ramshorns not living long in my community tank

[Pokeshrimp]

What's the temp range for these bad boys? My heater is set to 72 but my temp strip reads 78. I've lowered it to the lowest setting 68, hopefully the new ones i dumped in live.

Could they also be dying from lack of food? I've got mollies,mts,dwarf cray,amanos and a ton of rcs. Are these guys eating all the food before they can get to it?

Also do dwarf crays kill snails? Seems like after i introduced them to the tank all my pond and ramshorns disappeared. 

I also dose a small amount of ferts every day and dose a little bit of metracide14. 

I just wanna make sure i can get the ramshorns to live cause i wanna get some of those neat looking purple and blue mystery snails.

 

[Mr. F]

They're not too picky with temp. I just recently was cycling a 2.5 and kept the heat up for 3 weeks at 78-80 degrees with 2 ramshorns from day 5. I ended up with and tank full of eggs after 2 weeks and now it's overrun.

Also, how old is the tank? If you lack significant biofilm, that can be a problem, but feed protein rich foods and you should be okay on that. You can't really over-feed snails, but remember: the more food, the more waste.

As far as crays eating/killing them, I don't know.

[Pokeshrimp]

The tank is about a year old. I figured they should be fine since my rcs are thriving. I would assume anything that would kill snails would kill the shrimp too. 

[josu2]

42 minutes ago, Pokeshrimp said:

What's the temp range for these bad boys? My heater is set to 72 but my temp strip reads 78. I've lowered it to the lowest setting 68, hopefully the new ones i dumped in live.

Could they also be dying from lack of food? I've got mollies,mts,dwarf cray,amanos and a ton of rcs. Are these guys eating all the food before they can get to it?

Also do dwarf crays kill snails? Seems like after i introduced them to the tank all my pond and ramshorns disappeared. 

I also dose a small amount of ferts every day and dose a little bit of metracide14. 

I just wanna make sure i can get the ramshorns to live cause i wanna get some of those neat looking purple and blue mystery snails.

 

Do you have good reason to trust your thermometer over your heater? Might be good to get another opinion (another thermometer) to make sure you aren't just making it really, really cold. With that said, I'm not aware of ramshorns being harmed by subtropical temps.

I would buy the idea that they aren't getting enough food—it's not a sure bet that's the problem—especially if they were added after most of those others. I've always felt like most inverts take a little while to get situated and know where to get the food.

I really doubt a dwarf crayfish is the problem. Not impossible, but I have kept too many snails around my dwarf cray to believe it.

[Vpier]

53 minutes ago, josu2 said:

Do you have good reason to trust your thermometer over your heater? Might be good to get another opinion (another thermometer) to make sure you aren't just making it really, really cold. With that said, I'm not aware of ramshorns being harmed by subtropical temps.

I would buy the idea that they aren't getting enough food—it's not a sure bet that's the problem—especially if they were added after most of those others. I've always felt like most inverts take a little while to get situated and know where to get the food.

I really doubt a dwarf crayfish is the problem. Not impossible, but I have kept too many snails around my dwarf cray to believe it.

Those temp strips suck and even thermometers at the pet store aren't very good. I use a small temp gun and digital thermometer. My ramshorns are kept at 68-72 degrees and breeding like crazy.

[Mr. F]

The tank is about a year old. I figured they should be fine since my rcs are thriving. I would assume anything that would kill snails would kill the shrimp too. 

Weird! I know some strains of RCS can basically live in waste water, but your logic is most likely right. If the RCS are good, it's probably food! But is the tank planted? I'd image they'd go after the plants if they got hungry enough...

[Pokeshrimp]

Yea I'm thinking my one million rcs, 10 amanos, 5+ how many babies just hatch dwarf crays, and fish pigs aka mollies eat whatever food there is before the snails get to it. They're all pretty aggressive feeders too. Might have to start tossing whole cucumbers in now lol. 

Its a fully planted tank, but the plants are pretty healthy so maybe the leaves are too tough for them to eat. 

[svetilda]

Someone here on the forum (maybe sarah?) said that their amanos ate snails in the tank. Maybe it is what happenes to yours ramshorns?

[Vpier]

8 hours ago, svetilda said:

Someone here on the forum (maybe sarah?) said that their amanos ate snails in the tank. Maybe it is what happenes to yours ramshorns?

I have seen amano's eat baby pond snails.

[sarah]

8 hours ago, svetilda said:

Someone here on the forum (maybe sarah?) said that their amanos ate snails in the tank. Maybe it is what happenes to yours ramshorns?

Yep. They absolutely do. Piggies.

[Vpier]

I have read on some posts where people have heard popping sounds from the shrimps breaking the shell.

[josu2]

I would certainly believe that all kinds of otherwise harmless animals could cause problems for eggs and newly-hatched snails, at least of the sort that hatch from submerged egg sacs (that would exclude livebearers like MTS and dry land hatchers like mysteries).

[Josh]

The dwarf crays could be eating some of them. They are really easy to consume compared to the Malaysian Trumpet snail.

[seaj]

My dwarf crayfish certainly eat smaller pond/bladder snails, but I have yet to see them chow down on a ramshorn, though I'm sure it's possible. You can tell if your ramshorns are getting enough food by looking at their shells. If they have a lot of lines on their shell from stopping then restarting growth, they they probably need more food. On the other hand, if their shells are perfectly smooth, you are overfeeding. Well fed ramshorns grow large and prettyand lay eggs almost daily. Mine like to eat boiled collard greens, blanched zucchini, algae wafers, flake food, brine shrimp,

I've fed mine too well, and now I'm overrun with pink and red ones.

[Jen]

I keep two dwarf crayfish in a tank with two adult  ramshorn snails and numerous pond snails and guppy fry. My crayfish seem to leave the ramshorn snails alone, but when hungry will go after the guppies or the pond snails. 

 

I've read other forums that described their dwarf crays leaving the adult ramshorn alone, but kept the baby ramshorn population in check. 

[Shrimpie123]

On April 1, 2016 at 10:02 AM, Vpier said:

I have seen amano's eat baby pond snails.

 

I have to chuckle because I was recently changing my son's tank water  and thought, "Wow, the pond snails are really down in population. Finally, they aren't overtaking." It did not even dawn on me that maybe the three thriving amanos might be eating them.