Amazing Algae Control

[Terrybo]

Some of the members of the local planted aquarium society decided to get a group order of Olive Nerites or Olive Snails, which are supposed to be the greatest thing for controlling algae in planted tanks. These snails keep the glass sparkling, clean algae off the plants without damaging the leaves and can only reproduce in brackish water. Turns out the claims are true. The only drawback we've found so far is that the snails lay little white eggs on the glass, rocks, and driftwood, which don't hatch, but you may find annoying. I got my snails on April 9 and here is a picture I took today of the tank -I have not cleaned the glass since April 9, and when the snails went into the tank, a lot of the anubias leaves were covered in hard dark algae that would not come off.

Terry

[Terrybo]

Here is a picture of an Olive Nerite - you can see some white eggs on the glass below it. It is about 3/4" in length.

[Terrybo]

Here is a picture of one of the little guys working for his living.

[Greg Richardson]

Beautiful tank and fish!

[Condor]

Very nice! Think you might try reproducing some?

-Adrian

[Terrybo]

They reproduce in brackish water - I don't have time or space to maintain a tank to breed them, but I'm hoping one of my local hobbyists will so that we will have a constant supply.

Terry

[Spices]

Nice tank; I've been looking into invertaebrates as a source of removing algae. thanks.
:sun:
angie

[aquaticplantman]

Terry,

Could you tell us where you ordered the snails from? I'd love to get my hands on a dozen or so of those.

-- Matt H.

[Huy Nguyen]

Hey Terry
Thanks for the info. BTW, how big is your tank? And how many Olive snail you have in the tank? Do the discus eat those tiny white eggs of the snail?

Huy

[tpl*co]

I've been see them listed for reef tank algae control, are they the same snail? I want them too! I'm tired of black or sooty anubias :(.

[Terrybo]

I have them in a 75 gallon tank. The supplier says to stock one per gallon -that's WAY too many. I probably have around 10 in my tank, but then my tank is not heavily stocked with discus, and I'm feeding primarily live foods, so some people may need more. I forgot to mention one really neat feature of these snails, they come out of the water and crawl upside down all along the glass cover and glass center support of the tank, cleaning the algae off those as well! When they are done, they go back into the tank where they belong! Mine have the tank so clean I've given them a little bit of zucchini to make sure they don't go hungry. We got them from a place called Arizona Aquatic Gardens. Here is the link http://www.azgardens.com/aquarium_snails.php
Everyone says the eggs are very hard to scrape off. I've never tried, they just sort of eventually disappear from my tank - maybe the cories?

Terry

[KIWI13]

Very nice indeed, I have an apple snail but he doesnt do the same job ofcourse. I would love to get som eof these guys, you know their latin name ??

Terry awesome tank there buddy.

[nacra99]

Very nice indeed, I have an apple snail but he doesnt do the same job ofcourse. I would love to get som eof these guys, you know their latin name ??

Terry awesome tank there buddy.

I think that it might be Neritina reclivata

Cheers
Marc

[nacra99]

Found someplace that sells it!!!
http://www.azgardens.com/aquarium_snails.php

Marc

[Scott S.]

I'm not a big fan of using snails to control algae. My pleco squad (3 4 inchers) can handle the job of my 125 with relative ease.

[Terrybo]

Scott - What type of plecos do you use? Mine have never kept my glass spotless. It always had a light green coating, and my anubias seemed to be getting hard dark green algae on the leaves that the bristlenose pleco weren't dealing with. (Now keep in mind, I have a low tech tank with only 80 watts of lighting and no CO2, so perhaps my conditions are more conducive to algae in the first place).

Terry

[Scott S.]

My tank is the same way. The lights are good, but i'm not running C02. I just have 3 of your good ol' fashioned brown plecos. They're about 5" long each and keep 95% of algae at bay. It's true, it's not a 100% clean, but I've had issues with snails before (emptied my tank an let it sit for a year w/ no water and when i refilled it snails came back! :( ) so I've sworn them off.

[jesse]

Hello,

anybody knows if the Neritina natalensis are doing the same job ?

Jess

[pikashy]

I ordered some off of aquaticplantdepot.com and I was wondering if clown loaches will eat these? My clown loaches are pretty small right now, about 1 1/2 inches.

[ronrca]

I definitely want some. Plus they dont reproduce only in brackish water! Thats great as I hate tanks over run with snails. I suppose I would have to get rid of the clowns though.

[shalu]

The only drawback we've found so far is that the snails lay little white eggs on the glass, rocks, and driftwood, which don't hatch, but you may find annoying. Terry
true, I put some in the tank couple of days ago, and saw white eggs on glass already the next day :) They do clean the green spot algae quite effectively. I bought them from here:
http://crayfishshop.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=56

Also bought some beautiful Virgin nerites. They were from saltwater and supposed to acclimate to freshwater as well, I am half way there. A few more days and they will be in full freshwater.
http://img240.echo.cx/img240/4413/nerite4wi.jpg
http://img240.echo.cx/img240/5572/nerite27wr.jpg
http://img240.echo.cx/img240/8788/nerite35de.jpg

[pikashy]

Has anyone had snails and clown fish living together with any luck?

[ValorG]

I just bought these snails because of this post and they are doing a good job compaired to my 2 bristlenose plecos who dont do anything. For my tank i just feel that a lot of them would be needed to really clean everything up and that would be an ugly sight. But for a small tank they would be great.

[shalu]

I got some olive nerites about a month ago. They laid tons of white eggs on the glass, but almost everyone on the net says they don't hatch in freshwater . I kept finding empty egg shells on the glass after a period of time, and thought they might have hatched. Well, last night, I caught one larva just coming out of the egg shell! Will post a pic later :). I can't find the larva anymore this morning.

Now the question is, what happens to the larvae after hatching? Do they die without brackish/saltwater? If I can separate some larvae out without killing them, then I can find out the answer in a small container.

The same thing might be happening with my Virgin nerites(in both fresh and salt water), except their eggs are much smaller and harder to track the larvae.

[ValorG]

after a week and a half in my tank they laid eggs and in 1 day or 2 have hatch and now i see tiny white half clam looking things on my glass. im actually happy since i wanted more and i love these guys. I can sell off the extras anyway. ^_^ btw my tank is a regular discus/planted tank with no trace of salt in it.

[funkyfish]

i have a 4 inch clown loach that lives with my angels and there are rams horn
snails in there but i never see any baby snails just the bigger one's i put in.
every few months i have to take some big ones out of my snail farm\african tank to replace the one's that dye

[shalu]

after a week and a half in my tank they laid eggs and in 1 day or 2 have hatch and now i see tiny white half clam looking things on my glass. im actually happy since i wanted more and i love these guys. I can sell off the extras anyway. ^_^ btw my tank is a regular discus/planted tank with no trace of salt in it.
Do you actually see empty egg shells after only a day or two? I observed that they take quite long to hatch, maybe week to 10 days. The eggs turn from white to brown color, and then hatch. This is a pic of newly hatched larvav, coming out of the egg shell.:
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/9118/neritehatch3la.jpg

I believe the larvae actually die not long after, based on my observation. More on that later, with pictures

[ValorG]

hmm maybe i am just seeing the white eggs, but they came from the jelly like sac so i thought that they hatched already. and the white half clam things do look like they move from day to day cuz i see diff ones all the time.

[shalu]

Nerite snails do not produce "jelly like sac", like other snails do. They simply scatter the white eggs on glass and other surfaces. The half shells you see are probably freshwater limpets, which I also have in the tanks.

[lesley]

On behalf of the plecos, I have one common browny pleco about 11" long, one common pleco a blondy brown about 8" long, six (I think they are still all there!) bristlenoses about 2" long in a 683 litre heavily planted tank with 10 discus. My glass is usually spotless, I have even begun dosing the tank to both encourage plant growth and some more algae because the plecos are cleaning it all up!

I have one common spotted pleco and about six bristlenose and peppermint plecos in a 250 litre tank - same thing, am dosing to get more algae for them to eat!

I have found that the plecos also get rid of snails!!!! Not like the clown loaches in the discus tank who obviously prefer other food!

I haven't tried your snails and actually like the look of snails, but would not be game to introduce any after the probs I have had with snails taking over in the past.