what fish or snail are able to eat leftovers or dead stuff?

[theludicrous]

the assassins i used to have aren't adapting in the new tank i used with soil.

is there any other fish/snail to put in the tank, or other suggestions?

please advice.

[stormhawk]

Pouch snails would be your best bet, however in tanks with soils, they may not like such acidic environments.

[theludicrous]

Pouch snails? Where can I find them?

[gadget818]

I feed my betta with dead stuff haha

[hencpu]

How bout Nerites?

[sp1der]

go with horn snail. they do wonders with many algae

you wont regret on how hardworking they are but dont forget to remove your assassins snail.
for leftover food i havent have much experience as i feed less.

[xXXXx13]

How about malayan shrimps?

[theludicrous]

i think the problem i face is that the water is too acidic, so far i can't seem to put any inverts in, i think they have problems with the shells.

[felix_fx2]

Ramshorn, Malayan? Their the most popular.
You could try the infamous pond snails, but i still think their a pest. :P

[theludicrous]

i have some tanks with soil and some tanks with gravel. so far my assassins, ramhorns and trumpet snails can't seem to tolerate the waters of the tank with soil.

i tried introducing shrimps but most of them got eaten up or either died (not sure about the reason of death).

[kidearth]

hmm have you tried Yamato shrimp? they are a hardy lot, used them as my cleaning crew.

[sp1der]

my horn snail has no problem with ph 6. anything below ph6 can KO them...happen twice to me

[theludicrous]

My soil is like giving me less than ph6 at the moment. The drip test chart doesn't even have the color that my water is tested at.

[felix_fx2]

can i clarify 2 things i am in doubt?

1:you mention soil.. as in garden soil or compressed ones like ADA/GEX..
2:how old is that new tank, thread started 23rd.. i can only assume slightly before that.

i think most brands of compacted soil don't lower ph that much.

[stormhawk]

Certain brand will push the pH down to 5 or so depending on the batches. This is in the initial stages after which it will rise to around 6 and stabilise. In soil tanks, most snails do not survive unless they have a source of minerals for shell growth, in particular calcium.

If you have dead fish or shrimp, use a pair of long tweezers to remove them. Your hands will get wet when dipping the tweezer but getting wet is all part and parcel of fish keeping. Trapped food can be removed with a small gravel vacuum or long tube with a valve to siphon them out. If you have to use snails then pouch snails can be purchased from C328. The bags of snails are usually hanging near the fibreglass koi pond and where the feeder fish, tubifex, BBS typically are. Note, those bags contain various snails, including brown ramshorns. So it's a hit and miss kind of thing when you buy those snails. If other snails cannot survive in your tank, then it is likely that the pond snails won't survive either.

Is your tank newly set up? If it hasn't been fully cycled, ammonia present will kill your snails. This is usually the case with soil-based tanks that contain ammonia to speed up the cycling process.

[theludicrous]

the soil i'm using is ANS planta soil. the tank has been running for closed to a month with 3 water changes of more than 50% water.

i currently have 2 3ft tanks and 2 small tanks (these 2 small ones were the ones i initially kept and i'm trying to transfer the livestock inside to the big tanks.)

in one of the small tanks i keep ramshorn and trumpet snails which are healthy and moving. ph7, gh5-6, kh2-3.

tried to acclimatize the ramshorn in the soil tank several times but they always curl into their shell and not move, same for the assassins that i keep in the other small tank.

i'm not sure if it's something in the water that doesn't allow these shell creatures to molt, or survive, thus not trying them with the existing malayans and sakuras.

[theludicrous]

my ph drip tester tests from 6.2 - 7.4. which currently i'm getting this off-yellow color. which i presume is less than 6.2.

[felix_fx2]

acclimatize as in take a container and mix in the water from the 3 feet?
my nernites mostly have this same reaction, when i just dump them.

[theludicrous]

I put the livestocks that I want to introduce in a container with the initial tank water and slowly drip or add the new tank water in.

[felix_fx2]

if you did that also they might have had some reaction if the differences in PH is too much it will likely show when the container you use is mostly filled by new tank's water.
Else i am suspecting ammonia too.