My first shrimp tank :D

[eklikewhoa]

Most ocats are malnourished so they'll work wonders initially, after that just feed them here and there and they'll be good.

The nerites, I have a few in my tank with some assassins and haven't seen any attacking.

[R_sustaita]

which nerites would you recomend? i want a yellow rabbit from tim.

[Totenkampf]

the rabbits are tylos not nerites, i was looking at the orange rabbits until tim told me that they have a taste for some plants. i bought about 15 assorted nerites from tim and that may have been all he had left. they came in all different colors and were the horned type so they are pretty cool. they are doing a good job on the algae and growing fast.

[R_sustaita]

where can i get some. in the spring area?

[Totenkampf]

i wish i knew, good LFS arent plentiful on our side of town. one option would be azgardens.com. tim was telling me that snails ship very well, he had some get lost in the mail for a long time with little or no mortality and they have the cool red spotted ones that look like ladybugs

[R_sustaita]

alright ill check it out. thank you guys.

[mnemenoi]

I usually order snails from Bob's Tropical plants and I have never had a loss thus far. Nerites on the North side could be tricky, maybe Ultimate Fish or Fish R' Us. You'll have much better luck downtown, Fish Ranch and Fish Gallery both carry them usually. Tylomelania sp. are even tougher to locate and Tim and Fish Gallery are the only ones I know that carry them. Tylo's are a bit odd and comprise possibly hundreds of different species. Many do indeed have a taste for plants, but I have successfully kept some without any plant issues. They are somewhat new to the hobby and we are continually learning new things about the entire family. They come from the Sulawesi region and only now are we starting to identify the actual species. Some are difficult and there are still quite a few unknowns. It is recommended to keep only one variety in a tank, as hybrids could be possible. They are from a very hard water region, thankfully our water is to their liking. I would shy away from them in any soft water tank as with most snails. Some individuals also seem to have other invertabrate animals on them when collected and it is unknown if they survive the transition and can survive in an aquarium setting. I have seen FW sponges being the most common. Overall their diet is little known for the individual species, but with the plethora of types found in Sulawesi lakes I imagine their are some highly specialized types that could present a difficult challenge. These would likely be wild caught specimens, so any tank bred should be fine.

[R_sustaita]

cool site, they have clams for .69

[R_sustaita]

Roy: you should had been a marine biologist

[R_sustaita]

ok at this site http://www.azgardens.com/c-20-freshw...ic-snails.aspx

they say the orange rabbit and the chocolate rabbit are algae eaters.

[Totenkampf]

yes, tylos do like algae but may also take softer leaved plants. i was told they love aponogetons and some swords. anubias and java fern type plants would probably be safe with them but you never know. you could always try some and they may only eat algae at first but if they run out and you dont start giving them blanched veggies then you may loose some plants. i am sure there is a variance among individuals of the same species with regard to feeding.

i tried the clams from az, i woudlnt recommend them. they sound like a perfect solution to aeriate the substrate but they didnt live long and then you have a large dead chunk of protein decaying SOMEWHERE under your substrate lol. i dont always trust the info in the writeups on that site, but i have ordered plants and inverts from them a few times and was always pleased with the product.

[mnemenoi]

Common names can certainly be troublesome, especially 'chocolate' rabbits (what they call all sulawesi snails in addition to tower and elephant). There are just a ton of new species and they are difficult for trained biologists that specialize in that area to identify which leaves us the average aquarist completely in the dark. Some could be mislabeled, look very closely to others, be from a different collection locale, ect. It will be years before we will be able to do any naming with absolute certainty. Even areas like Tanganyika or the loricards of S.A. we aquarist have come to realize are much more diverse and likely contain far more suspecies and genetic diversity then originally thought. Here is a nice collection from a company at one of the lakes itself and will give you an idea about its diversity... (try and imagine this is a drop in the bucket and exactly how these differ for precise identification and its likely diet...)

Tylomelania

and a German site detailing yet more

[R_sustaita]

well thank you for all the info. and my main tank is not planted so i am not worried about the plants. the shrimp tank is planted well starting to get planted. and i want to grow the plants but i have lots of glass algae on the 10g.