will my snail bother my plants?

trreherd

I have 3 anarachas or whatever you call them i also have one golden mystery snail The other day i saw him crawling on the plant Can he harm the plant?

SimplySplendid

Yes, your snails might eat your plant. One way to prvent this is give the snails other things to eat -- veggies, algae wafers, fish flakes.. -- although there is no gaurantee they won't nibble on the plants once in a while ;)

joeshmoe

Snales also like to lay eggs on plants and when the eggs hatch they might eat your plants.

Lupin

Not all snails will do that in general. Malayan Trumpet Snails are livebearing snails. They don't eat plants but eat detritus and sitr the substrate which makes them quite important when you use sand. This is good with Lake Tanganyikan setups since the water there is generally hard and snails won't become too vulnerable compared to soft waters where their shells become too soft making them quite vulnerable to being eaten by other fish.

Some species of Apple Snails will eat plants but some will not. I find ramshorns the biggest of my troubles. They eat plants and you'll find your plants bearing several holes.

Depending on the size of your tank, loaches can be the answer as long as space permits but do not get clown loaches if your tank is small. They are far too big than most people realized.

fish_4_all

If it isd a true mystery snail it won't eat your plants. Also, assuming that is wasn't pregnant before you got it then it won't lay eggs either as they need a male and female to reproduce. Very nice snails because of this. If it does lay eggs, they will be above the waterline and you can easily remove them.

If you have an Apple Snail you will know it. It will deliberately eat you plants and you will see them dissapear in front of your eyes. If you haven't had any noticeable plant munching it is likely you don't have an Apple Snail and are safe.