number of snails per gallon

[frankenfish]

my 5 gallon has a nice covering of green algae coating most surfaces. its also got some of that stringy green algae too. i was gonna grab a nerite snail or two tomorrow to get to work in there but i have some confusion as to how many. one site i saw said 1 snail per gallon. that seems really excessive to me. what does the forum decree?

 

[ryanoh]

For nerites I don't know since I've only ever had one in my 40, but my trumpet snails just sort of exist in mass hiding under the sand. Someone on the forum once told me to just count all your snails like they were one fish.

 

[lauraf]

I'd do either one or two nerites in the 5g . . . . see how they handle the work

 

[frankenfish]

2 it is. i'l go get em as soon as i wake up. will they take care of the stringy stuff too or will they just do the glass coating?

 

[lauraf]

What kind of stringy stuff do you have? Is it hair algae? Not sure nerites will do that, but cherry shrimp should . . . .

 

[pateceramics]

Sounds like your 5 gallon is pretty heavily stocked from your signature. You may still have algae problems, even with snails. ):

Any chance you could move up to a 10 gallon? What do other people think?

 

[riseabovethesun]

I agree with Laura about having two and also that they may not eat the stringy algae, but definitely near every other algae. Also I would keep in mind that nerites are a bit different than the other snails, once they clean your tank and run out of algae it's possible that they can die off from lack of food whereas the other ramshorn, apple, or mts can pretty easily survive without a nice supply of algae. Nerites also do better in harder water, soft water can soften their shell in some instances.

Oh and when you do get them and start finding white spots every where, you may be like me and totally freak out, but it's just their eggs they are leaving around that you can scrape off, since they don't reproduce in freshwater, just lay eggs.

 

[frankenfish]

my fish store was out of nerites so i got a trap door and a apple snail. the apple snail ended up having a hole in its shell and was getting eaten alive by my corys so i brought it back and they gave me another trap door which i put in my frog tank.

 

[riseabovethesun]

Ah, well at least they exchanged that for you Snails are fun, have fun with them and become an invert fanatic like me.

 

[frankenfish]

the only thing that concerns me is that they're not very active. neither of them have really moved since yesterday.

 

[SnailTank]

What's your water temp like?

I have three 'mystery' snails and one onion snail in a 30 gallon tank with three fancy goldfish. The warmer the water is, the more active they will be. However, since goldfish are coldwater fish, I keep the temp at 74 degrees. That's right at the bottom of the range for snails, but on the high end for goldfish.

Also, when you put the snails in a new tank, they may not move for three days. I've had snails that I was certain were dead, but when I scooped them out of the tank, they slammed thier little doors shut.

 

[frankenfish]

the fish tank i try to keep between 76 and 78. the frog tank is unheated but i was told thats fine for trap doors.

 

[SnailTank]

They're probably just adjusting to the new tank, then.