Snails. Are they pest?

[Zumo]

I notice some little biddy brown snails in my 55 Gal I just set up. A little history on the 55 Gal. It's not new. I got it from a family member. Came with the stand and pebble substrate. I cleaned the tank and remove the rock and clean the rock in buckets by rinsing and stirring until the water was clear.

Next, after a day or 2 I put the rock back into the tank and filled it up with water. Now I keep seeing little snails at the top of the water line. Is this bad?

 

[mellowvision]

not unless you have plants, and even then, only a few snails will eat plants. otherwise, they are good cleaners.

 

[rwilliams254]

They become pests.

 

[lucky777ca]

It depends on your preference on the snails. For me, it used to be pests, as I didn't like their look on the aquarium glass. I've tried to take them out one by one, taking down the tank, and using bait. I haven't been able to remove every single one, as there was one that took its place. Therefore, I have just given up, and instead I put them in all my tanks now, as they are great cleaners.

 

[lindad229]

Yes snails are a big pest, you start with just a few and they multiply like crazy. I personally dislike them very much and have worked hard to
eradicate them as much as possible. It takes a lot of work but I am finally
down to just a few and hopefully will be successful in cleaning them out completely. :yuck:

 

[BrkD]

Yes snails are a big pest, you start with just a few and they multiply like crazy. I personally dislike them very much and have worked hard to
eradicate them as much as possible. It takes a lot of work but I am finally
down to just a few and hopefully will be successful in cleaning them out completely. :yuck:

try not to feed to often and do more water changes/gravel vacs. i personally think snails are pretty cool. they eat crumbs that the fish leaves around, great clean up crew imo

 

[Plecosterone]

I think they are good for a tank, especially planted tanks. As stated "don't overfeed" and they do not get out of hand. They do a great job of cleaning up.

 

[Ruben Tolon]

Definitely pests, they can get out of hand and the problem becomes an uneccesary hassle.

 

[ReignsAngel]

Red RamsHorn snails are great, they actually do help the tank by cleaning it and eating the dead growth on vegitation. However, the little brown ones you speak of are completely worthless, imo. They do not clean, they multiply like crazy, and I have yet found a way to rid the 10g of them. Feeding less may work SOMETIMES, but not always. They sell products to kill snails, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you have crustations or any form of bottom feeder, it can kill them too. We dont have any of them in our tank, however, Im afraid that it would still affect our other fish. So, we have just come to accept our little infestation. When we change over the tank, we'll clean it thouroughly to kill any eggs or remaining snails before repopulating it.

One thing to remember, when you buy live plants, clean them thoroughly! That's how our snail problem began. We purchased some anacharis for our red ear slider when she was small enough to live in the 10g, and that was how the problem started. At the time, she would eat the small snails.

 

[thelobster]

what kind of snails do i have? i use to these to feed my puffies.