# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Fish for .75Gal Nano Walstad-style planted tank?



## OwenG (Jul 1, 2004)

Hello,

I set up a nano-planted tank about a month ago on my desk here at work (one of those RedSea nano-tanks). Plants are doing good (Wendtii "Red" and Marsilea minuta), and there has been virtually no algae at any point (wish my other tanks were like that).

I'd like to add a fish or two (or something different). Does anyone have any recommendations for this tank? I wouldn't be able to feed the fish over the weekend (standard desk job).

Thanks,
-OwenG


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## OwenG (Jul 1, 2004)

Hello,

I set up a nano-planted tank about a month ago on my desk here at work (one of those RedSea nano-tanks). Plants are doing good (Wendtii "Red" and Marsilea minuta), and there has been virtually no algae at any point (wish my other tanks were like that).

I'd like to add a fish or two (or something different). Does anyone have any recommendations for this tank? I wouldn't be able to feed the fish over the weekend (standard desk job).

Thanks,
-OwenG


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## feefeefish (Apr 5, 2004)

It's quite small, even for a betta.

A cute little creature is a mystery snail, also called an apple snail. Latin name is _Pomacea Bridgesii_. They are a riot to watch, and you could feed it Friday and it should survive over the weekend. It likes algae/bottom feeder pellets, flake food and slices of cooked zucchini/squash/carrot (no sauce, but make the veggie soggy!







). It generally will not eat a healthy plant; it prefers wilting/dead vegetation as that is what its teeth are designed for. It can get to about 3". It likes temps of 65-82F. They live a year or so. www.applesnail.net has good info.

One or two Malaysian Trumpet Snails also would keep the substrate aerated, and when you do see them, they look like tiny ice-cream cones.


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## OwenG (Jul 1, 2004)

feefeefish,

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

I once purchased 4 applesnails, about two years ago. I thought they would make a nice addition to a 20 gallon heavily-planted tank. I put them in the tank in the early evening. The next morning, they had 'mowed' nearly a third of the tank. They didn't really seem to care for eating anything, they just liked to cruise up to the base of my stem plants and whack 'em down, then move on to the next plant. I removed all of the now floating plant matter to the trash, as well as removing two of the snails to another tank and went off to work. When I got home, the two snails still in the tank had clear-cut a rather large planting of ambulia and we're still going rampant. At that point I decided enough was enough and gave the snails to a LFS.

I've got 3 Malaysian Trumpet Snails in the tank now. My tanks are all quite heavily stocked with these little guys, so I put a few in (and if anyone in the SLC area needs trumpet snails, I'm you're guy).

Thanks tho,
-OwenG


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## feefeefish (Apr 5, 2004)

Wow, Owen! Was that perhaps a different species of apple snail? The "mystery" snails I have don't seem to go for plants.

How about other inverts? I hear that cherry/ghost/amano and other shrimp are very pretty and amusing to watch, but I don't know enough about them to know if they could live over the weekend, or in a 0.75 g tank. Since they are "clean-up" guys like the snails, they could probably manage over the weekend if you leave something in there for them to munch on.


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## superjohnny (Jul 31, 2004)

I have 4 endlers livebearers in a 6g. The males are pretty little fish. Females are kind of bland, but nice in their own right.


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## Wally (Aug 31, 2003)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by feefeefish:
> 
> ...


There are several species of snails sold as mystery snails. Here is a good link about them written by a great guy (me) http://www.aquariumhobbyist.com/snails/snailcare.htm

The two most common species are _P. bridgesi_ and _P. caniliculata_Of the two P. bridgesi will not bother plants but P. caniliculata will mow them all down. Here is another link for you that shows the difference
http://www.aquariumhobbyist.com/snails/snailsplants.htm


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

That's way too small for an apple or mystery snail. They get pretty big. I'd agree that shrimp may be your best bet, as they're generally light on the bioload.

Here's another good link on identifying snails:
What is this snail? Will it eat my plants?


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

I'd go with the shrimp. I had some filter feeding shrimp that were delightful to watch. Also, some of the killifish are used to tight quarters.

If you add livebearers, you may get a tank full of fish, which you'll have to thin out periodically.

Keep a little debris in the tank and whatever you put in there will probably get enough protozoa and little critters to survive weekends without food. If you have soil in your tank, you may have a sufficiently developed ecosystem for a few fish to find food. 

Also, you could experiment with vacation feeders for those longer times that you'll not be there to feed the fish.


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## nativeplanter (Jan 27, 2004)

I would use Heterandria formosa, the least killifish. Not a killifish at all, but a tiny native US livebearer. Females are about 3/4", males less. You can find them on Aquabid.com, or I sometimes see them in the ghost shrimp tank at the pet store, where have come in as weeds from the suppliers aquaculture vats. One of my favorite fish.

-Laura


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## OwenG (Jul 1, 2004)

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I had a hunch I'd probably end up with shrimp or other invertebrate, given the weekend diet requirements, so I'll probably pick up a couple of cherry shrimp or the like when my LFS next has them.

Thanks again,
-OwenG


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