Does Apple snails eat plants?
- Thread starter OhNo123
- Start date
Depends on the species.
The most popular one, the mystery snail (pomacea bridgesii) is plant-safe.
The most popular one, the mystery snail (pomacea bridgesii) is plant-safe.
Does a bear u-know-what in the woods? Is the sky blue? yes and yes. Mine eats anything of plant material origin in short order.
I have lots of red ramshorn snails and a heavily planted tank. They only eat the decaying parts of the leaves. The only plant I have that parts of the leaves die is java fern. Looks weird with all the dying parts gone. I even have two varieties of hygro which is a very soft leaf and they never eat them. But then my ramshorns are fed very well due to the fact that I'm raising baby plecos in there and feeding the tank heavily.
Cana snails will mow down your plants in very short order as I learned that the hard way. I had a nice cave covered in java moss a while ago and got 2 cana's and within a week and a half I had no more moss on my cave.
But my brigs have never eaten my plants as far as I can tell. I have willow leaf hygro, java moss, java fern, guppy grass, and hornwort and they always crawl around on my plants but I have no holes or eaten parts on any of it. I can't say they haven't ever "tasted" it but with all the snails I have my plants still grow very nice and look very healthy. It is funny how I can put a romaine lettuce leaf in the tank and almost every snail is on it and eating within 1/2 hour but they don't eat my plants. Same with duckweed.
I just got the willow leaf hygro about 3 weeks ago and it is in my juvie snail tank with probably 75 brigs and it still looks as nice as when I got it. Maybe if they don't have anything else to eat they will resort to eating live plants but most of the time they only eat the dead/decaying leaves.
Maybe applesnail.net would know for sure.
But my brigs have never eaten my plants as far as I can tell. I have willow leaf hygro, java moss, java fern, guppy grass, and hornwort and they always crawl around on my plants but I have no holes or eaten parts on any of it. I can't say they haven't ever "tasted" it but with all the snails I have my plants still grow very nice and look very healthy. It is funny how I can put a romaine lettuce leaf in the tank and almost every snail is on it and eating within 1/2 hour but they don't eat my plants. Same with duckweed.
I just got the willow leaf hygro about 3 weeks ago and it is in my juvie snail tank with probably 75 brigs and it still looks as nice as when I got it. Maybe if they don't have anything else to eat they will resort to eating live plants but most of the time they only eat the dead/decaying leaves.
Maybe applesnail.net would know for sure.
I believe brigs are actually unable to eat live plants because it's too raw for them, or something like that. I've found that my ramshorn don't eat plants either, though I suppose they can when starved.
I was just looking at the photo gallery posts on here and their is a post by kimmisc and it shows her 29 gallon planted tank and she has brig snails in it. Maybe she would know.
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Mystery snails are plant safe, as are european ramshorns. Most people with planted aquariums end up with some common pond snails, and I've found those will munch little holes in my anubias nana and crypt leaves sometimes, but they don't by any means eat the whole plant up.
I'm pretty sure they're unable to eat healthy plants because they can't break them down for consumption. Same reason veggies have to be blanched (or frozen then thawed) before feeding them to these snails.
I'm pretty sure they're unable to eat healthy plants because they can't break them down for consumption. Same reason veggies have to be blanched (or frozen then thawed) before feeding them to these snails.