Shrimp & Snails

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fishn10s

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Aug 28, 2006
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Southern Calif
Shrimp & Snails

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I am planning to add a couple of Amano shrimp to my 75 gal community fish tank. My question is what kind of bio load do they place on the system as lets say compared to a small fish (guppy). Can they actually effectively help to control the algae in your tank. About how many would you suggest to place in the tank. I was planning to add them because of the beneficial algae eating characteristic they have, but also I think they are a neat and interesting addition to the tank. I was thinking 3-4 as long as they didn't add as much load to the system as a fish.

Also, same question for snail however no snail in particular. I have read about some large snails but I wouldn't want one to large. Does anyone have any suggestions for a snail that maybe looks and/or acts interestion and is beneficial to the tank?

Thanks in advance for any input.
 
I'm not sure about snails but amano shrimp are great. They're always walking around taking algae off my tank. And they don't produce much bio load at all. I would say less then a guppy. As long as there's no big fish that could eat them they would be great.
 
What fish do you have in the tank? Some fish like to snack on shrimps and snails.

I'm guessing, but I would say amano and similar shrimps would be slightly less bioload than a guppy.

Mystery snails don't grow very large. The relitively tiny pond snails, mayasian trumpet snails, etc, would also be benificial additions as well, but just keep in mind they grow and multiply according to how much food there getting.
 
Malaysian Trumpet Snails are probably the most beneficial of all snails, as they burrow through the gravel, eating leftovers. You probably won't see them most of the time, but for some people that's a plus. Not sure of their bioload, but I have A LOT of them without any problems. Red Ramshorn snails are attractive, but unlike MTS they eat plants.
 
Where can you buy these trumpet snails? I like the idea of having something going through my sand to keep it moved around. Also, if they are under the sand, my clown loaches might not find them so quickly.
 
dorkfish said:
What fish do you have in the tank? Some fish like to snack on shrimps and snails.

I'm guessing, but I would say amano and similar shrimps would be slightly less bioload than a guppy.

Mystery snails don't grow very large. The relitively tiny pond snails, mayasian trumpet snails, etc, would also be benificial additions as well, but just keep in mind they grow and multiply according to how much food there getting.
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My tank has all small community fish. 3 neon rainbows, 5 male guppies, 1 spotted cory, 4 neon tetras, and 2 longfin zebra danios.

So snails and shrimp produce a bio load similar or a little less than a comparible sized fish. For some reason, I was thinking a lot less.

Do all snails reproduce. If I just get 1, is it worth it? I just don't want to have a lot of snails in the tank.
 
with a tank that big, i would add 5-10 amanos. i have a hard enough time looking for my 3 in a 20G tank. they do a great job in cleaning up both algae and other uneaten organic matter in your tank. they still add to the bio load, but its very very small compared to fish and their ability to clean the tank outweighs it.
 
shrimp, in my experience, add almost no bioload. I think you'd have to have at least 20 amanos or ghosties before you notice a difference in nitrogenous wastes. Snails will add some, but not as much as a fish (someone correct me if I'm wrong), unless it's one of those giant hand-sized apple snails. Some people use snails to keep their hospital tanks cycled, but it takes a LOT of them as well. Hope that helps!

I love both the little buggers (shrimp and snails) myself and consider them essential to my clean-up crew. I recently lost all my ghost shrimp :( due to an accident with root tabs, and I really noticed a difference in the amount of particle crap in the gravel!
 
well when the snail reaches a certain size (baseball, tennis ball, not sure) your going to want to treat it as a regular fish because it will be a lot more noticeable in terms of your bio load. and from personal experience, you can see their poop and they poop a lot. at first i thought they were eggs but after a while, you know its poop. they did help curb the fungus that was growing on my ship decor and they eat some algae, but most of the algae in my tank is the tough to remove brown algae in the glass, and neither the shrimp nor snail go for it. but in all, they do help to keep my tank cleaner and im planning on getting maybe 2 or 3 more amanos.

sorry to hear about your ghost shrimps plah (or paula)
 
icecubez189 said:
sorry to hear about your ghost shrimps plah (or paula)
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Either one works! "Plah" is just how my name sounds when said very fast :)

Thanks for the consolation. I had only had them for a couple weeks. The only one I was sad to lose was my "queen" who I bred accidentally from my original pair of ghost shrimp that lived for over a year and a half! I think the new ghosties were poor quality and probably gave her a disease as she passed on before the root tab incident. Sigh. It's sad that stores treat ghost shrimp like they're expendable, so they suffer a lot of abuse :(

and you're right that snails poop a lot! I have many in empty breeder tanks and they can coat the floor in string of crap in a few days! I don't know if they produce ammonia the way fish do, though? :huh:
 
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