I've got a 10 year old tank, heavily planted, and I have a hard time keeping
up with all of the dead plant debris and general gunk that builds up on the
bottom. Even with pruning it is hard to get at all that stuff, because of
all the plants.

Are snails good for that?

Here's my specs:

55G tank
DIY CO2
Eheim 2227 W/D (Bio)
Eheim 2224 (MechFilter)
2x55W 6700K PowerCompact
Heavily planted
Large Angels
Temp = 80F
pH=6.0
GH=2.5 Deg (45ppm)
CO2=6ppm
NH3=0.0ppm (amo)
NH2=0.0ppm (nitrite)
NH3=25ppm (nitrate)
PO4=1ppm (phos)

Thanks, Chris.

"SteveG" wrote:

You haev to MAKE SURE that you get this type of snail: Pomacea (pomacea)
bridgesii

Strongly second that! Only buy an apple snail for a planted tank if
you know for a fact that it's a true bridgesii. A canaliculata snail,
which looks similar (and is often labeled as bridgesii at the store)
will mow everything in the tank to a nub.

"Chris_S" wrote

I've got a 10 year old tank, heavily planted, and I have a hard time
keeping up with all of the dead plant debris and general gunk that
builds up on the bottom.

I've been having good luck with a siphon hose. Not a large diameter
siphon tube used for cleaning gravel, but rather a 1/2" flexible
tubing, like large airline hose.

Just running it around the base of the plants and poking it into the
denser tangles cleans an amazing amount of debris out, without
disturbing the plants or critters much.


--
www.ericschreiber.com

"Chris_S" wrote:

Thanks for the picture. Well I bought 2 snails the other day, and the lfs
did not even mention the type of snail they were. Not sure they knew. They
are big.

Most stores don't know the species of the snails they sell, and simply
label them "apple" or "mystery". Some of which really do get as big as
an apple.

I just looked up the pictures for the Canaliculata, and going by the shell
shape, I think these are Canaliculata. Guess I should take them out.

Look at www.applesnail.net for not only pictures, but line drawings
that detail the minute differences between species that will help you
identify them, as well as 3D rotating diagrams. A very cool site.

But I don't think they do much of anything. They have not hardly moved at
all. They sit in one place all the time. One lost his footing and is now
just floating around on the surface.

This is not unusual when they're first put in a tank. Figure they had
a rough time in shipping, perhaps imperfect conditions at the store,
then got moved one more time to arrive in your tank. They're probably
just a little stressed. Mine were pretty dull at first, too, but once
they got comfortable, they started zipping (snail zipping, sure, but
zipping nonetheless) all over. A good sized apple snail with tentacles
fully extended and waving about is actually quite pretty.


--
www.ericschreiber.com