I was wondering what you all think of this idea? Genius or stupid? I have hoardes of ramshorns Im growing out for sale, I care not if some die, and Im pretty sure they poop lots. I was thinking of throwing in some vegetable matter a handful of snails and leave it for a few days? I already squeezed out an established sponge in the tank so it probably has some beneficial bacteria in it already but presumably the bacteria needs to be fed. Any thoughts on this?
Cycling with snails?
- Thread starter Alistriwen
- Start date
Not a crazy idea.
The filter bacteria dont care if the ammonia comes from a fish, a snail or a bottle, they will consume it and multiply. Snails are pretty tough, and if you have seeded the tank with some filter bacteria already I doubt the snails will even get stressed.
Just take care, the filter probably wont be fully cycled, the bacteria will only multiply to match the bioload (number of snails) you have in the tank. But after a couple of weeks it should be fine to add a few fish and build up the numbers like normal.
Cheers
Ian
The filter bacteria dont care if the ammonia comes from a fish, a snail or a bottle, they will consume it and multiply. Snails are pretty tough, and if you have seeded the tank with some filter bacteria already I doubt the snails will even get stressed.
Just take care, the filter probably wont be fully cycled, the bacteria will only multiply to match the bioload (number of snails) you have in the tank. But after a couple of weeks it should be fine to add a few fish and build up the numbers like normal.
Cheers
Ian
I have about 8 in there now, I could grab another 30 no problem. More than that and I'd be forced to use tiny ones, we just started growing them seriously recently hehe. I could also throw in some of the quarter sized ones but I dont wanna risk those guys lol.
snails are also a good tell if you have any heavy metals you need to worry about in your water. Also snails can graze off of infrosia which usually occures after about 3 days so they don't need too much attention.
If I'm not mistaken, snails excrete BOTH urea and ammonia and this ratio can change significantly depending upon the species and temperature. So, if they're excreting primarily urea and you take an ammonia reading, the results may be confusing and misleading.