Brenton Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 If you all hadn't guessed yet, I'm quite new to all of this and doing copious amounts of reading, leading to many questions leaking out of small brain... I'm trying my best not to be a forum hog and limiting myself to asking only one new question a day at most. Today's question: What snails should I be looking at getting? What's your favourites? How many should I get? Not really three questions (just cross you eyes and it will look like only one...promise). Just want to know about snails for the boys? Any and all advice appreciated. BT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadoh Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 Others might have other experience, but I find that the majority of my adult males like to attack larger snails like mystery snails when they have their eyestalks out - a bit of a temptation with them looking like live worms wiggling around. Mystery snails are, however good for cleaning up spawn tanks and most fry will leave them alone. May I ask what you are getting the snails for? Try and stay away from some of the common smaller pest snails like the common pond snail, they breed far too quickly and are hard to remove from a tank once infested. If you have plants in the tank, make sure you don't get a snail that eats plants I've had Ramshorn snails in with bettas before without problem. They can breed quite rapidly too, so you need to be on the lookout for eggs before they hatch and take over in plague proportions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiameseFightingFist Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 It's almost inevitable you'll get those common pest snails I think. When I started my tank, it was clean, no snails. Then I bought some plants 'n things from the LFS and suddenly snails started turning up, they piggy backed their way in. Even when I bought new fish from the LFS, what little water that was inadvertently transferred over with the new fish into my tank, within a week or so I started noticing a new type of snail moving around in the tank. You should totally hog the forum and ask any and all questions you have, it'll be better off for your fish if you know how to look after them from the get-go, rather than limiting yourself to one question a day.By the way, the snails weren't visible on the plants or in the water with the new fish, I think they were either very very tiny babies at the time or there were tiny eggs floating about in the water. I transferred the fish with a net too (after acclimatising the fish), so it wasn't like I poured the water from the fish bag into my tank or anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadoh Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 Yes - blitz us with questions We need some new blood in here to wake up some of the sleeping giants. Ask away I say!!!!!! :dance: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenton Posted June 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 (edited) You guys asked for it, so I shall try to keep it to one question per post (in the correct forum...hopefully). Snails: I'm after them to clean up the bottom so there's no left over pellets or other food (and to clean up poop - if they do that...). I'm getting better at judging the amount of food my boys need but I'd rather be on the safe side and have a snail in each tank section to clean up for me. It's water change day so I'll be vacuuming tonight which will pickup any left overs but I'd like to be sure - am I being too anal here? Plants and fish have been in for a couple of weeks now and I've not seen any unexpected life forms appear. LFS only sell mystery snails (not that they had any in stock last night). Ramshorn look okay, especially the red ones, but the Malaysian Trumpet snails have cool looking shells but I've heard they can overrun a tank extremely quickly. Or do I just stick with the vacuum once a week? If snails are the go, does anyone know where I can get some sent to me as the LFS doesnt have a huge selection. Edited June 14, 2013 by Brenton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiameseFightingFist Posted June 14, 2013 Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 If you had one large tank, I'd suggest getting a bunch of corydoras or a similar fish that will clean up for you. If you had any food left over at the bottom of your tanks, you really should vacuum it up as soon as possible if your fish doesn't eat it, otherwise the food will go off and contaminate the water. I don't have barracks so someone else may be able to advise you how they keep theirs clean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenton Posted June 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 The suggestion of corydoras is a cool alternative - thx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiameseFightingFist Posted June 14, 2013 Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 Yes but not for barracks. They're a social schooling fish so they can't be separated in barracks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenton Posted June 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 So I just discovered in my research...bummer. Any such thing as a small solitary catfish or similar bottom feeder? I know each partition is not massive but then they're not beanie boxes either. Tank is 55 x 25 x 25, so a partition is around 18 x 20 x 25 (cm) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiameseFightingFist Posted June 14, 2013 Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 That's still pretty small, I don't know of any solitary catfish or bottom feeder that would be happy in a space like that. Shrimp could do it but they are too small and will be eaten by the betta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenton Posted June 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 okay, I've come to the conclusion my barracks are just for displaying individual Betta - no snails or bottom feeders and I will not (tells self sternly) overfeed, therefore minimising the need for anything other than a weekly vac while doing water changes. I also need to get some bigger tanks, and start converting the spare (grandkid's) room into my fish room. Then when the little one is naughty I can seriously tell him he'll be sleeping with the fishes... Thanks for letting me see the light guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiameseFightingFist Posted June 14, 2013 Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 I don't know what the others do but I feed my betta tiny 1mm Spectrum pellets, just one pellet each meal time. I'm hazarding a guess but the tiny 1mm pellets are about the size of his little stomach so I don't try and give him anymore than that each time (although I've seen him eat a lot more than that). He sees when I'm feeding the other fish with flakes so he'll come up to me and I'll drop the little pellet in front of him and he'll gobble it up. So if all I had was the betta in the tank, there'd be no messy flakes floating around and settling on the bottom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenton Posted June 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 Now that's really interesting - only one pellet. I've read a few places that you don't feed them anything more than the size of their eyeball which is a similar size to their stomach. I've seen all the warnings about pellets swelling up, so I soaked some in a glass of water from the tank (even have some others in the fishless cycling tank as nutrients for the plants), to see how big they would swell. They do increase but I'd have thought 3 or 4 would be closer to the size of their eyeball. So maybe I'm not only over-feeding but what they are eating is too much for them. I'll end up with little Homer Betta's I give them three of four blood worms on Saturday as a substitute and they only get a piece of pea on Sunday's as their day of fasting/clean out day. Should I start another topic/thread? I know so little and get so much conflicting info :alright: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiameseFightingFist Posted June 14, 2013 Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 I would've thought the 1mm pellet was roughly the size of their eyeball? I dunno. I have tried to feed them bloodworms before but I have seen the bettas slurp up an entire bloodworm which scared me because it was huge. One of my bettas once swallowed an entire cucumber seed. That was another huge one and I thought it was going to die but it was totally fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiameseFightingFist Posted June 14, 2013 Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 oh, and Joan recommends not feeding them bloodworms cos of their shell which are difficult to digest. Joan is a guru with these things. You really should come to the Vic Betta meets, you'll meet other betta people and learn a bunch of stuff. There's time to book a flight with Jetstar to come to the meet this Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenton Posted June 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 I would if I could...sometimes it really does suck being over here. Who is Joan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiameseFightingFist Posted June 14, 2013 Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 Who is Joan? She knows things. http://ausaqua.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=15124&view=findpost&p=170270But anyway, hopefully a few of the betta barracks people here will be able to give you some advice on how they maintain their barracks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted June 14, 2013 Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 Get a turkey baster from a kitchenware shop. Useful for removing poop from the barracks. El cheapo plastic ones can be as little as $2. Although the rubber bulb tends to crack. Some people prefer to get a more expensive one. But can't guarantee expensive equals long life. If you have the time and inclination you should remove poop every day when they're in small unfiltered containers. Think of it as bonding time. Top it up with the same amount of water you removed. Then you can do a larger water change once a week. It's the classic way of keeping betas in good condition. Filtered tanks tend to tire them out. But of course it's a lot more work this way. So most of us try to find some kind if compromise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kertaz Posted June 16, 2013 Report Share Posted June 16, 2013 Speaking of snails, I like assassin snails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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