# Overfeeding and Walstad



## smmcgill (Oct 26, 2014)

So, I understand the point of feeding the plants as in Walstad's book, and the related point of not doing gravel cleans. But, when pieces of uneaten food sprout their own microbial colonies of some type, that the shrimps and assassin snails won't touch, am I overfeeding? Or, should I invest in some other cleanup crew buddies?


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## jrIL (Apr 23, 2005)

Ur overfeeding


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Yes, you are overfeeding. The food should not remain long enough to show fungal growth as in the photo. You could add more detritivores, or just reduce the amount of food and let the population of shrimp increase.

I think assassin snails are great and have them in most of my tanks, but they are not the best scavengers for a Walstad tank. They really prefer to eat other snails, and will ignore fish food if snails are available. When they run out of snails, they still ignore most fish food unless it has a high animal protein content.


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## smmcgill (Oct 26, 2014)

Ok, so I cleaned off the bottom where the fungusy bits were, using a turkey baster.

I'd like to get some ramshorn snails or MTS, but they seem to be hard to find here (Calgary, Alberta, if anyone nearby has any??). The aquarium store where I bought my plants has nerites, but I have no lid, so I'm afraid they'd escape; that's why I bought the assassins, because they don't seem as adventurous.

The ironic thing is that one of the plants had a clutch of eggs near the rhizome when I bought it, and i left it, curious to see what kind of snails they were (I assumed they were snails...). Now I have about 10-15 baby snails roaming around (I'm still not sure what kind), and the assassins aren't interested. Ha.


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## jrIL (Apr 23, 2005)

As those new snails get bigger you'll start to see empty shells. I seldom see the assassins at work but do see the carnage.


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## smmcgill (Oct 26, 2014)

jrIL said:


> As those new snails get bigger you'll start to see empty shells. I seldom see the assassins at work but do see the carnage.


Well, we'll see how the little guys do... If they are better detritivores than the assassins, the assassins might find themselves relocated!


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## atc84 (May 18, 2013)

Ha, i would give you 300+ MTS if you lived any closer! Yeah, if you have more snails, you won't have any problems getting the food to be broken down. Didn't know nerites can escape, but if you want the snails that are babies to survive, you might want to remove the assassins


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## smmcgill (Oct 26, 2014)

Thanks atc! 
I saw a whole pile of MTS shells (empty, I think...) in one of the fish tanks at my LFS, but they don't carry them apparently. Maybe they used to?
Anyway, yes, I moved the assassins to another tank, and am happily watching the little babies get bigger. They (and the zebra nerites I bought) are doing a fantastic job of cleaning up the bottom! They even did away with the fungus bits that I didn't quite reach with the turkey baster. I love the ecology in action in these natural tanks!


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Snails are our friends!

If you saw long conical shells up to 3/4" in the tank at your aquarium store, they are almost certainly Malayan trumpet snails. Typically, the live snails hide in the substrate during the day. If you ask, the store will probably let you dig around in the substrate and pull out some live ones.


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## smmcgill (Oct 26, 2014)

I was getting some plants from a more advanced hobbyist, and I asked if he knew where in the city to find MTS. He said, "Here, take a few of mine." Woohoo!


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## Tugg (Jul 28, 2013)

You won't typically find the good snails for sale. MTS are considereda pest to plant less tanks and even some plant enthusiasts. If you can pick a few out of the stores tank for free, you'll eventually have a nice healthy colonyof them.


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## countryboy12484 (Jul 22, 2014)

I put mts in all of my tanks... Its usually the first critters i put in


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## smmcgill (Oct 26, 2014)

countryboy12484 said:


> I put mts in all of my tanks... Its usually the first critters i put in


 The trouble is that I can't find them for sale anywhere here. I did get a couple from another hobbyist, so maybe the two will grow into a thriving colony that I can use to stock all my tanks!


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## smmcgill (Oct 26, 2014)

Tugg said:


> You won't typically find the good snails for sale. MTS are considereda pest to plant less tanks and even some plant enthusiasts. If you can pick a few out of the stores tank for free, you'll eventually have a nice healthy colonyof them.


I'm not sure now if the ones I saw in the store's tank were MTS. They were the right shape, but white in colour.


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## Tugg (Jul 28, 2013)

You may have saw the shells of some dead ones. After an assassin snail gets them, their shells look a bit white.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

The shells turn white after the snails die. If you have 2 live ones, that is enough! They are parthenogenetic live bearers, and don't even need to mate to reproduce.


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## smmcgill (Oct 26, 2014)

Michael said:


> The shells turn white after the snails die. If you have 2 live ones, that is enough! They are parthenogenetic live bearers, and don't even need to mate to reproduce.


I think I saw a baby today! Do they look like miniature adults? It definitely looked different than the baby pond snails I've seen plenty of.


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## redthumb (Apr 17, 2014)

Yes they do I started with 5 and now I have 100+ like most others I put them in different tanks


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## smmcgill (Oct 26, 2014)

redthumb said:


> Yes they do I started with 5 and now I have 100+ like most others I put them in different tanks


I found 5 babies today! How many more are lurking unseen, i wonder, since they are so tiny and the same colour as my sand substrate... So exciting, because I want to put some in another tank, too.


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## yunney (Oct 4, 2014)

Otocinclus will help you remove them for sure.


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