hey, you can easily find a dealer on the web. make sure they are BW nerites.(nerita sp.) they can live in either SW, FW or BW. google zebra nerites. I know of no other BW creature better at eating algae, thought I have no first hand experience with them. they seel them at LA:http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1076landmineyouth;565638; said:
Algae eater for brackish water...
- Thread starter landmineyouth
- Start date
Ali;565483; said:
well they are usually in freshwater, but some are admittadly found towards the saltier parts, but only really "tolerate it" and are free to leave it, only in mildly brackish water. a salinity that wyldfya said is too much. they way i see it is you could, but it would be like keeping a moray in freshwater. they come from soft blackwaters, the opposite of brackish. ive seen plecos kept in brackish water and they swell up really big and develop huge boils as they can not pass excess water because their osmosis regulatory organs can not function.
What else is in the tank? If you have a puffer, than forget about the snails. Scats love algae and mine grazes on it all the time (I have to give him Pleco wafers and dried sea weed). You have a big tank, try a Scat.
landmineyouth;566049; said:
Do you have puffers? If you don't get the Nerites. Purigen will also remove nitrates (mine are 0) so that could help too.
I have Nerites I got here
http://www.azgardens.com/pond_snails.php
though I have also bought them off aquabid. i lost that first batch when I had to treat for leeches (don't ask). I now have 20 or so in my 110 gal brackish tank (~1.005), and everything in the tank is polished, including the glass. If we are having company, I'll scrape, but I literally have gone months without cleaning the glass.
As I understand it, marine nerites of great variety are common in the trade, but it is the "olive" ones that are brackish.
http://www.azgardens.com/pond_snails.php
though I have also bought them off aquabid. i lost that first batch when I had to treat for leeches (don't ask). I now have 20 or so in my 110 gal brackish tank (~1.005), and everything in the tank is polished, including the glass. If we are having company, I'll scrape, but I literally have gone months without cleaning the glass.
As I understand it, marine nerites of great variety are common in the trade, but it is the "olive" ones that are brackish.
for the most part mine hangs low since hes the smallest thing in the tank... first day in the archer tried to eat him LOL.. but he quickly backed away... every now and then the puffer nips on my columbian shark, and he also bit up my scat one time in a tank move, otherwise he's OK.... i mean, how many snails would he eat and how quickly? I dont mind buying them since a snail now and then is good for him as it is..
i got some nerite snail off ebay when i had 3 archers in brackish water of about 1.004... they got the job done to a certain degree... only had three though in a 20gallon tank and when you feed archers like 3 crickets a day at least there is a lot of mess left... so i got a red scat but he died? so i would say scats do a good job but maybe stick with snails though as said before puffers can be a bit dodgy with snails... lol
