what kind of non-fish cleaners will clean glass on fish tank

[fish.]

i have some food for my black moor and it acts like algae wafers in the sense that the food goes all over the glass if he doesn't eat it in time (its hard for him to find the food at first), is there a animal i can put in the tank to pretty up the glass? and if so what is best to put in my tank (40 gallon)

 

[Circus]

You can try snails, like pond snails or ramshorn. I know they do okay in the cooler water that Goldfish prefer. But they often become pests as well and the population will explode if there is leftover food.

I would say nerite snails are the best glass cleaners ever, but am not sure how they do in cooler water. They also will not breed in your aquarium, so that is a plus.

You are honestly best off just manually removing anything on the glass with brush or blade, though. If you want something else in the tank for other reasons, cool. But adding creatures to the tank shouldn't be the answer to a problem.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

i have some food for my black moor and it acts like algae wafers in the sense that the food goes all over the glass if he doesn't eat it in time (its hard for him to find the food at first), is there a animal i can put in the tank to pretty up the glass? and if so what is best to put in my tank (40 gallon)

Not sure how food is actually settling on the surface of the glass. You sure it’s not algae?

 

[Colin_T]

Mystery snails will pick up left over food but won't breed out of control.

 

[anewbie]

Mystery snails will pick up left over food but won't breed out of control.

Yea right - looks at his 500 mystery snails; naw they don't breed out of control - they just breed non-stop. Now nerite snails don't breed out of control....

 

[Mcostas]

Yea right - looks at his 500 mystery snails; naw they don't breed out of control - they just breed non-stop. Now nerite snails don't breed out of control....

No, they just leave eggs that will never hatch and leave white spots all over everything that will never go away.

I don't know why people don't mention this. My mystery snail isn't the best cleaner upper so I got one zebra nerite.

In two days my driftwood was covered with sesame seed nerite eggs. I moved the nerite to the smaller Betta tank, which is now covered in nerite eggs.

I don't know how such a small (relatively) snail can hold such a large volume of eggs. And no personality whatsoever. Moves at a snails pace. (Lol)

My mystery snail zooms around the tank. Slides down this particular piece of driftwood like it's a ski jump and lands on top of the little cave. Devours the food I put in for him. I probably watch that snail play more than I watch the Betta in with it.

Kind of slack in the clean up department though. He will eat the leftovers but if he's eating algae it doesn't show. I wish he would eat all those nerite eggs. I couldn't even scrape them off the driftwood by hand. Those things are eternal, it simply defies the laws of biology, "I won't live, but I won't rot either".

I don't understand why this isn't discussed more often. I can't be the only one.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I don't know why people don't mention this. My mystery snail isn't the best cleaner upper so I got one zebra nerite.

Completely agree which is why I avoid Nerites. I would rather have hundreds of "pest" snails that are at least doing something useful then a bunch of eggs covering everything that I can never get rid of.

Ramshorns are pretty good for eating dust algae and general clean up and will do fine in cold water. The downside is they will multiply rapidly and you will end up with a lot (like seriously A LOT) of them. People say as long as you don't overfeed they won't go too out of control but even with very lean feeding you will still end up with tons of them.

I put 20 in my tank maybe 2 weeks ago and already have baby snails everywhere (and eggs too). They have however also removed all the dead plant material that was difficult to get to and there is not a spot of dust algae anywhere.

 

[anewbie]

No, they just leave eggs that will never hatch and leave white spots all over everything that will never go away.

I don't know why people don't mention this. My mystery snail isn't the best cleaner upper so I got one zebra nerite.

In two days my driftwood was covered with sesame seed nerite eggs. I moved the nerite to the smaller Betta tank, which is now covered in nerite eggs.

I don't know how such a small (relatively) snail can hold such a large volume of eggs. And no personality whatsoever. Moves at a snails pace. (Lol)

My mystery snail zooms around the tank. Slides down this particular piece of driftwood like it's a ski jump and lands on top of the little cave. Devours the food I put in for him. I probably watch that snail play more than I watch the Betta in with it.

Kind of slack in the clean up department though. He will eat the leftovers but if he's eating algae it doesn't show. I wish he would eat all those nerite eggs. I couldn't even scrape them off the driftwood by hand. Those things are eternal, it simply defies the laws of biology, "I won't live, but I won't rot either".

I don't understand why this isn't discussed more often. I can't be the only one.

There is a very simple solution to this issue (and one i've complained about in the past); buy a male !!! Btw my female nerite stopped laying eggs over a year ago - no clue why - maybe she ran out or maybe one of my fishes learned how to eat them - but either way they stopped over a year ago and she is still ticking.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

There is a very simple solution to this issue (and one i've complained about in the past); buy a male !!!

Well today I learnt something. I always assumed they were either hermaphrodites or could change gender like most (?) snails. Never knew they had a fixed sex from birth.

 

[Colin_T]

The sexy snails are girls, the hunky snails are boys. And the real fancy snails are the party goers (RAGE ON SNAILS)

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Determining the gender of nerites isn't easy, so you'd be best getting just one of each.
When I've had multiples, eggs have appeared.
When I've had single, they haven't.

Primarily, algae is an issue that you need to get a grip of, rather than rely on another animal to do the job for you and, at best, algae is a great indicator that something's not quite right in your tank...this could be excess light and/or too much organic waste in the tank, (usually caused by unknowingly over-feeding).
Some snails, shrimp and fish, especially the suckermouth varieties, will eat algae, BUT you then need to feed them alternate foods to supplement this.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

The sexy snails are girls, the hunky snails are boys. And the real fancy snails are the party goers (RAGE ON SNAILS)

I'm familiar with apparently sexy-looking boys and a few lasses that are built like brick outhouses. Beware of careless gender-stereotyping, especially with snails because, as has already been mentioned, just when you think you have a handle on things, the beggars can decide to swing another way.

 

[FishHobby99]

i have some food for my black moor and it acts like algae wafers in the sense that the food goes all over the glass if he doesn't eat it in time (its hard for him to find the food at first), is there a animal i can put in the tank to pretty up the glass? and if so what is best to put in my tank (40 gallon)

i have some food for my black moor and it acts like algae wafers in the sense that the food goes all over the glass if he doesn't eat it in time (its hard for him to find the food at first), is there a animal i can put in the tank to pretty up the glass? and if so what is best to put in my tank (40 gallon)

I haven’t had much luck with snails. I clean the tank interior with a hand held sponge. Much better leverage than the tank cleaners on sticks. Use a white sponge called a Magic Eraser. Looks like dense foam. But I’ve also used washclothes.

 

[FishHobby99]

Well today I learnt something. I always assumed they were either hermaphrodites or could change gender like most (?) snails. Never knew they had a fixed sex from birth.

one red ramhorn snail can reproduce. This I know from experience.
believe it’s the same for all snails, but not 100% positive

 

[Boundava]

You need two mystery snails to get a clutch of eggs, and those don't usually hatch-or if they do the babies are quickly eaten IME. Only times I have had clutches hatch was when I removed them from the tank and tried to hatch them, and that was with mixed results. My fav tool for cleaning glass (in and out) ia a MR Clean original eraser sponge (or the knockoff brands that have nothing added to them). It does a great job with diatoms, algae and hard water stains, sometimes depending on the stain you have to apply more pressure. Also if the algae is stubborn you can use an old credit card, it works very well on scraping it off of glass (thanks @WhistlingBadger, at least if I am remembering correctly you suggested that back at the other forum a long long time ago...lol)