Snail questions

dwarfgourami7

dwarfgourami7

Steve the angelfish
Nov 13, 2006
382
0
0
34
England! uk
I have quite a algee problem and theres alot of fish poo at the bottom of my tank. Ive tried getting rid of algee nearly everyway but it hasnt worked and i do gravel vacs evey fortnight but theres always alot there. So i was thinking of getting snails for both of my tanks but the questions are
1. Are they at any danger if i get any?(especialy with the loaches)
2. Are they hardy?
3. Easy to keep?
4. Remove poop and algee well?
5. If so. How many for each tank?
6. What type of snails?
 
You'll probably want Malaysian Trumpet Snails (MTS).

1. They will be in danger of your loaches, but have a trap door mechanism that prevents some intrusion, although loaches tend to slurp them out.
2. They are hardy and survive better than most snails in soft water too (soft water usually dissolves their shells). Hard water they're fine in.
3. Just chuck them in - they'll eat any left over food, algae, and turn over your substrate too. Usually nocternal unless a large population exists. Hermaphoroditic too, so technically don't need a partner to reproduce - they produce live snails too.
4. Nothing removes poop except a gravel vac, but they do eat algae well.
5. Pop into a LFS and ask for 5 or so - they should give them to you for free. Over time you'll end up with loads depending on how overfed your fish are. Food is a means of controlling snail populations.

Words of caution:
1. Once in your tank, they're very, very hard to eradicate.
2. Can be disease carriers.

You either love or hate snails in tanks!


Have you looked at the reasons behind your algal growth, as this may be a better solution?
 
Cool. This is the plan. Put the cherry barbs in the 18G and put 5-6 snails in.Add 6 into the 30G. When i say remove poop i mean break it down. Any other things i could do?
 
Your 18 is pretty full. The Cherries will be fine in the 30g. How often do you do gravel vacs and water changes? And how much water do you take out each time? With the poo build up it seems like you aren't changing water enough.
 
20% on the 18G most wednesdays (i vac then) and another 20% every saturday (occasionaly)

Either 10% with gravel vac on wednesdays on 30G with 20% on saturday or 10% on wednesday with no gravel vac and 30% on saturday with gravel vac.
 
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