Snails

[Fishperson]

I have a lot of brown algae in my tank and a little bit of green algae as well. Are there any snails that you recommend to take care of this? I don't want them to overpopulate my tank, but I do have access to assassin snails (at my lfs) if necessary, although it is my understanding that that won't completely alleviate the problem. I have heard that horned nerite snails are good? Any suggestions? The important thing is that they eat algae and don't grow in population quickly. I would rather have shrimp, but they don't eat algae.

 

[Hbbambislayer]

Oto cats love algae and don't add much to your bio load

 

[shellyx]

I really like my nerite snails, they don't re produce in freshwater and are hard little worker's

 

[Fishperson]

Ok, I was thinking about Nerite snails. Otos need at least 3, so I don't want to add them

 

[Hbbambislayer]

If you get the nerite snails can you keep us/me posted on how they do I'm going to put a small tank in our bed room and would like something in there for algae but not fish if I can.

 

[BBradbury]

Snail Suggestions

I have a lot of brown algae in my tank and a little bit of green algae as well. Are there any snails that you recommend to take care of this? I don't want them to overpopulate my tank, but I do have access to assassin snails (at my lfs) if necessary, although it is my understanding that that won't completely alleviate the problem. I have heard that horned nerite snails are good? Any suggestions? The important thing is that they eat algae and don't grow in population quickly. I would rather have shrimp, but they don't eat algae.

Hello Fish...

I keep the Ramshorn snails. These little guys eat all kinds of algae. The largest I have are roughly the size of a dime. They will reproduce quickly, but if you don't feed your fish and plants too much, the population is very manageable.

I've kept these snails for several years and have no algae problems in my planted tanks.

You might consider floating a plant called "Anacharis" in the tank. It's old name was Elodea densa. This plant produces a natural antibiotic that slows the growth of some kinds of algae. I keep a lot of this plant in all my tanks.

B

 

[azmodan]

I'd also highly recommend nerite snails. They can't reproduce in freshwater but they will leave little eggs lying around, but they are diatom eating MACHINES. There are also many different types so you could get a variety if you want. I like Clithon corona myself.

Horned Nerite Snail .:. Clithon corona .:. Freshwater Aquarium Snail Information Page

Just as an additional note amano shrimp are also great algae clean up eaters -- I usually have a couple in each tank as well.