Snails Vs Shrimp

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Which is better for "cleaning" a tank; what are the pro's and con's of each?

I quite fancy a snail but I read they make more mess than they eat, so I'm just wondering what the pro's and con's of each are.

 

[Schmill]

Personally...

An algae scraper, a gravel vac, a scubbing sponge and a bucket are what I find best for cleaning a tank.
Both snails and shrimp will eat algae (depending on type), and will produce waste. Neither of them will 'clean' the tank for you, but can certainly help to keep it tidy, eating excess food & scraps that the fish leave, but will also need their own food supply.

As for snails or shrimps, I personally choose Shrimp as I just find them really interesting and can watch them for ages moving around in the tank & feeding, but that is more down to personal choice than anything else!

 

[JustKia]

I had 4 nerite snails in my 33Gal (now in my 72Gal) and a mix of Amano and Cherry shrimp.
They totally cleaned EVERYTHING in the tank within 3 days of putting them in.

 

[ashemely]

I have a 10 gallon tank with cherries and sulawesi snails. They both will eat whatever left over food there is in the tank that your fish may have missed. If you do have fish, snails may be the better option, depending on the size of the fish they may eat the shrimp. As far as algae goes, I personally would have to go for the snails. From what I've noticed, my cherries have a hard time cleaning algae off the walls of the tank, it could be that the current is too strong for them to stay in place on the glass. However, if you have live plants, I wouldn't suggest the yellow coned Sulawesi snails as they will devour any greenery in the tank.

Hope this helps.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Personally...

An algae scraper, a gravel vac, a scubbing sponge and a bucket are what I find best for cleaning a tank.

Yea I have those; it's just I read online that snail produce more waste than they "clean". I don't particularly want something to "clean" - I just fancied either a snail or shrimp. You know just something more interesting.

 

[JustKia]

Well, I love both my snails and shrimps.
The snails are amzing to watch as they move across the glass, to see their mouths grazing the micro algaes and whatnot.
If you get nerite snails you won't have a population explosion as they need s/w to breed. They will lay eggs - looks like small whitish sesame seeds but they won't hatch, although you may want to take out any bogwood (their favourite laying place IME) and scrape the eggs off from time to time.
The shrimps are totally fascinating as they go about their daily business, picking things up (little things like pieces of gravel), how they go about cleaning themselves - very fastidious little creatures, feeding is fun to watch as they literally pick the food to pieces by holding it with one set of legs, pick it apart with another and push the little tiny bits of food into their mouths.
You can watch them get "saddled" (with eggs) then the eggs if fertilised are stuck onto their swimmerets (the back 5? pairs of legs) and then when they hatch (if freshwater like cherries) you eventually end up with tiny shrimplets, unless something in your tank eats them. Amanos are easier to watch because they are bigger and while they will get saddled and you can see the eggs develop on the swimmerets they won't hatch as they need s/w to survive when they hatch.

I'd personally go for some of each - snails and shrimps

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

How qucikly do shrimp breed? Will they over take my tank? I'd like a couple but not loads.

 

[ashemely]

At the moment I have one female cherry, all the rest are males. She carried her eggs for about a month, and I think about twelve hatched. Obviously, it is hard to count the shrimplets seeing as how they are terribly tiny and never stay still. It's been over a month since the eggs hatched, and she has yet to be carrying eggs again, and I'm guessing it's going to be another month before her eggs drop. I'm not absolutely sure on this, but I would expect to have baby shrimp every few months or so, from each female you have.

So, if left to it, yes eventually they will take over your tank, but depending on the size of your tank and how many shrimps you start off with, it's hard to say how long that will take. If you do find that the shrimp are getting too crowded then you could try selling them or giving them to other members on this forum. I bought my cherries from PiltdownPaul for cheap cheap, due to his cherries continuing to breed and breed and breed....

 

[Schmill]

How qucikly do shrimp breed? Will they over take my tank? I'd like a couple but not loads.

It depends what else you have in the tank, what hiding places etc their are for the shrimp. If there are plenty of hiding places, and not many predators then yes Cherry shrimp will breed quite nicely in there.
An alternative though would be, as Kia said, Amano shrimp which apparently don't breed in fresh water, (ie. they need saltwater)

 

[Littlemonkey]

I have Apple snails and ottos, wont eat the plants and help to keep the Algae down. Fun to watch too. To keep the Apple snails population down their eggs are easy to spot and remove as they are laid above the water line, plus you will need both sexes aswell.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Can you put amano shrimp in cold water tanks?