# Spixi Apple Snail (Asolene spixi) in a Shrimp Tank (GOOD OR BAD IDEA)



## livebearer (Jun 4, 2006)

spixis are fine in shrimp tanks, i have tons of babies in my tank with cherry shrimp now, all are doing well, i even had the 3 parent of the babies with my shrimp and every thing went well , no deaths no miscarriages . this is the second shrimp tank with spixis so go ahead knock them hydra out

:icon_smil


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## Lifeblood (Jan 31, 2012)

I have one in all of my shrimp tanks, I am not sure what could make it a bad idea.

Edit: I have never even seen a hydra in one of my tanks.


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## shrimpzoo (Sep 27, 2011)

do they need to be fed by an outside source? or do they find their own food like shrimp do  ?


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## Lifeblood (Jan 31, 2012)

shrimpzhu said:


> do they need to be fed by an outside source? or do they find their own food like shrimp do  ?


The will eat the same stuff you eat your shrimp, but mostly survive on what is in the tank. They may even pick up the crumbs, so to speak.

*If you have really soft water they may need some alternate source of calcium or they wont be able to grow*


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## shrimpzoo (Sep 27, 2011)

I think my water is hard enough for snails. And I guess I'll start feeding a bit more when I get my 1 zebra apple snail (like every 4-5 days or every week).

I kind of stopped feeding my RCS lol. They've been doing fine though. Lots of stuff biofilm can grow on in the tank.

I think I'm going to go to a water change now.

Thanks for the replies all.


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## shrimpzoo (Sep 27, 2011)

Oh dear... is it true Zebra Apple Snails will eat other snails?


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## Lifeblood (Jan 31, 2012)

shrimpzhu said:


> Oh dear... is it true Zebra Apple Snails will eat other snails?


Yes they can, but it is unlikely to have any affect of the population of other snails in the tank.


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## shrimpzoo (Sep 27, 2011)

I should probably get some more MTS (+3 or 4) just incase. Should be fine.


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## Tiger (Apr 17, 2012)

Lifeblood said:


> Yes they can, but it is unlikely to have any affect of the population of other snails in the tank.


Do you know if they would eat nerite snails or just tiny pest snails?


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## Lifeblood (Jan 31, 2012)

Tiger said:


> Do you know if they would eat nerite snails or just tiny pest snails?


any snails they eat would be incidental and small.


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## randyl (Feb 1, 2012)

I accidentally found out that my apple snails eat hydras too.

I have a Fluval Spec (2.5G) that used to have shrimps in. I then moved the shrimps to bigger tanks and leave only some peacock moss and floaters in the tank. After a few weeks, this is what happened.










These hydras reproduce really quick. I found a few of them and then they took over the tank. I have no idea what they at because there's no fish/shrimp in the tank.

Then, 3 weeks ago my son got interested in apple snails, so I got these for him. I know nothing about snails but was told these are golden apple snails.

















Guess what, I could count hundreds of hydras before the snails went in, but a week later, I couldn't find even one hydra in the tank.


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## Ebichua (May 13, 2008)

Spixis are considered to be dwarf apple snails, so I am not surprised they ate your hydra. When I was breeding spixis a few years back, I only used pea sized spixis in my tank and allowed them to live with the shrimp all the way till they became marble size. Anything bigger, I would rotate them out and repeat back to pea size. Too big of a spixi caused problems with my shrimp terrain. For one, they weren't able to squeeze into those tight spots hydra can easily hide in. Two, they would share algae pellets with my shrimp and quite frankly, their entire body just covered the darn pellet. Should I even consider that sharing still? Third, I just like smaller things and keeping it cute.

However, the first two reasons I gave are probably the most practical ones to why you should keep young spixis as opposed to older ones. 
I had the luxury of running various tanks, so I had one tank with small fish and used that tank to breed spixis constantly. Sold ones that got too big and kept small ones for myself.


*edit*
I forgot, I should note that these guys LOOOOVE eating frogbit. They can and WILL eat some plants, even if fed. And yes, even healthy plants. So be wary of what you are keeping. I know for a fact a lot of things like to eat frogbit and spixis are no exception. They did leave my moss alone and did not eat it at all. Ferns are fine too. I did not do a lot of testing with what they will or will not eat, but frogbit is one I know for sure, they will consume voraciously.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

Spixi wont eat hydra, you need a spixi x marissa cross. Those are the ones that eat hydra. HOWEVER, those are also very handy at eating just about every plant on earth, so be warned.

Summary: Spixi does not eat hydra or plants. Marissa eats hydra and plants. Spixi x Marissa kinda eats hydra and kinda eats plants.

I have experience with both.

I found that a dose of panacur fixed all of my hydra problems in an instant without affecting anything else in my tank.


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## randyl (Feb 1, 2012)

I agree panacur is a good way to control hydras and I used it in two of my shrimp tanks and it was easy and worked really well. Like I said I found my apple snails eating hydras by accident. There were hundreds in that small tank but there is none now.


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## Tanman19az (May 14, 2011)

I got rid of mine because I was tired of seeing my nice plants with chunks missing. I even caught a small one taking chunks out of my Fissidens


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