Hitchhiking snails

[Jferrante]

Today I noticed at least 3 snails appeared in my tank. Likely from an Sword plant that I had bought a week ago that had some hair algae and probably another kind of algae on it... THis is my first planted tank and it's a 55g. But after after looking at the leaves I noticed there are some yellow specks all over it. They appear to either be pond snails or Mystery snails. I'm not sure but based on a few web searches my guess is the former. The tank has a lot of new plants in it and has been running for about 3 weeks now.
Right now they seem to be really helpful at cleaning the sword because it looks kind of ugly with the hair algae on it so if figured I'll let them do their thing since they are just tiny babies still. I haven't tested my water hardness or anything since I don't own that test kit yet but I have the API master kit of course.

But I'm just wondering for future purposes should I keep them in or take them out? Are they good to keep around in a community tank ? and should I worrying about anything if I just let them do their thing.
If they happen to be worth keeping should I get a cuttlebone or something later on so they can harden their shells or will this complicate the water parameters?

 

[BlueMoonFox]

Having snails in a tank is really a personal choice. They do clean the tank, but also add bio load. Once they are in, it's not easy to remove them; Assassin snails, clown loaches, and puffer fish. I've just come to terms with them.

 

[shellyx]

It's really up to you whether you want to keep them. I have lot's off different breeds of snail's in both my tank's and actually enjoy them, the only kind I don't like is bladder /pond snail's as they can get out of hand especially if you over feed. Hope this helps

55 gallon elephant nose tank.
16 gallon vampire shrimp and snails

 

[Hholly]

I've battled snails a lot. I would remove any pond snails as they lay eggs like crazy. Their eggs are in clear, gelatinous masses.

 

[Mebbid]

The pond snails only explode in population when you overfeeding the tank. Its not a big deal otherwise.

They also won't eat hair algae, thats something you need to manage on your own.

 

[Hholly]

Sorry, I have to disagree. They flourish even when feeding an amount of fish food that is consumed within 2-3 minutes. They flourish in plant only tanks.

 

[Mebbid]

Sorry, I have to disagree. They flourish even when feeding an amount of fish food that is consumed within 2-3 minutes. They flourish in plant only tanks.

I have a standing population of pond snails in both my planted tanks and no method of removing them. Due to the amount I feed the population size is well controlled and small. I don't even need to manually remove them anymore. It did take me a long time to get to that point, but they aren't that bad.

 

[Hholly]

Good for you! I guess everyone has a different idea of acceptable levels and different situations in their tanks.

 

[Mebbid]

Good for you! I guess everyone has a different idea of acceptable levels and different situations in their tanks.

Hundreds of snails = bad
A dozen or so per 20g = good.

 

[PerfectDepth]

Sorry, I have to disagree. They flourish even when feeding an amount of fish food that is consumed within 2-3 minutes. They flourish in plant only tanks.

I have to agree with Mebbid. I have probably between 6 and 10 ramshorn snails in my main tank (20g), but never any more than that. They do reproduce, but the babies generally don't survive for very long due to lack of food. I do have shrimp that compete with them, though. They are good for cleaning up food that the snails would otherwise eat.

 

[Jferrante]

well eventually i was going to add Bolivian rams and I always thought Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki looked pretty cool if I can't seem to keep them at a resonable level I can always add those..

 

[ScaryFatKidGT]

I should rent you guys my clown loaches lol