I don't have any snails in my tank at the moment. I have some peaceful fish, semi-aggresive, and some timid ones. Would it be a good idea to add a Black Mystery Snail to my tank? If it is, should I get one snail, two, or how many? They won't bother the fish, will they? If anyone has advice please post it up.
~Caroline~ :blink:

if you have a loach (which it sounds like you are trying ot figure out) you dont want ot spend money on snails. loaches love to eat snails.

Wow. i never knew that. Do loaches still eat snails if its a big one? What if the snail I'm getting is way bigger than the loach's head? Will it still eat it?
~Caroline~ :D
PS-Thanks!!

im not sure, but i wouldnt be surprised. i dont like to have snails, they always died on me. for algae i just like algae eaters.

Good advice, thanks. Yeah I guess I shouldn't risk the snails getting eaten up. I've seen tactful ways fish use to eta snails and it isn't very pleasant. Fish can just eat the snail out of its shell, ick.

~Caroline~
I like algae eaters too. i used to have some placos.

i dont like plecos, they arent usually as good at eating algae as algae eaters, and once they get over a certain size they produce way too much poop to be worth keeping, in my opinion.

I stopped getting plecos last year. they kept dying on me after a few months. Yeah algae eaters are much better to keep. I saw your posts and pics they were cool BTW.

~Caroline~ :lol:

which ones? you can reply to each with your reactions, that way i know what you like. you can also post a question about anything in the thread, i love helping people and answering any questions.

yup check your pics i replyed you should see them they are really nice. I have some posts on the Aquariums message page there are three do you have nay more advice for them?
~Caroline~
:D

i dont think a dojo would eat a full grown snail, the botia loaches eat the snails alot more than dojos would, i dont even think they would eat them. i had 1 and it didnt eat any snails.

they are also planted tank destroyers, i thought it was a 20 gallon?

oh really? Thanks then. I might get a Black Mystery from the petstore then. Do you know how long they usually live if I get a medium-sized one from the start?
~Caroline~ :rolleyes:

Robyn had a gold mystery snail in her 40 gallon, you should read about that on her site. Im not 100% sure if the snail would be okay so wait for someone who knows. ;)

okay thank you yes I'll wait. I wonder how much they cost?
~Caroline~ :lol:

they wouldnt cost much. not many people buy them.

oh really? Wow. Thanks for the tips. thats good they dont cost much.
~Caroline~ :rolleyes:

im guess 1-5 dollars, i doubt they are more than 3 at most places though.

hmm interesting! thats good news. thanks
~Caroline~ ;)

heres a link from robyns site

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/snail2.htm

Some loaches eat snails. Which species of loaches do you have? Dojo loaches are not big snail eaters. Loaches mostly eat small snails. A loach or any picky-type fish (goldfish, algae eaters, etc.) can harass and bite off enough of a larger snail's exposed parts to eventually kill it. Mystery snails are apple snails. See applesnail.net for tons of information on them. They grow pretty large so in a 20 gallon, they will have a pretty big presence (just one of them that is). Apple snails can live a decade.

I've had plecos (two species), real Siamese algae eaters, and false Siamese algae eaters. The plecos were good at eating attached algae. The "algae eaters" sometimes nibble a little but mostly eat fish food. They're quite the pigs. If by "algae eater," you meant Chinese algae eater, then they really don't do a great job with eating algae either, especially as boisterous adults.

Which animal did you mean was a "plant destroyer?" Some species of apple snail will eat all plants in the tank but a few don't. I got stuck with a plant vacuum.

Apple snails cost about $3.

i dont know which species i meant, just that some will destroy plants. I dont know what size tank she has, we will find out tomorrow when she gives me the dimensions. My dojo loach didnt eat any of my pond snails, i say its okay. on the other hand my clowns ate tons!

the black mysteries at my work are 1-1.5" and $1.79. the algae eaters i refer to are simply called algae eaters, so i would have to see pics of true and false to see which one im thinking of. i have seen them clean a 29 with most of the glass covered in just a few days. from my experience they are great at eating algae.

Chinese algae eaters are most commonly sold as alage eater. they are okay alage eaters when young but are cranky and bad algae eaters when old.

Thanks guys. I got lots of info from just that thread. oh mysteries are apple snails? Cool. Never knew that. I only have one loach, and thats a dojo. By the way, anybody know how to determine the gender of a dojo loach?
~Caroline~ :lol:

most loaches cant be breed and i think dojo is one of them, so basically its not important to know the gender becuase you cant breed them.

they have dojos, clown loaches, and i think a couple others at petsmart, and petsmart only carries captive bred animals.

you can breed clown loaches? i havent heard of it. I havent read ANYTHING about that. i dont think you can. can you show me some prof about them being breed.

im telling you, PetsMart only carries captive bred animals, its part of their policies (i know, i worked there for a couple months), and they carry clown loaches. discus are worse than clown loaches and they breed a lot of those.

Clown loaches are bred in captivity, in tanks. The adults have to be big in a big tank. I've not read anything about dojo breeding but I'm sure they could be raised in warm ponds.

Any animal can breed (or they wouldn't exist). It's just a matter of whether one can mimic what they need.

Thanks!! I wasn't planning to breed my dojo loach, I was just curious to see if mine was a male or a female. Any distinctive traits I can tell from?
~Caroline~

robyn that is sort of true. i have seen 1000+ gallon reefs with a school of tangs and tangs cant be breed in capitivity. theres this guy that had 15 adult clowns in a 300 gallon and they havent spawned, i wonder what triggers it.

Hmm..does anyone know the easiest freshwater fish there is to breed in captivity? I have no clue which one that is.
~Caroline~ :)

when you move the bichir out of the 16 gallon you could breed fish easier. beginner breeding fish are white cloud mountain minnows, most live bearers(guppies, platies, molies, swordtails and more), and zebra danios. Robyn may know some more and if you loom in her site you will find pages about all those fish.

Looming huh. Actually, I don't have pages on platies, mollies, or swordtails. I just have pages on fish I've had myself. The first eggs I had in a tank were goldfish but they all the eggs died with one hatching. I kept him alive for a week. For a beginner, guppies are pretty easy.

yah i meant the guppies, white clouds and zebra danios. ;)

Okay. Can you tell me the names of some aggresive fish? I'm not an expert in that area, I only know a few. I have trouble sometimes finding non-aggresive fish.
~Caroline~ ;)

why aggresive? you should know you cant mix community with aggresive, there not called aggresive for nothing. go to www.liveaquaria.com. you should reaserch fish there.

Yeah I'm trying to AVOID mixing aggressive fish with peaceful community fish. That is a problem sometimes, I get an aggressive fish by accident. Right now though all my fish are doing well together, thats good. thanks for the site! i'll take a look at it.
~caroline~ :)

liveaquaira is sometimes wrong so check with us first. if you do reaserch before buying fish you wont have that problem. ;)

Yeah thats good advice, thanks.
~Caroline~