will5

Most of them no but as for the ramshorn that carry their flat against the surface they are climbing on. They do and will eat plants. Oh and the giant ramshorn also eat plants. They are also illegal.

Dustymac

Hmmmm.... Until getting "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium" I used to be a big anti-snail snob. Don't ask me why but I've seen the error of my ways. Now I have hundreds of pond snails in all my tanks except one. So far I have yet to ever see one of the little buggers ever put a hole in a single plant leaf. I'm not saying it isn't happening in your tank, but if it is, you should be able to see them doing it. Unless, of course, you think they're waiting to eat your leaves when you're not watching.

And remember the tank that doesn't have hundreds of snails? It's not for lack of trying on my part. Ever since my daughter brought home a female Betta to keep her male Betta company, the snails have mysteriously started disappearing. There were hundreds and now there are maybe twenty left. The Betta spends all day hunting through the leaves and she couldn't be less interested in whatever fish food I provide her 20+ tank mates. She's even grown to be bigger than the male! Could be a solution if you think pond snails are the problem, or maybe if your shrimp population starts getting out of control!

Jim

dwalstad

DustyMac,

Thank you for jumping in and defending snails!

Once again...snails clean plant leaves of algae and bacteria. They speed up the decomposition process so that debris is quickly recyclyed into plant nutrients. The fact that many fish love to eat snails (live food for fish) is added bonus.

Very few snail species eat plants. Snails should be a welcome part of the NPT ecosystem.

newbie314

The snails are great for taking out the dead spots in plants.

We clip the yellow leaves off our citrus trees since we only want healthy leaves. Same for water plants. Anything that can remove/prune the bad stuff is great.

And yes my Betta loves snails too. Missing a feeding for him is nothing. Just munches on snails.
He's fat but not bloated.

will5

So it may be that you are lacking potassium. Just try this stuff I gave you and see if it clears up.

yum

I added one dose of the potassium you gave me and I think it helped. The elodea is the fastest grower in the tank and I'd say it made a huge difference in the growth pattern. The new growth was much more condensed. Now I'm not quite sure how often to dose.

And I didn't have the heart to kill any of the snails, so rest assured, they are still in the tank. heh.

I'd love to add a snail eater but then that would probably mean it'd be a shrimp eater too.

So far so good, though. The shrimp are still spawning like nuts and the baby cories are growing nicely.

What is strange, though, is that some of the guppy fry are still tiny like they are only a few weeks old and some are down right giant. I guess that is survival of the fittest, right?

Here is the really weird part, there is only one fry that is coloring up like a male. How is it that out of 20 fry I only have one male? Strange.

Kosh42|EFG

I was thinking of getting guppies for my new tank so did some research. Culling large numbers of fry that are "runts" is the norm for fancy guppy keepers, and that's breeting good quality fish with known linage, mixing gene pools, etc. If your's are store bought guppy's, you may well find that very few fry grow into large, healthy, attractive fish.

Handy guppy breeding info can be found here:

http://www.fancyguppies.co.uk/index.htm

will5

I would start once a month and then work up from there because I don't think you do water changes that often. So they potassium should remain in the tank until it's used up or you do a water change.

Now for the guppies. The sex of guppies is highly affected by the temp of water that they are in. Although I can't remember which is which when it come to what makes more males verses females.

yum

Ok, so it's been a while since my last update. I've pulled out the elodea and put the guppy "runts" into an outdoor pond set up. The tank is just overgrown to the point of it being a nuisance and I'm going to pull out all the rotala as it's not doing well at all in my tank.

I'm going to add some flow with a nano-propeller type "pump" and dose my tank to kill the planaria that are taking over my tank. I didn't mind a few here and there but the walls, plants, everything is crawling with these suckers. I'd love to add a predator to take care of them but I think they would take care of my shrimp too.

My tank is finally reaching the point of needing a major revamp. The sword plants are just too large and I'm not quite sure how to remove them as the roots are probably spread across the entire floor of the tank. Seems a shame to kill it but I might just have to unless I can figure out how to get it out without making a colossal mess.

The shrimp are still breeding well but they do a much better job of hiding and come out in batches which is odd. Some times of the day I can see 5 or 6, other times they are out in full force by the dozens.

Updated pics to come after some chores.

mommyeireanne

You can cut it off flush with the soil level, use a razor blade if you can't cut it with scissors without disturbing the soil. There may be an adjustment period again, from loosing that much plant mass, but it sounds like you have the hang of it...