Mystery Snails And Fertilizers

[Brujo]

HI, first post here

im starting a new 12 gallon tank, to house 5 male guppys, a mystery snail (pomacea bridgesii) and a cherry shrimp.

id like to do a planted tank, or parlty planted with some hemianthus cuba, java ferns attached to driftwood and some dwarf hairgrass.

i was wondering if using liquid fertilizers for the plants, would be bad for the snail and shrimp, since it does have iron in it?

currently have 3 male guppys in a 3 gallon tank, time to move them up to a larger aquarium and get them some friends, id like the snail and the shrimp to take care of the algae, as well as add to the aquarium with their antics.

currently underfeeding the guppys to get them to eat some of the algae.

 

[Katty]

I have used plant fertilizer with iron called API Leaf Zone on my tank with olive nerite snails. I only dose that once every 2 weeks instead of once every week because I don't have too many plants. The snails have been doing great and growing big. Chelated iron is used in some garden snail baits/poisons, but I don't believe aquarium plant fertilizer contains enough iron to be toxic. The iron in the solution is already dilute (my bottle says %0.1 chelated iron), then you'll be diluting it even more with the tank water. I think as long as you don't overdose, your snails would be fine. I did a Google search and it seems several other aquarists have used iron fertilizer with snails with no negative results.

 

[Brujo]

good, i guess i will be buying some tomorrow and start dosing the tank, no snails yet, im guessing it will be about 2-3 months before i introduce the snail, i want to make sure the aquarium is established enough to not harm the snail and that if the snail decides to eat some of the plants they can re grow.

currently only have some wisteria and java fern in the tank, in the next couple of days im going to buy some hemianthus cuba and some hair grass, and some drift wood maybe a nice rock