I'm having problems (Algae and food)

[alligator]

I have two problems with my octo tank:

1. I can't control the growth of green hair algae. My snails have all but died in the 68 degree water in my octo tank, and they don't eat algae like they used to. Are they just old, or do snails move slower in colder water? They are turbo snails and have easily eaten it before. My octo doesn't eat my snails at all.

2. I'm also having trouble keeping food for my octo. I normally buy about 24 hermits at the LFS and then dump them into my sump. On average, I lose about 5-10 of the 24 hermits - probably due to the cold temperature, lack of food, and just plain hermit fighting. My octo won't eat anything else besides hermits and fiddler crabs. Fiddler crabs are too hard to keep alive for very long in my sump, and the hermits are in short supply in my area (Twin Cities, MN). Mail order hermits are expensive ($30 shipping cost easily outweighs the snail cost). My octo won't eat ANYTHING but hermits and fiddler crabs. *sigh*

Any advice?

 

[cephalopoder]

He should eat snails , give him time. If your snails are dropping like flies then try some cold water snails collected from the east coast. I am not sure who woulds sell them on line but I am sure you can find some places. Or pay some one to send you a 100 or so. Bimacs love snails and periwinkles. My super market will order periwinkles for me and I can buy them buy the pound.
Did you try drip acclimating your hermits?
When you keep fiddler crabs you need to remember they need to be able to get out of the water or they will drown. They only need to keep their gills wet. Two inches of water in a 5 gallon bucket with a crawl out spot in the center will be great, use a sponge filter, feed fish food.

 

[alligator]

That would probably be why my fiddler crab didn't make it when I dropped him into the sump. Too bad the LFS didn't tell me this. Of course, he was just going to be octo lunch the next day anyway.