Snails?

[Nick & Anne]

Hi,

Well here we are several months later and we are slowly adding to the tank with no deaths so far.
Our next question relates to snails, we noticed a snail some time ago and picked it out of the tank, we assume it came into the tank on the plants we bought. However since then we keep seeing a crop of eggs and obviously more snails, we pick as many as we can out but still they come. Should a tank have snails? If yes, how do you control the numbers? If no, how do you get rid of them. We have a community tank with fish no bigger than a couple of inches so a loach would probably be too big for our tank. Advice please would be gratefully accepted.

Nick & Anne.

 

[fishygurl]

Well, wether or not you should have snails in your tank depends on the type of snails. Can you post a picture? Some snails eat plants and are therefore not a great addition to a tank with plants, others are just a nusiance if there are too many. Not all loaches would be to bg for your tank, for example, the kuhli loach and the yo yo loach do not grow to big, 4 inches max. But, if you dont like loaches im sure someone else can reccomend another method of controlling snails.

 

[Nick & Anne]

Have no picture available, they are just little brown ones, never left one in long enough to see what the end result is?

 

[Skyrmir]

Most likely some sort of pond snail, it's pretty hard to get plants without snails these days.

As for good or bad, they're semi-good in that they'll help clean up debri's sometimes. But really they're just a nuisance. With the scavenger fish you have, they shouldn't get out of hand. If they do, a lettuce leaf left in the tank overnight usually attracts most of them. Just throw the leaf away in the morning.

That won't get rid of them, but it does cut down on the population. Personally I have angels that think snails are escargot, wierd but true. The preffered snail munchers are loaches though. Don't know enough about them to suggest a breed of loach though.

 

[Jchillin]

I have ramshorns (looks like a rams horn) in my planted tank. They are a benefit to my tank, though I've heard differing opinions from others. They reproduce constantly and I do have to remove some from time to time.

Pond snails are a double menace as they eat plants and reproduce like crazy as well. Skyrmir's advice to get rid of them is probably the only way to do it.