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I've never had snails before and I'm thinking of putting some in my 10g. Soon I will be putting plants in, and even though I don't have a light yet, I already have a little bit of algae.

I want snails to take care of the algae when I have plants. I don't know much about snails though. What do you feed them? What are the best species to keep in my tank? and about how many should I get?

P.S. I've thought about getting otos to control the algae, but I'm worried because I have to transport the entire tank 4 times a year (college). I've heard otos are fagile to transportation.

-Eric
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

If you just want an invert to control algae then I would get some algae eating shrimp such as amanos, cherry, rainbow, and most other caridinia species instead of snails. Red ramshorns and similar non plant eating ramshorns species might work but most snails that are not mostly carnivorous will eat your plants. The carnivorous species will much prefer fish foods and invert foods over algae. They only eat a little in passing or because they are starving and will end up starving to death if fed on algae alone.

That sounds like a good idea. Do the shrimp need supplemental food? And about how many shrimp should i put in my 10g?

-Eric
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Shrimp will eat any fish food you add to the tank so if they finish off the algae you can just add some sinking foods. You only need around 5-6 to eat lots of algae but many sites say you can add as many as 1 per every 1/2-1gallon of tank volume. They don't really add much to the bioload so you can add quite a few shrimp.

Thanks Sham, I'll probably be getting some shrimp on Sunday.

-Eric
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

I got some shrimp today. They are already at work eating my algae. I got 4 amonos. My tetras are curious about them, but pretty much leave them alone.

-Eric
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Is there kinds of algae that the shrimp will not eat?

-Eric
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Spot algae and probably black algae. Spot algae is so flat and stuck to the glass that there aren't really any fish or inverts that can make a meal of it. Black algae just isn't very edible to most things so I doubt they'd eat that. All green algaes aside from spot will probably be happily devoured.

I have 3 shrimps in my tank. 1 male and 2 females which i have bred in the past. I find that the shrimps love live/frozzen food and cucumber. Also mine got sick of algae and so by giving diffrent foods every now and then it helps. To tell is the shrimp is male as he has more round spots on his seconde layer of spots and is smaller. Where as the female is a lot larger and has oval spots on the seconde layer. Hope this helps.

If your breeding them then they aren't amanos. Amanos can't be bred in freshwater tanks.

well i have had them hatch out and keep them in fresh water for 4 days and then change them to salt water untill they grow up then back in to fresh

I know some people have bred them but I haven't heard anyone accomplishing raising them to adults with just 1 change to saltwater and back. Most I talked to altered the salinity 5 or 6 times while the shrimp were growing and several times to the adult tank to get them to breed in the first place. I've always been told the babies don't survive in straight freshwater for even a few days.

it took me some time to get hold of some of the young as the fish in my tank eat them they even it the eggs straight off the shrimp its self. but when i did i go about five and when i got them i did not think they would live long but any way put them in to a breeding tank and 3 where died the next day. the other 2 that where left i put in the salt water adding more salt and doing water changes but in after about 6 weeks of doing this the 2 died. So i have not tryed again but maby i should. but it was a very slap happy approuch. How long would u say it would take to get them to adult size

I'm not sure how long until they are considered adults but I think it's somewhere around 3-4weeks before they can survive in 100% freshwater like the adults. So far this is one of the few good online article I've come across http://www.jayscustomcomputers.com/wilma/Articles/page1.html

One died about 8 hours after I got them. The rest are doing great, so I think it must have been sick or something. I'm going to "return" it for another shrimp.

-Eric
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."