Hey all.

I'm wanting to know your opinions on having snails in the tank?

The pro's and con's.

Also what type of snails y'all prefer.

Cheers

they say ramshorn snails are really good for cleaning up waste and i guess they do but i think snails are a pain in the butt, if you want some come see me I'll give you some.

LOL, I'm not sure I want any. In fact I'd prefer not to have them, but was

wondering if they were "important" to a tank.

Thanks for the offer anyways Paul

IMHO snails are the pits.

I have a tank setup at a freinds place - due to my lack of space - and that has tiny snails in it (I could care less what species they are). They seem to breed like mad then run out of food and die and pollute the water. Not all of them seem to die as the tank eventually gets a water change and the process starts over. It is a pain in da ...

I had a goldfish left over from my coldwater days that I put in my tropical tank and he was a great snail destroyer. He cleaned up the snail problem without charge. When summer came I put him in my parents pond as he was getting big and I felt sorry for him having to be at 28 odd degrees. Still no snails in the tank he was in.

All I can say guys, is if you got a snail problem, you need to invest in a Clown Loach, great snail killers, all you left with as the Snail Shell.

Lynda

I just LUVVVVVVVV my little Rams-horns

They save me so much with my fry rearing in the small receptacles that I use.

If they didn't clean up, the pollution would overwhelm the babies.

I still give the babies a minimum of 50% water change, sometimes close to 100% per day.

The ones (snails)that are the pits are what I term the "millions snails"

They have the same shape shell as a ramshorn, but instead of carrying it at right angles to the glass, they carry it parralel, only grow to a max of5mm, but you can guess their breeding habits from the name I have dropped on them.

Alan 104

That sounds like the little mongrels - millions snails - pffft

That'll learn me for not sterilising my plants when I got them

Snails are great. Great little algae eaters and puffer food. I wish I had more snails!

if you get them in a tank and you dont want them in there theyre very annoying!!! i suppose they do clear up waste but then they MAKE waste and when they die they pollute the water (i do water changes every few days so its not normally a prob). i take all the ones i can see out but theres still alot there for sure!!!

the bigger ones like mystery snails and apple snails which need the other sex to breed are cool if you only have one sex, they clean up all your left overs and its cute to watch them eat their peas and cucumber, theyre more like pets than pests

i had a snail problem. i gave some to billaney to take over to mystic for her puffer. the rest, my rosy barbs took care of

as for what types, it all depends on if you actually want to have plants in your tank as some of the larger one will clean them out.

the bigger ones like ... apple snails ... theyre more like pets than pests

Not if you want to have plants

Yep, I had a couple of Apple Snails once, and they stripped the tank bare.

Lynda

Talking of snails, I have a tank with WCMM, which breed (as WCMM do). I'm quite happy them breeding, as I have a pond where I could put the fry to grow up.

I have some small snails in the tank they breed in. How diligent should I be in trying to move them elsewhere? Would they eat the eggs? The snails are around 2 millimeters large (I moved the larger ones, but the small ones are difficult to find).

We have snails in all our tanks and they don't cause any problems at all. I think they are mainly Ramshorn ones and a few darker ones with a spiral-formed shell.

The occasional hole in a plant's leaf is the only downside we've experienced so far. On the plus side: they help cleaning up the bottom of the tank pretty well and help with fighting algae build up on the glass. As Alan said, a great source of help in a bubba tank as well.

Just my two cents

Dan

I think I've got the same snails as Alan. They look like Ramshorns but walk sideways. The biggest I've found were about 7-8mm diameter. They haven't got too bad, but they do eat plants. My swords are getting a little tattered in some places. I tried killing the snails off with CuSO4, but this didn't work very well and can be harmful on the tank if you keep at it or use a strong dose (also, if you have lots of snails and they all die at one it can mess with your tank too).

I laid a snail trap which works (especially on the big ones). It's a small wide-mouthed glass vial (20 x 100mm) with a bit of nylon tied around the neck. I drop in a bit of cucumber and drop it into the tank so that it's on it's side. The snails go in during the night and you just fish it out using the nylon and keep going. However, my rummy nose tetras figured out that it was safe to go inside and now they eat the cucumber. I need a smaller mouthed vial.

I've got a tank specifically for Ramshorns (ok there's also one baby platy in there, but still), I think they're great. I feed them a high protein diet (shrimp pellets) and they hardly make any waste at all.

Do angels eat baby snails and million snails? I have a million snail problem in the making....and the tank is still relatively empty.

I have found an easy way to get rid, or at least, make a big dent in the snail population using lettuce,

tied to a piece of string and a small piece of lead to make it sink, left overnight, then removed in the morning,

and dropped into a cup of salty water to kill the snails attached to the leaf,

and if there is still enough leaf left, returned to the tank to get more.

Repeat if necessary.

Works well IMO

Alan 104

Hey Alan,

Great idea with the Lettuce Leaf, hung over the side of the tank to attract the snails.

Gotta be far better solution than using those Snail Rid Products you can buy, far healthier option for the Fishies in the tank too.

Lynda

I know :oops: :roll: 8)

Alan 104

I

I laid a snail trap which works (especially on the big ones). It's a small wide-mouthed glass vial (20 x 100mm) with a bit of nylon tied around the neck. I drop in a bit of cucumber and drop it into the tank so that it's on it's side. The snails go in during the night and you just fish it out using the nylon and keep going. However, my rummy nose tetras figured out that it was safe to go inside and now they eat the cucumber. I need a smaller mouthed vial.

I have been thinking about this, I like the idea; I might try a small plastic medicine bottle; cut some holes in it, small enough for fish to not enter but big enough for the million nails and put the bait in there, weighed down with a bit of lead and attached to a string for easy recovery. Will let you know in a few days how that went.

Well that was very unsuccessful. I caught not a single of the million snails. That said their population might be on the decline, while I never see it, I suspect the rainbow shark occasionally snacking on them. Its unlikely to be bronze cats, bristlenose, or guppies, is it?

I have Nerite snails in my tanks. Best algae controllers around. Much better than any other algae eater. And they don't harm live plants at all. They will even help trim off the dead leaves from live plants, too. They will eat the dead areas, but not the live. Don't reproduce in fresh water either.

I have Nerite snails in my tanks. Best algae controllers around. Much better than any other algae eater. And they don't harm live plants at all. They will even help trim off the dead leaves from live plants, too. They will eat the dead areas, but not the live. Don't reproduce in fresh water either.

Where did you get them from Fizgig?

They (nerite snails) are a saltwater snail that I didn't even know could survive in freshwater tanks. Interesting. I think they're the ones that look particularly cool when crawling across the glass, as the "foot" has undulating patterns that go in opposite directions. Will have to chat with some salty buds about getting some of them. Do they survive well in freshwater and do they need to go back to a salt tank occasionally (other than breeding)? Great concept - snails that can't breed. Hmm.... why didn't I think of that?