I'm seeking general advice on feeding quantity for some snails, crabs, and shrimp.
I have a new 10 gallon invert quarantine tank and just put in the following initial CUC order 5 days ago:
50 Dwarf Cerith
16 Nassarius Vibex
17 Florida Cerith
14 Astraea Snails
2 Assorted Cleaning Shrimp
2 Spotted Porcelain Crab
These will be heading to a 42 gallon DT after quarantine. My QT is new and pristine (no algae) and I wanted to be certain that right at the start they had things to eat ... but I think I overdid it. I put in three pinches of pellets (New Life Spectrum 1mm) and a day later fed a half a cube of frozen mises shrimp. Now three days later I measured Total Ammonia = 1.2 ppm, and Nitrite = 1.6 ppm. I immediately dosed Seachem AmGuard aggressively and did a 35% water change. I will be doing 1-2 more water changes.
It's possible that the tank was not cycled as well as it should have been. Also it is possible that some of the snails may be dead and are decaying, but my best guess is that I just put way too much food in the tank.
So I am curious if anyone has any guidance on how much food would be appropriate (and frequency) for this size of a CUC with very little algae growth at this stage.
Thanks.
I have a new 10 gallon invert quarantine tank and just put in the following initial CUC order 5 days ago:
50 Dwarf Cerith
16 Nassarius Vibex
17 Florida Cerith
14 Astraea Snails
2 Assorted Cleaning Shrimp
2 Spotted Porcelain Crab
These will be heading to a 42 gallon DT after quarantine. My QT is new and pristine (no algae) and I wanted to be certain that right at the start they had things to eat ... but I think I overdid it. I put in three pinches of pellets (New Life Spectrum 1mm) and a day later fed a half a cube of frozen mises shrimp. Now three days later I measured Total Ammonia = 1.2 ppm, and Nitrite = 1.6 ppm. I immediately dosed Seachem AmGuard aggressively and did a 35% water change. I will be doing 1-2 more water changes.
It's possible that the tank was not cycled as well as it should have been. Also it is possible that some of the snails may be dead and are decaying, but my best guess is that I just put way too much food in the tank.
So I am curious if anyone has any guidance on how much food would be appropriate (and frequency) for this size of a CUC with very little algae growth at this stage.
Thanks.