Best snail or critter to clean frags....

Roosterjack · Nov 15, 2019

What would be an effective little beastie to keep algae from growing on my frags? Needs to not require a sand bed to hide in.

Thanks in advance...

ross0201 · Nov 15, 2019

Roosterjack said:
What would be an effective little beastie to keep algae from growing on my frags? Needs to not require a sand bed to hide in.

Thanks in advance...

In my QT tank I have some mollies converted to salt water. I can't believe how nice of a job they do on algae. Snails don't do much on the frag rack for me but the mollies pick it clean.

Probably depends on how big your tank is though.

Roosterjack · Nov 15, 2019

ross0201 said:
In my QT tank I have some mollies converted to salt water. I can't believe how nice of a job they do on algae. Snails don't do much on the frag rack for me but the mollies pick it clean.

Probably depends on how big your tank is though.

7 gallons. Does anyone online sell pre-salt acclimated mollies?

ross0201 · Nov 15, 2019

I couldn't find them online. Humblefish recommended sailfin or baloon mollies, I found sailfin. I tried to do a long (8ish hour) drip to acclimate. Around 1.015 salinity my siphon stopped. I put them in a plastic hang-on box to keep them warm overnight and they jumped into the saltwater tank while I was sleeping. I've had them about a month and they're doing fine, actually found a few babies in the tank last week!

BloopFish · Nov 15, 2019

Roosterjack said:
7 gallons. Does anyone online sell pre-salt acclimated mollies?

To my knowledge, the coral reef, the retail end of sustainable aquatics, sells them online in their miscellaneous section.
If anything I'd personally rather acclimate them like ross0201 says. I've heard its not that hard.

Red_Beard · Nov 15, 2019

super easy to acclimate to saltwater. that is what i used to finish the cycle on my 30 gallon. just like @ross0201 says, keep it temp stable and increase salinity over a half day or so and they are fine. Mine showed no signs of stress and actually became more active and looked "happier" in the salt water. I have also heard anecdotal observations that they bread more readily and successfully in a brackish/saltwater environment!