Nerite snails are awesome... but the poop!

I've constantly battled diatoms... old tank and new one. My parameters have always been perfect yet it was a way of life. I decided to get 3 nerite snails 2 days ago and... oh my lord I should have done this sooner! They are work horses and clearing off the brown algae with such amazing efficiency. In 2 days they already cleared off like 25% of the algae. However... I didnt realize how much they poop! Wow theres snail poop everywhere. May have to do substrate vac twice a week now but hey, better than algae everywhere.

Anyone with brown algae.... go get nerite snails. Seriously.

 

My only question is... what do they eat once the algae is gone?

 

They say shrimp have low bioload. HOW? they poop like mad! lol

Nerites don't eat any food that I have introduced ever. I think they live purely on biofilm and algae. Never scrape your back glass. They will be good!

 

They say shrimp have low bioload. HOW? they poop like mad! lol

Nerites don't eat any food that I have introduced ever. I think they live purely on biofilm and algae. Never scrape your back glass. They will be good!

Good. I dont want to scrape the back glass because i dont want to disturb my plants. Works for me! Just hope enough algae continues to be produced for them.

 

Good. I dont want to scrape the back glass because i dont want to disturb my plants. Works for me! Just hope enough algae continues to be produced for them.

It should I have 5 in my 55 and they have never eaten anything but glass and wood...lol

 

Nerite snails are really a struggle with feeding. They do AMAZING jobs with live algae in the tank but they really don't go for commercially prepared foods or veggies. I would try veggies now to see if you can get them to eat it. Some do some don't. If they don't you'll want to make sure you have a good supply of live algae or consider rehoming a couple of them.

Some people take a clear glass (like for drinking) put it in a sunny window a couple days to get algae growing on it, then put it in the tank for the snails to eat. You can set up multiple of these so you have a weeks worth at a time.

 

I have a few nerites that I have seen eating snail pellets and veggies (broccoli, zucchini, spinach and kale) In my tank. I didn’t think nerites ate veggies or pellets but some of mine do...

 

I have three Nerites in my 55, but I don't even know where they are. Every once in a while, one will appear on a piece of driftwood, but otherwise they are hiding somewhere. I never see them on the glass.

Really the only way that I even know that they're alive is every once in a while when they appear on the wood or all the eggs that I discover all over my tank every morning.