What Do You Do With Snails That Come With Javs Ferns?

[Rox]

My first time with live plants. Got two java ferns, from Petsmart. They come in a little plastic cup, with the roots dug into some green crap. Remove the green crap, rubber band the plant to a stone and set it on the sand. Sounds fine right?

Now unexpectedly this java fern happened to come with 1 snail and 2 of what I believe are transparent shrimp (I have no knowledge of shrimp so I have no clue what they're called). So my question is should I put them in the tank?

 

[Cazgar]

Some snails in the tank are good, if you don't overfeed your fish, you shouldn't get a population explosion..
Can you get a pic of the shrimp?
The invertebrate section will be able to identify them for you

 

[Rox]

I can't take a pic unfortunately. but it's just like a tiny microscopic shrimp with little legs and runs around super fast.

I guess what I was really trying to ask was, can I feed them to my fish? (2 guppys, 2 corydoras, 1 platy)

 

[Cazgar]

I'm sure the guppies & platys will gobble them up if they're small enough.
Best to try & identify what they are first though

 

[Rox]

Whoops too late, already put them in

The 1st shrimp ran away and hid
The 2nd dug a hole into the sand never to be seen again (seriously)

The snail however is snailing along just fine.

 

[pablothebetta]

I'd watch with the snail though - you could very quickly end up with loads of the little things! When I got some hygrophila a few months ago, I found I got a snail with it. I reckoned that seen as though it was just one little snail, it would be fine. Now there are tonnes of the little things everywhere in my tank Personally, I'd get rid of it before it's too late

With the java fern, is it just on the sand? Java fern is better when it's attatched to something like wood - it needs its rhizome exposed to the water collumn or it will die. If it isn't buried though you might be alright.

 

[Rox]

I'd watch with the snail though - you could very quickly end up with loads of the little things! When I got some hygrophila a few months ago, I found I got a snail with it. I reckoned that seen as though it was just one little snail, it would be fine. Now there are tonnes of the little things everywhere in my tank Personally, I'd get rid of it before it's too late

With the java fern, is it just on the sand? Java fern is better when it's attatched to something like wood - it needs its rhizome exposed to the water collumn or it will die. If it isn't buried though you might be alright.

Yeah, the rhizome is exposed, I rubber banded the plants to little round stones, which then got buried halfway into the sand. I hope they'll be ok, I don't keep my light on much.

 

[pablothebetta]

Java fern is a pretty hardy plant and doesn't need much light - so long as its rhizome is exposed to the water collumn it should be fine

 

[Rox]

nevermind

 

[pablothebetta]

I've had good success with hygrophila polysperma myself - can grow quite large and bushy if you let it and very easy to propagate. Anubias, some crypts and some moss species are also pretty hardy and low-light. The ferns will grow to quite a good size if given the chance though

 

[Carlos & Siran]

If your tank is large enough you can add a few Clown loaches who love munching snails, hopefully they're not Malaysian trumpets. They can get out of control very quickly and even the loaches struggle to eat them when they get large and their shells get too hard to eat.