Controling snails with fish.

I've got ramshorns, pond snails (football shaped fellas), and trumpet snails in my 20 gallon. They only eat dying plant matter, which would have rotted anyway. So...I siphon up snail poop instead of dead leaf bits.

I think the snails are fun to watch and I have minimal algae problems on my plants and glass.

However, the numbers can get maddening! I found the numbers decreased dramatically in my tank when I removed my hornwort and java moss. I'm not sure which, if either, was contributing, but I suspect that the lower "leaves" of the hornwort were light deprived and were being fed upon.
 
One more point I want to add. I view adding a fish to eat the snails as really sort of compounding your problem. Snails are sort of like algae in the sense that they can only flourish and grow if there is a food source. Your best best is the use of prophylaxis on plants (I am much more happy about prophylactic treatments on plants than I am fish) before they ever enter your tank. If you add a fish, you are likely to increase feeding which in turn may feed the snails and create that same sort of cycle we warn folks about in algae control when they ask what kind of fish they need for X type algae.

Anyway, considering you have ramshorns, fear not, they are a decent snail and if you need to control the population, try any of the listed methods, cut feedings back some and see where it all evens out to a snail population you can enjoy and live with.
 
Snails are not such a bad thing in moderation. Because I have a planted tank, I always panicked when only even a few snails appeared with a new plant. But listening to other people and watching the snails, they haven't eaten my plants. I never see them chomping on healthy plant leaves. I have one neritina snail (best thing ever at scraping off those little green specs of algae you get with high light, I have none now), ramshorn, trumpet (another very desireable snail), and common pond snails. The football shaped pond snails I am still wary of but their numbers are kept low, they seem to compete with the ramshorns. I have a very heavily plants tank and along with my amano shrimp, the snails have made it so that I have very very little if any dead plant matter ever. I also have no algae problems which is hard in a highlight tank with no co2. I would steer clear of apple snails which produce a lot of waste and DO eat plants... lots of plants. I stopped using them in my pond and now throw in some of the little guys from my tank.
 
Kissofthegorami said:
I would steer clear of apple snails which produce a lot of waste and DO eat plants... lots of plants. I stopped using them in my pond and now throw in some of the little guys from my tank.
Click to expand...

Not all apple snails eat plants. Pomacea Bridgesii (brigs for short) typically only eat decaying plant matter, although there's the occasional weirdo. However, these guys do need food, and do produce waste, and must be considered as another life form in the tank adding to bioload etc. They can be very fun to watch though. At least with applesnails, it's very easy to control population. These snails need both a male and a female to get more, and they lay their eggs above the water line so the eggs can be easily discarded if they aren't wanted. Oh, and please don't put these guys in outdoor ponds. They can and will move... and many plant areas (rice especially) have been decimated by applesnails beign introduced to the wild. (the plant eating kind, mostly Canas (pomacea canniculata)). O.k., thats my little applesnail spiel for now. I hang out at www.applesnail.net a lot too, and I love my pretty brigs. They come in all colors of the rainbow just about!
And, I agree, not all snails are bad, especially not in moderation. The ramshorms are very good at keeping the pond snails (foot ball shaped ones, physa) in check!

Emily
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom