# nerite or ramshorn PH under 7.0?



## Arv (Oct 3, 2011)

I need other algae eaters and shredders to help out my otos and amanos. From what I've read its best to have a variety of algae eaters (fish, shrimp, and snails) to cover all if not most types of algae. 

As for snails, I heard nerites or ramshorn snails would be the best for the task. However I am concerned about keeping them in CO2 injected soft acidic water. Which one would do better? OR forget about it?


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Mine do ok in softer water. Not great but they do ok. It's more that a low pH tank usually has a low gh/kh, which means low calcium which they need for a good shell. The first thing though, would be the adjust your lights/co2/ferts to combat the algae in the first place. If you already have oto's and amanos and still need more algae eaten, maybe try and fix that first.


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## Arv (Oct 3, 2011)

GeToChKn said:


> Mine do ok in softer water. Not great but they do ok. It's more that a low pH tank usually has a low gh/kh, which means low calcium which they need for a good shell. The first thing though, would be the adjust your lights/co2/ferts to combat the algae in the first place. If you already have oto's and amanos and still need more algae eaten, maybe try and fix that first.


What do you have, nerite or ramshorn? What's not great? Do they die within a year? a month?

I guess I should have been more clear when I said soft acidic water, my dGH is under 2 per my water utility. I haven't tested dKH but with CO2, driftwood, and I'm not sure if the peat under the eco complete has some effect too.

yes, definitely looking into addressing the algae issue but even experienced planted tank owners occasionally have algae issues and this is my first planted tank. 

Plus I think snails are interesting and really want to have some if possible.


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## Arv (Oct 3, 2011)

oh yeah, I only have 4 amanos and 3 otos in a 38G


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

I have ramshorns. They live in there but grow slow and breed really slow. My param's are <6pH, 5gH, 0kH. You can do things like add a bird cuttle bone to the tank to help put in some calcium and give them something to chew on if they feel the need for calcium.


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## Arv (Oct 3, 2011)

GeToChKn said:


> I have ramshorns. They live in there but grow slow and breed really slow. My param's are <6pH, 5gH, 0kH. You can do things like add a bird cuttle bone to the tank to help put in some calcium and give them something to chew on if they feel the need for calcium.


Ok cool yeah I know what you're talking about, those things that birds peck on.

maybe its better that the ramshorns are not breeding as much. What colors do you have?

Thx!


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Arv said:


> Ok cool yeah I know what you're talking about, those things that birds peck on.
> 
> maybe its better that the ramshorns are not breeding as much. What colors do you have?
> 
> Thx!


Mostly golds. Some that are showing blue traits that I might try and breed in a separate tank.


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## kurosuto (May 20, 2009)

i have 2 nerites in my tiger tank(ph<6) but i have no idea what my gh/kh is. I use ada soil+tap water. One of them sleeps all the time(i hope he aint dead) and the other is munching away.


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## eklikewhoa (Aug 29, 2006)

I didn't know till recent that people keep ramshorn like pets. I bought someones whole breeding stock which consist of all the colors available and after reading more into the pet side of it I'm pretty stoked to see what comes in.... so is my Fahaka puffer which was the reason why I bought it.


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## Arv (Oct 3, 2011)

eklikewhoa said:


> I didn't know till recent that people keep ramshorn like pets. I bought someones whole breeding stock which consist of all the colors available and after reading more into the pet side of it I'm pretty stoked to see what comes in.... so is my Fahaka puffer which was the reason why I bought it.


Yeah some people still consider them as pests or food but more and more people use them as shredders and algae eaters.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

I hated rams horns until all my nerites died off. I decided since I couldn't eliminate them without resorting to nasty chemicals no matter how hard I tried, I'd just let them populate the eco niche in my tank and only resort to culling if they overpopulate. I use GH booster every water change to keep the Ca++ levels high enough for shell and shrimp exoskeleton building.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Cuttlebone chunks work great.

In a worst case scenario, you may have to resort to making your own snail food that contains high amounts of calcium.

I've found that giving them spinach on a regular basis helps quite a bit.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

I think it's mostly that in a lower pH tank we tend to keep things like gh/kh lower as well as it comes par for the course with a low ph tank, and that's what the snails need, so adding something to their food or cuttlebone, spinach, etc and they should be fine. I see mine go after shrimp molts sometimes too and they are a great cleanup crew. I saw a pile of about 50 of them the other day in my platy tank, did a quick headcount and was 1 platy down, within an hour they had the thing eaten to nothing. If they weren't there, the fish could have been dead and hidden in plants for a week slowing releasing ammonia.


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## dindin (Mar 4, 2009)

The snails develop white patches on their shells (both ramshorn and nerites). I have loaches that eat the younger ramshorns -- they ate all my trumpet snails -- so I can't tell you how long they will live. I do have a large one in my tank, a ramshorn I mean, that has been in there about 3 years. He's one of maybe 3. I have 7nerites. pH in that tank is 6.2.

I have had an algae outbreak (green hair algae) and am combating it with bristlenose, platy fry, extra otos brought in from other tanks, nerites/ramshorn, and cutting back on light length. Also added some fast growing plants. It has been I think 3 weeks and I'm down to only one plant still showing algae. Don't be afraid to take a multi prong approach.


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## Arv (Oct 3, 2011)

dindin said:


> The snails develop white patches on their shells (both ramshorn and nerites). I have loaches that eat the younger ramshorns -- they ate all my trumpet snails -- so I can't tell you how long they will live. I do have a large one in my tank, a ramshorn I mean, that has been in there about 3 years. He's one of maybe 3. I have 7nerites. pH in that tank is 6.2.
> 
> I have had an algae outbreak (green hair algae) and am combating it with bristlenose, platy fry, extra otos brought in from other tanks, nerites/ramshorn, and cutting back on light length. Also added some fast growing plants. It has been I think 3 weeks and I'm down to only one plant still showing algae. Don't be afraid to take a multi prong approach.


One thing that might help in my case is that during the summer months, our city water supply which is usually snow melt that goes into the river gets supplimented by well water which is much harder so hopefully this will help regenerate their shells.

My problem really are brown hair diatoms. The otos don't seem to like them. they eat everything including the diatoms on the leaves, rocks, and driftwood but my hairgrass is being smothered by the brown hair stuff. The amanos used to eat them but I think they prefer the other stuff. Hopefully when the algae I propagated in preparation for getting otos are gone the otos and amanos will go for it. 

RO water is out of the question so I'm still trying to figure out what to do.

Thanks for the other suggestions - cuttlebone, spinach, gh booster!


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