# Invasion of algae on algae eaters



## tiger15 (22 Feb 2020)

My algae eating snails are getting algae invasion on their shell.  .  The snails are  in my window sill zero tech shrimp bowl that receives afternoon sunlight.  The dwarf hair grass also get some on the stems.  They look like bba in texture but too green to be red algae.  What algae is it and how to get rid of.


----------



## dw1305 (22 Feb 2020)

Hi all, 





tiger15 said:


> My algae eating snails are getting algae invasion on their shell.  .  The snails are  in my window sill zero tech shrimp bowl that receives afternoon sunlight.  The dwarf hair grass also get some on the stems.  They look like bba in texture but too green to be red algae.  What algae is it and how to get rid of.


It is the same green algae that the Nerites eat, they can’t graze their own shells.

You get it a lot on Limpets (_Patella spp.) _in rock-pools for the same reasons.

Cheers Darrel


----------



## Gill (22 Feb 2020)

I used to get this algae growing on my pond snails. They looked like trolls 

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk


----------



## dw1305 (23 Feb 2020)

Hi all,
Here is a limpet. You can see that the only other algae in the pool is a coralline crust. They are very efficient "lawn-mowers".






Gill said:


> I used to get this algae growing on my pond snails. They looked like trolls


I think Marcel @zozo has a photo somewhere of a punk Pond Snail?

cheers Darrel


----------



## zozo (23 Feb 2020)

dw1305 said:


> I think Marcel @zozo has a photo somewhere of a punk Pond Snail?



It was a punky ramshorn..  I did post a picture it is somewhere but i have forgotten the title.. I kinda like it. Also tried to seed snails with mosses, but most don't live long enough for that.


----------



## zozo (23 Feb 2020)

But found the picture back.


----------



## tiger15 (23 Feb 2020)

Mine are on  ramshorn too, but not all of them get it.  Are they hair algae? Some are completely free of algae, so I wonder if the health of the snail has something to do with it.  They look like moving moss balls, or sort of camouflage.  I saw the cherry shrimp graze on the snail shell, but not remove it.  They don’t stick to rock or glass surfaces, just snail shell and hair grass stems.


----------



## zozo (23 Feb 2020)

My best guess it might be some kind of Cladophora. And the snail's health is not in danger. Its shell is a non-living tissue comparable with the hardscape. If an algae spore settles on it it will grow on.

But as you experience it can also attach to living tissue such as plant leaves. I also have it growing to some large crypts, and remarkable only at the leaves edges. Best guess again, algae are like mosses, don't have roots, more like rhizoids that grow into nooks and crannies of whatever. It is so tiny it even grows in between cell structures of living tissue (Plants) and anchor in between.  I've seen mosses also attach to plant tissue.


----------



## dw1305 (24 Feb 2020)

Hi all,





zozo said:


> My best guess it might be some kind of Cladophora.


My guess as well. 

cheers Darrel


----------

