I've got some algea growth on things in the tank and i was wondering if mystery snails would work in the tank. The FH is 6" long and i know they won't fit in his mouth. Do you think it's worth a shot? Or will the FH destroy them? The back wall of the tank and the drift wood are the primary concern. Tried a clown pleco and all he did was hide.
Flowerhorns and snails
- Thread starter HokieFish
- Start date
I have a near 5 inch female flowerhorn. And she does not tolerate anything unfamiliar in her waters - be it animate or inanimate. I tried coaxing a convict cichlid once. The next morning I found it very dead with half his tail missing. Had a lot of hiding places for the convict. But nothing worked. My flowerhorn poked and probed till she could snap at it. A pleco or a snail would be real dead meat, I guess, for any flowerhorn.
Yeh, my FH has been tolerant of everything except the MagFloat cleaner. He attacks that, but it may because of the sounds it makes. The pleco is still in the tank, but not really doing anything for the algae just hanging out on a rock. The FH doesn't bother it at all, but then again the Pleco was already in the tank when the FH was put in there.
I may give the snails a shot just to see if they can make a dent in the growth on the back of the tank. I really hadn't paid much attention the the accumulation because i was planning on upgrading to a larger tank, but now that it seems like it is taking longer than expected to find a 90+ tank on craigslist near me (and not someone trying to sell a whole setup with a stand, filtration, and lighting for what they paid retail), i feel like i should do something about the algae.
I may give the snails a shot just to see if they can make a dent in the growth on the back of the tank. I really hadn't paid much attention the the accumulation because i was planning on upgrading to a larger tank, but now that it seems like it is taking longer than expected to find a 90+ tank on craigslist near me (and not someone trying to sell a whole setup with a stand, filtration, and lighting for what they paid retail), i feel like i should do something about the algae.
The pleco probably does not want to invite some unwelcome attention from your FH. For a while my FH had me fooled. I thought she was probably the most docile fish I could ever hope to have. Till I let the convict in.
Snails, uh? Should be interesting to see how your FH reacts to them. If he can manage to find a way to eat them, probably you might never had snails in your tank at all!
How big is your tank? How frequently do you change the water? I wish to compare notes just to check whether I am on the right side. Algae you said, it was? Sunlight direct on your tank? Read that direct sunlight promotes growth. Can you post a picture of your tank?
Snails, uh? Should be interesting to see how your FH reacts to them. If he can manage to find a way to eat them, probably you might never had snails in your tank at all!
How big is your tank? How frequently do you change the water? I wish to compare notes just to check whether I am on the right side. Algae you said, it was? Sunlight direct on your tank? Read that direct sunlight promotes growth. Can you post a picture of your tank?
Right now he is in a 55gallon, looking to upgrade. I have realized that my timer for my tank lights is on for too long during the day, so i've adjusted that. THe other three walls of the tank are clear of growth because of my mag float. Filtration is two H.O.T. Magnums. No direct sunlight, but i do have the compact florecent lighting that i used when it was a planted tank. I'm trying not to use chemicals to treat the algae. The water parameters are good, i do three water changes per week.
Picking up snails this afternoon. if it doesn't work out, i guess they will just be escargot for the Flower Horn.
Picking up snails this afternoon. if it doesn't work out, i guess they will just be escargot for the Flower Horn.
You said it was a planted tank? Meaning it isn't any more? Chemicals is probably not a good idea. IMO any chemical / medicine is poison in any case for fish.
I have no clue which part of NC you live in. But you may have had a look at this already...
I do not live anywhere near your region. So wouldn't have any clue on the pricing aspect. But 90 gallon is a pretty big tank by my standards considering I have barely half the size of tank you have now.
Three water changes per week? That is huge. I replace about 40% water in my fish tank per week.
I have no clue which part of NC you live in. But you may have had a look at this already...
Code:
http://charlotte.craigslist.org/for/2647793566.htmlI do not live anywhere near your region. So wouldn't have any clue on the pricing aspect. But 90 gallon is a pretty big tank by my standards considering I have barely half the size of tank you have now.
Three water changes per week? That is huge. I replace about 40% water in my fish tank per week.
Just get an algae scrubber from your local petsmart for $5. It looks like a sponge on a stick. Snails don't work anyway so why risk it being killed or your flowerhorn choking on it.
Algae scrubbers can work. However, it becomes a tedious process. IMO searching for a solution to prevent algae growth may be effective. While snails would clean (though I don't know how many one would require to effectively make a cleaning crew), a FH probably wouldn't choke on them while eating. I have noticed my FH actually tearing or grinding on its food before swallowing the meal. Unlike Oscars which have the habit of gulping down food as a whole.
Just wanted to update you guys.
Because of the way the tank is decorated the scrubber wasn't very effective (i already had one) because of having to rearrange the tank to get to the back wall. It has a background on the outside of the tank, so my MagFloat wouldn't work.
I picked up 5 snails, and they are going to town. The FH played (i say play because he was more curious than aggressive) with the smallest one for a few minutes, picking it up and dropping it, but then it seemed to get bored and he hasn't bothered any of them since then.
Like i mentioned, the root cause was that the timer for the high output lighting was set for too long and since I go to work before 7am and don't return until after 5pm I had not noticed that the lights were on for almost 12 hours per day. I have now adjusted the timer, and the growth has stopped for the most part (it's no longer spreading) and the snails are actually scraping some of it up.
It is all for naught at this point (other than the knowledge gained during this experiment) because I'm picking up a 150 gallon tank today, so i'll be breaking down this 55 in the next couple of days. The Flowerhorn isn't going to know what to do with all the room he will have. The pet store had him in a 20 gallon Long tank (who knows what he was in before that since he was dropped off at the LFS) and he was around 5.5" long at the time, I brought him home and put him in a 55 gallon and he really seemed to like it, now he is getting three times that amount of room!
Because of the way the tank is decorated the scrubber wasn't very effective (i already had one) because of having to rearrange the tank to get to the back wall. It has a background on the outside of the tank, so my MagFloat wouldn't work.
I picked up 5 snails, and they are going to town. The FH played (i say play because he was more curious than aggressive) with the smallest one for a few minutes, picking it up and dropping it, but then it seemed to get bored and he hasn't bothered any of them since then.
Like i mentioned, the root cause was that the timer for the high output lighting was set for too long and since I go to work before 7am and don't return until after 5pm I had not noticed that the lights were on for almost 12 hours per day. I have now adjusted the timer, and the growth has stopped for the most part (it's no longer spreading) and the snails are actually scraping some of it up.
It is all for naught at this point (other than the knowledge gained during this experiment) because I'm picking up a 150 gallon tank today, so i'll be breaking down this 55 in the next couple of days. The Flowerhorn isn't going to know what to do with all the room he will have. The pet store had him in a 20 gallon Long tank (who knows what he was in before that since he was dropped off at the LFS) and he was around 5.5" long at the time, I brought him home and put him in a 55 gallon and he really seemed to like it, now he is getting three times that amount of room!
Mystery snails don't work. They don't really graze much on algae preferring decaying to dead vegetation and food leftovers but still gobble up hair algae whenever they want. Flowerhorns are absolutely out of the question as tank mates for these snails. They'll unlikely survive being attacked around as mystery snails are prone to stress when disturbed too much.
You could give horned nerite snails a shot but your FH might injure itself trying to hit them around. Since the nerites are rather inconspicuous when brown or black, they may be your best bet. They're available with or without spines. Be sure you have constant supply of algae as nerites do not at anything else much but algae and will starve to death if the supply dwindles quickly.
You could give horned nerite snails a shot but your FH might injure itself trying to hit them around. Since the nerites are rather inconspicuous when brown or black, they may be your best bet. They're available with or without spines. Be sure you have constant supply of algae as nerites do not at anything else much but algae and will starve to death if the supply dwindles quickly.