I know I had one snail. It was in the bag with a couple of my guppies when I bought them. But now I have at least three snails! I think I remember reading somewhere that they multiply like crazy. Do I need to get rid of them? Will they harm my fish? Or is there some benefit to leaving them in the tank? Or does it just not matter either way?
Snails?
- Thread starter jaenelle
- Start date
My wife insisted on getting 2 snails when we started the tank. We have about 20 now and it's only been about two months. About 3-4 weeks ago I had to start over as we rushed the cycle and ick took all my fish. I emptied the tank, washed the gravel, hosed off everything with hot water. One or two must have survived and we now have the 20 I said earlier.
Are there any fish out there that can control the population by eating the eggs? I want some to survive and do not want the entire population to be wiped out (my wife has childhood memories connected to them), just something to keep the many eggs from hatching and letting those few eggs make it.
Are there any fish out there that can control the population by eating the eggs? I want some to survive and do not want the entire population to be wiped out (my wife has childhood memories connected to them), just something to keep the many eggs from hatching and letting those few eggs make it.
I'm interested in putting snails in my tank and have some concerns about them getting out of control. I've been poking around the forum and read that if you don't overfeed, they won't really be a problem. Also, I think I read that loaches like to eat snails. Is that true, because I want to get pakistani loaches and/kuhli loaches when my 55g is done cycling (fishless)? Will they merely control the population if they do eat snails or will they wipe it out?
some would recomend puffers to eat the snails but they would not be suitable with guppies. try weather loach and botia loach to get rid of the snails. people do buy snails to clean glass but these are usually apples. if they came in the bag with no extra cost and are brown they are broblem snails. while they will not harm your fish directly but they are not that great of glass cleaners and cause infestations in the aquaria of pond. I pay 25 cents for 35 of them at the store to feed my puffers
jaenelle said:
It does sound like you may have nuisance snails. Can you describe the shape if the shell? And yes, I've read that you can control the population by not overfeeding. I have mystery snails. They are good cleaners and wont eat healthy plants but will clean up the dead and dying leaves and any uneaten food. It's also easy to control the population as they lay eggs at the surface.
I have malaysian trumpet snails in my 10 gallon tank (brown snails with a spiral/conical shell, not smooth and round). I think they are very entertaining. Most botia spp. of loaches will eat snails and help control the population, not necessarily get rid of all of them.
However, I would not recommend getting any fish to eat your snails without knowing your tank size, etc.
If I feel my snails are getting to be too many, I cut back on my feedings, put a piece of zucchini in the tank at night, take it out the next morning with the snails on it and get rid of it (actually, I use the baby snails to feed my zebra loaches in my other tank). I have only done that once in 5 months. Mainly I watch how much I feed my fish and try to keep my tank pretty clean and there is no overabundance of snails. They don't eat healthy plants and they do eat algae on the glass as well as stir up my sand substrate.
Good luck
However, I would not recommend getting any fish to eat your snails without knowing your tank size, etc.
If I feel my snails are getting to be too many, I cut back on my feedings, put a piece of zucchini in the tank at night, take it out the next morning with the snails on it and get rid of it (actually, I use the baby snails to feed my zebra loaches in my other tank). I have only done that once in 5 months. Mainly I watch how much I feed my fish and try to keep my tank pretty clean and there is no overabundance of snails. They don't eat healthy plants and they do eat algae on the glass as well as stir up my sand substrate.
Good luck
Call me biased. Personally kill em. I decided to take a jump and get live plants. The snails pretty much took over after that. I don't like them and as such I kill em when I can, but when I clean the tank and pull out twenty a pop I've kinda lost the fight. Pretty much what happed to me was this. I bought plants snails came in to the tank with them. The plants did well and I shrugged off the snails to see where it would take me. The snails exploded and ate my plants. Now I have fake plants and a small yet healthy population of snails. BAH! They really won't hurt anything in the tank if you keep up with water changes but I really personaly don't like them. I have ramshorm and I think they're called cone snails. I just can't kill em off without tearing the whole thing down. Don't freakout though they won't really hurt your tank I just think they're ugly and would love to kill them off.
-Neo Sithlord
-Neo Sithlord