Do Snail Hatches Produce High Levels of Ammonia?

Hello!

I have a 20 gallon shrimp and snail tank that has the dual purpose of being a home for snails and shrimp, as well as the breeding ground for Ramshorn snails that I use to feed a red-eye puffer fish in a separate tank. The inhabitants in the shrimp and snail tank are:

1 Amano shrimp
2 Ghost shrimp
1 Blue Vampire shrimp
1 Mystery snail
1 Gold Inca snail
1 Ivory snail
2 Nerite snails
5 adult Ramshorn snails

And then of course probably hundreds of tiny baby Ramshorn snails (as of the past week). The tank has been fully cycled and established for a long time, and I didn't start introducing / breeding the Ramshorn snails until the past month or so. However, I'm starting to wonder if I made a big mistake. My nitrate levels are nearly zero (<10ppm, the tank is heavily planted) and the nitrite levels are 0ppm, but ever since the snail hatch my ammonia levels have begun to rise. The most recent test had the ammonia levels at just under 1ppm. I've added some ammonia neutralizer daily for the past couple days and while the ammonia levels don't seem to increase, they haven't really decreased either.

I must note that I didn't go into this breeding process blindly, I was told by a local fish store owner (who I've done business with for years) that breeding them in that tank should be no problem. And before I introduced the Ramshorn snails I researched online to see if there were any problems I could run into and found nothing that would indicate life-threatening issues to my other inhabitants. So I guess what I'm wondering is if this is normal and if the levels will decrease over time? I know that snails can have a high tolerance to ammonia, but I am mostly worried about my shrimp, especially the Blue Vampire who can be extremely sensitive to water quality. So far, I've had no loses or observed any unusual behavior from any of the inhabitants, but with the ammonia levels not going down I'm starting to panic.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

I breed ramshorns in all my tanks, I agree with the fish shop owner that they are more beneficial than non. I have never seen an ammonia I increase from a snail hatch.

I have seen huge ammonia spikes from mass snail die offs or individual dead large snails. Your tank honestly doesn't seem like it has much ammonia loading, I would check that one or more of your larger snails isn't actually dead.

Even in a heavily planted tank it's normal to see some nitrate left, it could be possible you have a mini cycle coming up due to some anomaly in your filter (new pads, accidental chlorination, etc) or that you have somehow run out of KH, which basically stalls any cycle you have running and ammonia will start to rise while nitrate production is reduced. I don't know if like fish snails are ammonia safe in low pH water, but a simple ph test will help you identify a possible kH crash induced cycle issue.

 

Hello!

I have a 20 gallon shrimp and snail tank that has the dual purpose of being a home for snails and shrimp, as well as the breeding ground for Ramshorn snails that I use to feed a red-eye puffer fish in a separate tank. The inhabitants in the shrimp and snail tank are:

1 Amano shrimp
2 Ghost shrimp
1 Blue Vampire shrimp
1 Mystery snail
1 Gold Inca snail
1 Ivory snail
2 Nerite snails
5 adult Ramshorn snails

And then of course probably hundreds of tiny baby Ramshorn snails (as of the past week). The tank has been fully cycled and established for a long time, and I didn't start introducing / breeding the Ramshorn snails until the past month or so. However, I'm starting to wonder if I made a big mistake. My nitrate levels are nearly zero (<10ppm, the tank is heavily planted) and the nitrite levels are 0ppm, but ever since the snail hatch my ammonia levels have begun to rise. The most recent test had the ammonia levels at just under 1ppm. I've added some ammonia neutralizer daily for the past couple days and while the ammonia levels don't seem to increase, they haven't really decreased either.

I must note that I didn't go into this breeding process blindly, I was told by a local fish store owner (who I've done business with for years) that breeding them in that tank should be no problem. And before I introduced the Ramshorn snails I researched online to see if there were any problems I could run into and found nothing that would indicate life-threatening issues to my other inhabitants. So I guess what I'm wondering is if this is normal and if the levels will decrease over time? I know that snails can have a high tolerance to ammonia, but I am mostly worried about my shrimp, especially the Blue Vampire who can be extremely sensitive to water quality. So far, I've had no loses or observed any unusual behavior from any of the inhabitants, but with the ammonia levels not going down I'm starting to panic.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

Did you increase feeding? Snails don't produce ammonia out of nothing, they produce it from food. So more food = more waste = more ammonia

 

I breed ramshorns in all my tanks, I agree with the fish shop owner that they are more beneficial than non. I have never seen an ammonia I increase from a snail hatch.

I have seen huge ammonia spikes from mass snail die offs or individual dead large snails. Your tank honestly doesn't seem like it has much ammonia loading, I would check that one or more of your larger snails isn't actually dead.

Even in a heavily planted tank it's normal to see some nitrate left, it could be possible you have a mini cycle coming up due to some anomaly in your filter (new pads, accidental chlorination, etc) or that you have somehow run out of KH, which basically stalls any cycle you have running and ammonia will start to rise while nitrate production is reduced. I don't know if like fish snails are ammonia safe in low pH water, but a simple ph test will help you identify a possible kH crash induced cycle issue.

I can account for all the larger snails and shrimp still being alive, but I just tested my KH levels and they ARE low! Thanks for the info, do you have any suggestions as how to increase my KH or do I just kinda need to wait it out?

Thanks again for the response!

Did you increase feeding? Snails don't produce ammonia out of nothing, they produce it from food. So more food = more waste = more ammonia

I haven't increased feeding, I usually do an algae wafer once a week, as well as pulverized shrimp food and a small amount of phytoplankton 2-3 times a week for my filter feeder Blue Vampire shrimp. This has been my feeding arrangement for nearly a year with no previous spikes in ammonia. But what do you recommend as far as feeding the snails? Is that potentially too much and with this new hatch? Are there too many snails producing waste?

 

KH levels and they ARE low

Less than 2 degrees in the drop test is usually where I worry about kH lowering pH. If you're that low, are you using special substrate that may lower it? if not: what is your source water KH? Usually we replenish kH at water changes. If your source water is below 2 degrees kH, I would recommend an off the shelf shrimp formula (salty shrimp etc). I do have a diy recipe I use (my source water is usually 2-3 and I aim for 5) but it's been formulated for my water parameters and needs, I do not have many shrimp so I don't even know if my result is desirable for your tanks.

If you have close enough parameters to mine I'll share the recipe but it's use at your own risk. What is your gH, kH, and pH of the source water and what is your testing kit (API drops, tetra strips etc)?

 

I've added some ammonia neutralizer daily for the past couple days and while the ammonia levels don't seem to increase, they haven't really decreased either.

I highly recommend you lower the ammonia levels with water changes instead of some kind of ammonia neutralizer. The extra snails added to the bio-load in this tank. It will take a little while for the bacteria to catch up with more ammonia being produced.

 

I can account for all the larger snails and shrimp still being alive, but I just tested my KH levels and they ARE low! Thanks for the info, do you have any suggestions as how to increase my KH or do I just kinda need to wait it out?

Thanks again for the response!


I haven't increased feeding, I usually do an algae wafer once a week, as well as pulverized shrimp food and a small amount of phytoplankton 2-3 times a week for my filter feeder Blue Vampire shrimp. This has been my feeding arrangement for nearly a year with no previous spikes in ammonia. But what do you recommend as far as feeding the snails? Is that potentially too much and with this new hatch? Are there too many snails producing waste?

Feeding will depend on how many snails you are looking to breed. You can feed anything (wafers, fish food, fruits & vegetables) but the water change need to keep up with the feeding.

In your case since you didn't change feeding, the ammonia reading is probably due to other factors like the already mentioned depleted KH.... or even possibly a false reading. If your tank actually has an ammonia spike, the behavior of it's livestock should reflect it, you'll see snails all climbing to the edge of the tank, shrimps will try to climb out. So...just observe the behaviors carefully....see if you actually have an ammonia spike or not. In the meantime more water changes will help with replenishing KH