swordtail cleaning my snail - and I don't think he likes it!

Hi, I have a relatively new tank (10g setup) and things seem to be going well. In the last day or so my swordtail (female) has started "cleaning" my apple snail. The swordy has a 'striking' way of feeding so the snail hunkers down and shelters in his shell. I think he is getting a bit harassed.

He still has all his tenticles so I don't think she is nipping him, and I've seen her eat his poop, so I think it is cleaning. He spent a couple of days inside the boat decor hiding out, but now he is out and about, but she is now picking at him again...he will either hunker down on the glass or pull his door shut when this goes on...

Any thoughts? Will she just leave him alone when she has (a) asserted dominance or (b) when he is clean, or (c) does she need some more food?

10g tank has 1 swordy, 1 male guppy, 1 sm apple snail and 1 sm pleco...

(I know now the tank is probably a bit small for a swordy - will deal with that when she grows...)

 

hey there!, ok so I don't think the sword is simply cleaning your snail, but I have never actually heard of a swordtail harassing a snail, this might be in large part because of the fact that these types of live bearing fish are shoaling fish and they are comfortable with multiple individuals of the same species. A group of swordtail mollies would get too big for you ten gallon unfortunately :/ so you might want to look into upgrading. This could be part of the reason why it is "harassing" your snail, because it is stressed.

That being said I would recommend getting 3-4 female guppies for the ten gallon, they will pop out babies like crazy so you will have more, and your apple snail would be fine in this type of setup, but plecos get WAY too big for simply a ten gallon so I wouldn't recommend keeping him in there, plus they produce massive amounts of waste

One more thing would be the water parameters. Do you know how much Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates are in your water? Is the tank cycled? Get back to me as soon as your can, and good luck with your tank

 

pH is 7.5 and ammonia, nitrite and nitrates all reading zero. Had the LFS confirm these readings as thought I would expect to see some readings so far. I am guessing the bottle of tetra safe start has helped with cycling and its maybe just early to see nitrates...

Hmm...just done some more searching about the pleco, looks like he has the potential to grow 2x as big as I thought, so yea - will upgrade when he grows (currently < 5cm long)...

 

10g is far too small for a Swordtail. Females grow to 6". And what will you do with all the fry? They can have up to 5 or 6 batches since they last saw a male...

 

10g is far too small for a Swordtail. Females grow to 6". And what will you do with all the fry? They can have up to 5 or 6 batches since they last saw a male...

Is that why she is nipping or cleaning my snail?

 

It could be just hungry, they will clean surfaces of algae, including shells etc. Does it get enough to eat and does that include veg-based foods?

 

Main food is flakes, but also I put in cucumber, peas and algae wafers occasionally for the snale and pleco. She doesn't touch these so much.

When she was doing it yesterday there was an algae wafter in the tank and I put a tiny bit of flake in there, but she was more interested in snail...

 

if your tank is cycled you would be seeing some trace of nitrates, around 20 I believe

 

This is off topic but what type of pleco do you have? They have a significant bioload, and most will also outgrow the tank.

 

A small bristlenose is what I was told, he is currently only about 4cm long.

 

although I believe bristlenose stay smaller (i'm pretty sure, at least some types) they still get too big for a 10g, I'm no pleco expert so I would wait for someone else to give you tips for them
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