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Hampshire Ditch (formerly Ramshorn Biotype?)

Iliveinazoo

Member
Joined
23 Apr 2008
Messages
130
Location
Southampton
I wanted to do a snail breeder tank to feed my figure 8 puffers and I had a couple of Ramshorn snails in the pond so it made sense to do a coldwater set up for that reason and it also saves money on a heater.
I've chosen some UK native plants but I've got absolutely no idea what species they are and I'd very much appreciate it if someone could identify them for me?

The details of the tank are below:
Volume: 10(US)G
Light: 18W
Substrate: Florabase
Ferts: Macro and trace mix once a week
Hardscape: Marine Rock (left over from a previous tank), hopefully I'll be able to find a good looking bit of dead wood soon.
Animals: Ramshorn Snails
Fauna: No idea but I will edit this section as I get identification...
1. Opposite leaved pondweed (Groenlandia Densa)?
2. ?
3. Bog Pondweed (potamogeton polygonifolius)?
4. Adders Tongue Spearwort (Ranunculus Ophioglossifolius)?
5. Agrostis stolonifera
6. ?
7. ?
8. Water Starwort (Callitriche Stagnalis)? & Short Leaved Starwort (Callitriche Truncata)?
9. ?

Full tank shot:
DSC03307.jpg

1:
DSC03309.jpg

2:
DSC03310.jpg

3:
DSC03311.jpg

4: I'm pretty sure that this is an Arrowhead.
DSC03312.jpg

5:
DSC03313.jpg

6:
DSC03314.jpg

7:
DSC03315.jpg

8:
DSC03317.jpg

9:
DSC03319.jpg


The tank has been going a couple of weeks and the 3 background plants seem to have settled and are growing well but the others are melting a bit.
I'm going to see how well they grow first and if some start to suffer I may try dosing liquid carbon.
 
Re: Ramshorn Biotype?

Do you have to use a different image hosting website other than Flickr to get your pictures to show in the post?
 
Re: Ramshorn Biotype?

Thanks, I used photobucket and edited the post so the pictures would show. It's not the best looking tank in the world but depending on which plants take and which don't I'll re-arrange as it goes
 
Re: Ramshorn Biotype?

Hi all,
The grass in 5. is Agrostis stolonifera, and it won't grow submersed full time, although it you can plant it emersed it forms great stolons across the water surface.

I think the tank should work very well, I haven't got any fish that eat them and I have to thin out the Red Ramshorns every week, they really like vegetables. I think Red Ramshorns are more productive than our native species, and they are OK un-heated.

I'd add Asellus to the tank, a lot of fish like to eat them and they are great tank cleaners.
You might be able to culture Daphnia as well, although they won't do as well in a planted tank as an unplanted. I aways add a couple of snails to the Daphnia cultures, it noticeably increases productivity.

cheers Darrel
 
Re: Ramshorn Biotype?

Thanks Darrel,
It's a shame that it won't do well as i wanted it to ease the transition between the rock and the substrate and I think that the tank will continue to look bare without it. Is there a native species that will do the job and survive?

I actually found an Asellus in the tank and removed it because it looked like a predator - I thought that it would eat my snails. Are they algae eaters only then?

I was thinking about covering the filter intake with a fine sponge filter and adding daphnia but again I worry about the negative impact that it may have on the snails thinking that they may eat the eggs.
 
Re: Ramshorn Biotype?

Hi all,
Asellus is a "detrivore", they don't eat anything live and I started using them as "egg tenders" for Killis etc.. I used to have a thriving population of them in the main tank, but I now have both Apistogramma and Hypancistrus in that tank, and they have pretty successfully eaten them all. Any handful of pond weed or leaf litter from an established pond will have Asellus in it.

Snails and Daphnia are a good mix, the snails feeding tends to produce conditions where you get a lot of Paramecium, phytoplankton etc for the Daphnia to feed on. Daphnia themselves only eat minute plankton in the water column, even Nerite velliger larvae are too big for them. Some Cyclops species are predatory, but I've never had any problem with them. You need to occasionally feed the snails with lettuce leaf for maximum productivity.

I'll have a think for an Agrostis replacement. Eleocharis palustris is a possibility.

cheers Darrel
 
Re: Ramshorn Biotype?

I'm not too familiar with rushes or sedges apart from what I see in the forest and they always look like huge tufts, do you think that I would be able to keep a handle on Eleocharis palustris preventing it from taking over the whole of my 10 (US)gallon tank?

I think that this weekend I'll take a bucket out of my pond and see if I can find any Asellus's or daphnia, the commets most likely will have eaten any that might have made their way into the pond though.

I've had a go at identifying some of the species using my Freshwater Life Pocket Guide so I've edited my 1st post and left question marks in case anyone can confirm my attempts one way or the other
 
Re: Ramshorn Biotype?

So 1 month or so on and the pondweed and starworts are growing like crazy and breaking the surface

DSC03415.jpg


DSC03421.jpg


DSC03418.jpg


Unfortunately the leaves above the waterline on the opposite leaved pondweed have started to die off which I think has something to do with the heat of the lamp but there are some leaves starting to sprout again where the old ones have died off so I might leave it as is and hope that it recovers:
DSC03419.jpg


The grass towards the rear left of the tank began to die off which suggests that it isn't a true aquatic:
DSC03417.jpg


So I've removed most of it (leaving some for the snails to eat) and taken the chance to replant. The bog pondweed was starting to grow too big for the front of the tank so I've moved it to the back:
DSC03424.jpg


DSC03431.jpg


And a final picture showing that the Ramshorns are breeding nicely:
DSC03430.jpg


I'm thinking about changing the name of the Journal to Hampshire Ditch as it seems that that is a better description of the tank.
I'm not happy with the layout but I might wait for it to grow in a little bit longer before I think about doing a re-arrangement - I've got some spare white calcium carbonate gravel and I keep toying with the idea of creating a gravel path from the front to the back near to the rock.
 
Re: Ramshorn Biotype?

Curvy leaved pondweed didn't come back as I hoped:
DSC03539.jpg


and the rest was going a bit crazy so I decided to hack it back a bit in an attempt to tidy it up, I had a bit of a re-arrange but I'm not sure if I like it. I also haven't done the gravel path that I was thinking about but I still might have a go in the future.

Complete overgrowth before the trim:
DSC03541.jpg


The new layout:
DSC03564.jpg

DSC03556.jpg


I'm glad that I don't suffer too badly with algae, it seems like the only algae I've got is on the things that are keeping it at bay:
DSC03540.jpg
 
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