My only concern with the snails is an infestation...swapping one problem for another! But I see that's only an issue with the apple snails. Might give the Nerites a go!As always--very superb photos. Beautiful cozy, grotto-- private suite for Boss the King.
Yes, Brick is really, really a spooktacular, mega Brickstar. His coloring just keeps getting more--Wow.
I concur withEntoStentor that Snails would be a remedy for your algae. I had intended to post you about that today, even before I saw NoobAquarist's post. >>>>Nerite Snails to be specific.
They are Major Turbo Working Algae Cleaner Machines. And they won't touch your aquarium plants, except the smaller Snails will clean your plants of algae. They have a variety attractive of color and patterned shells.
Mystery snails get a little larger, but you can still get close to as large Nerite Snails.
Nerite Snails live about a year or two and can only breed in saltwater. I try to keep a Nerite in every tank and will sometimes move them between my multiple tanks as valuable assistant cleaning teams.
Apple Snails live 2-4 years and can breed in freshwater. It is recommended you keep one per tank to prevent a snail infestation or keep a pair in a specific separate tank if you intend to breed them.
I just acquired an Assassin Snail to eliminate an unwanted Trumpet Snail infestation. They will eat fish food but their dining passion is other Snails. As soon as I finished acclimating the Assassin Snail and put in the tank, it went right to work in attacking another snail.
Assassin Snails definitely deserve the honorary title of Monster Mollusk.
Brick cooperated and posed by the ruler. He is officially now 8". So he's still growing at a staggering 2.5"+ a month clip. Still don't believe this can continue. And I'm only feeding him twice a day now.
Being a fiesty teenage O with a big mouth, Brick is still testing Boss in true cichlid fashion. He's not relinquishing the title lightly. Generally will stay on his 'turf' but goes over to start junk. He'll maneuver Boss around a bit, even still chase him some up top. But head to head he gets owned. He simply can't move the sumo parrot no matter how fast he charges in. Boss catches his bottom lip and shoves him all over the place and finally Brick just gives up and drifts away all mopey. His only real tactic is trying to bite Boss in the belly because he can't lip lock with him. I have a pic of that I will post. The tactic never works, Boss sees it coming a mile away.
They had a w/c today. Did a quick cleanup of Kong's tank. He keeps smashing the marimos against the back glass in a pile creating more debris for me to find. The large marimo is a complete mess, he had it shaped like a crescent moon the other day.
This will be the last ich treatment for Patch tonight. I want to get her out of the blue soup, she has completely stopped eating. (I discovered this is a side effect of the meds). This will complete two weeks treatment and I think she needs a break from it. I will do a teardown of her tank, probably remove some of the sand and replace it (darker mix) and do a clean/sterilize of the plants and boulder.
Will have a territory map of the main tank coming up. The journal rolls on...
