What kind of stress do snails and shrimp add?

[pahansen]

How do shrimp and snails affect the load placed on the tank? Do they consume enough of the nasties that you don't have to take them into account, or is there some magical formula, like 6 shrimp = a 2 inch fish?

Just curious. I'm thinking of adding more ghost shrimp and perhaps a snail to my 20 gallon tank, but I don't want to overload the tank.

 

[Fish-Noobie]

no they create more nasties then u could ever dream about and they reproduce like a uhhh something that reproduces fast

 

[pahansen]

Are you just referring to snails? My lone ghost shrimp is munching up lots of algae and other junk. He's pretty beneficial.

And probably not likely to reproduce much, alone!

 

[FishDan]

no they create more nasties then u could ever dream about and they reproduce like a uhhh something that reproduces fast

No they do not. Not anymore "nasties" than you would get by adding any other livestock to your tank, be it fish, plants or "other".

As far as reproducing, snbails will only reproduce in direct relation to the amount of food available. Don't overfeed and you won't have a huge population of snails. And some snails in general are not mad breeders, even with plenty of food.

Snails and shrimp add almost nothing to your bioload. And are usually quite beneficial. Many eat algae and/or other things, like leftover food and do a good job generally cleanig your tank. You are free to add more shrimp and a couple of snails to your tank without worry. Both snails and shrimp produce so little waste they are essentially "freebies".

\Dan

 

[pahansen]

Snails and shrimp add almost nothing to your bioload.

Great. That's what I was hoping to hear. I don't think I'll have to worry about an out-of-control snail population -- the pleco takes care of a lot of our waste, and we try not to feed more than what we see the fish eat.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Koda]

I keep several ghost shrimp in all of my tanks except the smaller betta ones.They stay on constant garbage patrol and keep the tank floor virtually spotless.Mine don't appear to do much reproducing,or if they do the young must get eaten before they are big enough to notice.I think ghost shrimp rock

Koda