# Do Ghosties Eat White Fungus Off Driftwood?



## SpecGrrl (Jul 26, 2012)

In my Riparium where I have 1 crowntail betta female and 1 ramshorn snail there is a ton of white fungus on the bottom arch of my driftwood.

I went looking for Amano shrimp locally, but no go.

If I put a ghostie in there, will it eat the fungus?

The snail is trying, but it's slow going and I will likely take him out bc I don't want breeding in that tank. I might get a Nerite and hold it in QT to determine if it's an egg layer or not.


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## kruzerman (May 24, 2012)

My ghosts took their time eating the white threads/fungus on my dw. The pond snails took care of it in no time. Too bad now I have become overrun with snails in that tank. The baby snails have kept my betta fed for the last week and a half. I wish he would eat them without me having to squish them.


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## ValMM (Feb 22, 2011)

kruzerman said:


> The baby snails have kept my betta fed for the last week and a half. I wish he would eat them without me having to squish them.


The shells might be too hard for him to crunch? My betta recently tried to eat a small pond snail, he couldn't do it.


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## SpecGrrl (Jul 26, 2012)

ValMM said:


> The shells might be too hard for him to crunch? My betta recently tried to eat a small pond snail, he couldn't do it.


MSG has a female betta who wait til the snails come out then the betta sucks them out of their shells.

I think one of mine has figured out how to do that bc all the snails in her tank mysteriously disappear.

But the other 2 bettas just try to bite them and get frustrated.


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## ValMM (Feb 22, 2011)

SpecGrrl said:


> MSG has a female betta who wait til the snails come out then the betta sucks them out of their shells.
> 
> I think one of mine has figured out how to do that bc all the snails in her tank mysteriously disappear.
> 
> But the other 2 bettas just try to bite them and get frustrated.


That's pretty awesome. Maybe we can bring our fish over to watch her and she can teach them the art of snail sucking.


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## SpecGrrl (Jul 26, 2012)

ValMM said:


> That's pretty awesome. Maybe we can bring our fish over to watch her and she can teach them the art of snail sucking.


Hahaha, like a Training Workshop for Betta Life Skills!

Survival Snail Sucking!


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## yyankeeyankeefan (Mar 3, 2012)

lol my betta doesn't even care about the snails. he just ignores them. guess he is the lazy one.


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## MSG (Jul 16, 2012)

*Not always a good thing.*

It's a double edged sword. Senetti's so adept at eradicating snails, I have algae problems now. There's at least 3 other tankmates that are skilled in the art of snail hunting, but she's undoubtedly the best at leaving a nice CLEAN shell. 

My little hunter, also has a tendency to tear her fins navigating through tight corners, but recovers quickly. 










In the last 6 photos I was reading an article on the computer and I heard some "dice rolling" noises coming from the tank. 

Sound was from Senny "body slamming" the snail off the floor of the tank. That's when I noticed all the empty shells scattered over over the place. 

I also had some whitish stuff on the d-wood about a week ago. Not sure what happened, but it just vanished one morning. Would like to get some shrimps, but there's no way they would eat the algae before becoming food themselves.


Ideally I would set up a shrimp ONLY tank & occasionally drop dirty ornaments in there for cleaning.


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## ValMM (Feb 22, 2011)

OOH! She is pretty!


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## ValMM (Feb 22, 2011)

Anyways, ghosts take their time eating fungus and algae as a snack. At least mine only eat it when there's no food left.


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## yyankeeyankeefan (Mar 3, 2012)

i have some ghost shrimp in one of my tanks. and it is always spotlessly clean. thank god. they also eat the snails too. i have noticed them catching snails in the gravel and pulling them out of their shells. i feel bad as i imagine there are far more quick and painless ways to take care of your snail problem but i try not to think about it....


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## Elppan (Aug 21, 2012)

My ghosties never touch the stuff, they are too busy running away from and trying to steal food from my Cory cats. My ottos are the BEST at cleaning that junk, my nerites come in second.,


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## yyankeeyankeefan (Mar 3, 2012)

what do you guys keep with your betta? i want to put a cleaner into my tank and eventually get this snail thing under control.....


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## SpecGrrl (Jul 26, 2012)

yyankeeyankeefan said:


> what do you guys keep with your betta? i want to put a cleaner into my tank and eventually get this snail thing under control.....


It depends on the betta. You could have 2 tanks, and switch the betta out for a week.

I am thinking about doing that for my girls. I would just cup them, pu the into my QT tank and put a Nerite in there.

First must find male Nerite.


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## SpecGrrl (Jul 26, 2012)

Anyways I it a ramshorn in there and he ate a bunch of it!

However, my girl betta bit off the ends of his antennae, so I took him out. Poor little Snaily!


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## kruzerman (May 24, 2012)

I should add that once the tank was clean and there was no more use for the ghosts, my betta picked em off one by one. Every morning i would come downstairs to feed him and i would count one less shrimp. It is just the never ending supply of snails and the betta left.


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## SpecGrrl (Jul 26, 2012)

kruzerman said:


> I should add that once the tank was clean and there was no more use for the ghosts, my betta picked em off one by one. Every morning i would come downstairs to feed him and i would count one less shrimp. It is just the never ending supply of snails and the betta left.


if you can bring yourself to squish the snails, the betta will eat them, too.


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## yyankeeyankeefan (Mar 3, 2012)

i just put two ghost shrimp in there. hope they will eat some of the eggs and shrimp going to see in a couple days..if not i am going to take them out and put them in my large tank. they eat all snails that go into that tank. lol. got bottom feeders in there that love snails.


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