Snails

[Kohan Bros.]

What snails are good, and which ones are bad. By bad I mean will never stop breeding or dangerous to tank.

 

[Jchillin]

The most common FW snail is the apple snail. They are only bad if you have a planted tank and they can breed quickly but not so fast that you cannot control the population (takes a little work...but it can be done).

Apples are also known as mystery snails as some come in a variety of colors and shell designs.

 

[mandi]

The little brown common/pond type snail (shaped like little footballs - you see them a lot in LFS tanks, esp the planted ones) are HORRIBLE at taking over. A lot of times they will sneak into your tank as eggs stuck on plants and then you wake up one day to hundreds of the buggers on everything....UGH!!
Also, I have recently made the mistake of introducing some lovely spiral (long spiral - not tall spiral like the apple/mystery) shelled snails as I was told they didn't reproduce like the commons - either the fish guy was wrong or I have done something really right for the snails as they are EVERYWHERE in my tank now......
The apple snails and ramshorn snails we have had have been great and not reproduced nearly as much as the others -- meaning they never "took over"

 

[frog girl]

I think Malaysian Trumpet Snails aren't too bad. They are especially good if you have a planted tank as they burrow & aerate the substrate. I am not sure about their reproductive rate but I have also heard that they are not hard on plants (sort of earthworm like in their feeding habits) & they generally stay buried during the day & only come out at night.

 

[Blucat]

I have one use for Pond Snails, so much that, now I don't have enough pond snails! Surprising eh? Well Mum "steals" my pond snails from my tank and pops them into her male betta's tank. The male betta then gobbles them up after the pond snail has grown big enough. Free Live Food! So anyway, currently I rely on the pond snail for algae control as my tank isn't ready for a sucker fish, and i didn't have enough big pond snails when i had my last algae bloom.

 

[Guest]

I've "heard" olive nerite snails don't reporduce in freshwater as they are a brackish snail, but can adapt to the freshwater living. Has anyone given these dudes a try? You can read more about them on the snails page at www.azgardens.com

-Stewie

 

[Lance M.]

I've "heard" olive nerite snails don't reporduce in freshwater as they are a brackish snail, but can adapt to the freshwater living. Has anyone given these dudes a try? You can read more about them on the snails page at www.azgardens.com

The only place I've heard or seen of these olive nerite snails is on that arizona gardens website, so I don't know anything for sure about those.

Pond snails are good scavengers though they do reproduce very fast which makes them good for feeding to other fish like some bettas, some loachs, and puffers, and it's also an indication if your overfeeding.

Malaysian Trumpet snails (MTS) are I my opinion the most useful snails I have seen so far. As said before they are great at aerating planted tanks and people who have sand substrates. They do reproduce very quickly, however unless it's at night or the tank doesn't have a lot of oxygen you won't see these snails, except for the big ones. They get up to 2 inchs long and because of their spiral shell and they burrow in the substrate, they are not likely to be eaten by fish or loachs you put in the tank.

Japanese Trapdoor snails are also burrowers in sand, but not too much in gravel. I've found them to be very helpful scavengers and they do reproduce fairly quickly, despite the fact that they are one of the few livebearing snails. However in a small tank their population will stabilize after a while and stop reproducing as quickly. They get a max of 2 inchs and their shell have cool black and orange stripes.

Finally Apple Snails, Mystery Snails, Ramshorn Snails, Pearl Snails, etc.- These snails do eat live plants so are not recommended for plants tanks, however there are occasions where the snails won't even touch the plants, it just depends on the snail (sorta like bettas). These snails get fairly large and can reproduce quickly, but because of their size you can easily find any eggs and physically control their populations (liquid shail killers are not recommend because most won't even kill the snails and can have adverse effects on any fish in the tank). Apple snails get very large, I had one that was approx 3 inchs around, but he decimated my plants so I got rid of him. These snails can reach baseball size if taken care of properly.

 

[applechickbsn]

I love my apple snails.
I have one in each of my 10 gallons, and 2 in my 40 gallon....

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I LOVE Apple Snails. We also have a couple MTS snails in the 29 gal and never have we had any of them reproduce. I was actually wanting my apple's to breed, but no such luck. I hear all the time of people who get MTS and they breed like crazy, but that hasn't happened for us yet.