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First fauna

idris

idris

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Joined
3 Jan 2011
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Herts
My initial plans for an algae crew in my 250l tank are Ottos, Amano Shrimps and Assassin Snails, with other fish TBC to follow.

1) What would be good numbers for the respective species to start with? (These will not be the stars of the tank in terms of quantity, but rather just to keep the algae in check.)

2) Would it be ok to add them all on the same day?
 
Oto's do well in small groups so 4-6 would be a good start although you may wish to opt for more. I believe they can be very sensitive to water conditions so ammonia needs to be in check.

I've never kept Amano's but find Assassin snails to be "tough as old boot's". I've recently added 4 to my solo snail and they have started laying eggs at an alarming rate. I wouldn't over do the initial stocking of these, maybe 4-5 and your good to go.

I've had a quick browse of your journal and can't recall seeing any quotes about pest snails. Assassins will happily munch on uneaten bloodworms. My research leads me to believe this is good to promote breeding if pest snails are low in supply.
 
Thanks Spyder.

Ammonia and nitrite levels are zero so I'm not concerned about that initially. And I've been adding old flake as an ammonia source with no apparent ammonia or nitrite spikes. My concern is whether it would be ok to add eg 6 Otos, 10 Amanos and 4 snails on the same day, or whether it should be Otos on one day, shrimps the next and snails the next?

There's no issue with common snails at the moments. Just a lot of Diatoms that need clearing up. And I want to start with a good algae crew before I get started on cultivating algae ;)

That said, I don't want to fill the tank with Assasins :wideyed: , so maybe they're not a good way to go, unless I do get a snail infestation. Maybe just more shrimp and catfish?
 
What about some nerite snails instead of the assasins if you don't have pest snails? They look cool and seem to strip the diatoms from my glass and wood faster than it can grow! Plus they wont reproduce so no worries about an infestation.
 
I would say start with 6-8 ottos, probably the same with the amanos but I don't know why you would need assassin snails? Do you have a problem with pest snails?

I'm not to sure about if you can/should put them in all at once. I would probably separate them by about a week?
 
I'm with Bob. If it was me I would go with fish 1st then if all is good in a week, grab the shrimp. Snails I'd drop in anytime.

I dont have invasions of pest snails but like my assassins. I have some pest snails in 2 other aquariums but waiting for the numbers to pick up before I start thinning them out. Nowt wrong with having assassins without a pest problem. Uneaten bloodworm would be a good protein source for them.
 
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