish!** > Two of my three tanks are infested with a very small almost brownish looking > snail. What's the deal? They are in a 75 gallon tank that is home for a > tanganyikan population which includes frontosas, compressiceps, calvus white, > leleupis, and juies. I am worried that these snails may somehow eat the fish's > eggs. I love to watch these fish breed so any help would be appreciated. Are you saying that the cichlids will pick the snails off of the walls of the shells that they lay their eggs in? What does MTS stand for? Are they beneficial to the tank otherwise? Malaysian trumpet snails. I hear they keep the sustrate loose (airy?)  SignaturePaulo > Are you saying that the cichlids will pick the snails off of the walls of the > shells that they lay their eggs in? What does MTS stand for? Are they > beneficial to the tank otherwise? So other than that, you have experience with cichlids breeding in their presence? I have an N. Brichardi and N. Pulcher that spawn non-stop in my Tang setup, many MTS too! Don't worry about it. -- **So long, and thanks for all the fish!** > So other than that, you have experience with cichlids breeding in their > presence? Thanks a ton for your help. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Where to the MTS come from? MTS = Malaysian Trumpet Snail, so I guess they originate from Malaysia ;o They were probably hitchhikers on one of the pants you introduced to your tank... -- **So long, and thanks for all the fish!** > Thanks a ton for your help. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Where to the MTS come > from? > Thanks a ton for your help. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Where to the MTS come > from? Malaysia ;~), or more locally, they would probably have been brought in with a live plant purchase. They are livebearers, so the young MTS skimming the water's surface would make a nice snack for many types of cichlids. Because of their hard shells, adults can survive the unwanted attention of some fish. Note that while most of the fish you have are mouth-brooders, some are not. For cichlids which are substrate spawners, snails can be nocturnal predators to the unhatched eggs, so ymmv. Generally though, I'd agree with Happy Cam'per as many cichlids are quite effective defenders. Perhaps leave them a night light for the first few weeks. Signaturewww.NetMax.tk no reccomendations in terms of a rid-a-snail type of product? I have heard they eat detritus. > no reccomendations in terms of a rid-a-snail type of product? I have heard they > eat detritus. I strongly recommend against chemical products to kill snails. Their active ingredient is usually some form of copper which is toxic to fish at only slightly higher dosages, and then there is the bio-load of all the dead snails to consider. Mechanical removal and/or snail eating fish tend to be the most common methods used. I've never heard of a detritus eating snail, and while I wouldn't be too surprised if it was true, consider that the snail has it's own exhaust pipe, so the detritus is only changing 'flavour' ;~). Signaturewww.NetMax.tk any luck using clown loaches? I just bought 6 small ones. > any luck using clown loaches? I just bought 6 small ones. Most of the 'botia' loaches are very good snailers either at pulling them out of the shells, or devouring the snail eggs. CLs are best known for eating them out of the shell, though they sometimes need to be taught (crush a snail in front of them, they will get the idea ;~). The downside to the CL is their eventual size. Typically they don't grow very quickly, but if given a steady supply of snails, they will not grow typically, they will grow fast. CLs are great characters, very personable, but you will need a good sized tank eventually. Signaturewww.NetMax.tk >> any luck using clown loaches? I just bought 6 small ones. > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > typically, they will grow fast. CLs are great characters, very > personable, but you will need a good sized tank eventually. Yo-Yo loaches will remain a reasonable size, unlike clown loaches. Yo-Yo's will also terrorize the snail population quite as readily as clown loaches. Keep a small group of three as they are much more active that way. Tom Has anyone had experiences with Chilotilapia rhodesii (spelling?) and MTS? Well I got 6 small clowns two days ago. They are still extraordinarily shy. Maybe it is the aggressive postures of the tanganyikans. who knows. I just can't wait for them to start feasting on these ugly brown moving lumps. LOL My tank is 75 gallons so i think I have enough room for them. Did you read up on Clown Loaches? My gut reaction was, "Wow, that's a lot of inches of fish!" While small now, they will grow. I looked at The Krib and couldn't locate them immediately so did a Google search and found: http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/loaches1/p/clownloach.htm This site says they grow to 6" in an aquarium and 12" in the wild. My LFS advertises the longer length. I didn't realize how long they'd live either. After not researching critters more than once and purchasing items I was assured would be fine that subsequently died or caused problems, I try hard not to buy now without research. The LFS personnel rarely know a thing about what they sell and often give conflicting or contradictory information. > Well I got 6 small clowns two days ago. They are still extraordinarily shy. > Maybe it is the aggressive postures of the tanganyikans. who knows. I just > can't wait for them to start feasting on these ugly brown moving lumps. LOL My > tank is 75 gallons so i think I have enough room for them. http://www.loaches.com/index.html is a nice site for info. IMO, a 75g would be a good starting home for 6 Clowns, possibly for 4 or 5 years (depending on how quickly they grow). It's not just their size, but they get into under and around everything all the time, so even when they are only 6" long, you will start wishing you had a longer tank (especially depending on the qty & type of your other fish). I have enough tanks so that as the fish grow I simply upgrade them to larger tanks, and this makes the best use of all my tanks. If in 4-5 years you still have 6 CLs, they are growing fast and your other inhabitants are feeling crowded, you can decide then what works best for you. Note that you can be a bit more leisurely in your upgrade plans with same-species botia as they are community shoalers. This wait & see strategy would not work as well for territorial fish (like cichlids, which *is* the newsgroup you are in). ps: What you might not realize is that if you still have six 6" CLs in 4 or 5 years, that they will be house pets, and you might not think twice about getting them a bigger tank on one of your regular trips to the LFS to pick up treats for them ;~) These fish are very personable characters. Signaturewww.NetMax.tk > Did you read up on Clown Loaches? My gut reaction was, "Wow, that's a > lot of inches of fish!" While small now, they will grow. [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > can't wait for them to start feasting on these ugly brown moving lumps. LOL My > > tank is 75 gallons so i think I have enough room for them. > http://www.loaches.com/index.html is a nice site for info. IMO, a 75g > would be a good starting home for 6 Clowns, possibly for 4 or 5 years > (depending on how quickly they grow). It's not just their size, but > they get into under and around everything all the time, so even when > they are only 6" long, you will start wishing you had a longer tank > (especially depending on the qty & type of your other fish). When I started getting interested in fish years ago, the clown loaches were a lot brighter orange than I'm seeing in stores now. Is it just in my head, or have others noticed this? Cindy > > http://www.loaches.com/index.html is a nice site for info. IMO, a 75g > > would be a good starting home for 6 Clowns, possibly for 4 or 5 years [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Cindy Clowns are mostly wild caught, so unless something about their harvesting is causing the colour shift, I don't think so. Their colours are faded when stressed (new arrivals, when fighting, when sick etc) and also when they age. IMO, the best colour really comes out in smaller specimens (under 4") which have been well acclimated to a tank (6-12 months) and are being fed a wide variety of quality foods. Perhaps this is what you were comparing with the stores. At work, I tried to keep enough display tanks of fish (not for sale) so that customers could see what more mature and settled specimens looked like. Some examples of fish which looked unimpressive young or after transport were Electric Blues, Mooris, Cacatoides, Appistogramas, Chocolate & Licorice gouramis, Brochis, Kuhli & Clown loaches and various tetras (Congo, Penquin, Glowlight, Red Phantoms etc). Signaturewww.NetMax.tk >> When I started getting interested in fish years ago, the clown >> loaches were a lot brighter orange than I'm seeing in stores now. [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > loaches and various tetras (Congo, Penquin, Glowlight, Red Phantoms > etc). That was probably it. I worked at a fish-only store that had quite a few display tanks and many many selling tanks, and the new stock was always put in a different tank than the old. The little clowns were beautiful. The stores I frequent now don't keep that many tanks or many fish in the tanks, so you don't get to see what they look like once established. Cindy > Two of my three tanks are infested with a very small almost brownish > looking [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > fish's > eggs. I love to watch these fish breed so any help would be appreciated. I'm surprised no one has suggested any of the Syno. cats. Syno. multipunctatus (cuckoo catfish) demolishes snails well quick. As will any of the others S. petricola etc. > Zimm44wrote: Two of my three tanks are infested with a very small almost brownish looking > snail. What's the deal? They are in a 75 gallon tank that is home for a > tanganyikan population which includes frontosas, compressiceps, calvus white, > leleupis, and juies. I am worried that these snails may somehow eat the fish's > eggs. I love to watch these fish breed so any help would be appreciated. The snails will not cause any problems with the cichlids spawning. If you are worried about that you can pick up a few clown loaches and they will eat the snails for you. __________________________________________________ Posted via FishGeeks - http://Aquaria.info >> Zimm44wrote: > Two of my three tanks are infested with a very small almost brownish [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > __________________________________________________ > Posted via FishGeeks - http://Aquaria.info The loach idea is tried and true, I like to move my clown loaches between tanks. I have a half dozen 1-4" clown loaches and they do well moving from tank to tank periodically. By the way you get the snails from plants, in my experience. |
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