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Snails are they bad or good to have?

4K views 18 replies 6 participants last post by  Curt 
#1 ·
I discovered I have a live snail in my tank today. it is super tiny... At first i thought it was a dead leaf plant leaf or something but then I found out when i touched it it was stuck. I then looked closer and saw to extreamly tiny antenaa...

Should I remove it or leave it in?
 
#2 ·
How cute.:D

Well, if this is a physas though, it breeds like no tomorrow as well as the MTS. The MTS is more beneficial as it burrows around the substrate preventing dead pockets from forming at all. Ramshorns are nice but a lot slower to breed (or maybe because mine were exasperated with me cursing them off for not breeding in mass :lol: ).

If they become a pestilence, you can find info here about eliminating them.

Snail Infestations and Solutions to Eliminating Them



I have noticed in several forums, people suggest drastic solutions to eliminate something as harmless as planaria aside from being swamped by private messages of how to eliminate them. Herein is the article to decide your options so you choose wisely your decisions and avoid disastrous consequences.​



Where do "pest" snails originate? How come there are so many of them that I had not introduced before?
Generally, snails tend to hike among plants and in some species, lay their eggs on the plant stalks and leaves. This is a case often seen with the common ramshorns (Planorbis sp.) and pouch snails (Physas sp.). Baby snails can also end up there undetected due to their size. Ramshorns are easily distinguishable by their flat spiral shaped shells.​


These snails have gathered a reputation for being responsible in the destruction of the aquarium plants as well as etch such reputation to the name of other snails which is absolutely not true. Not all snails can proliferate as quickly as the pouch snails and ramshorns but neither are the two species that destructive to plants contrary to claims unless their other food options are scarce (to be discussed later).​


Malaysian trumpet snails (Melanoides sp.) are another species often found in the trade. They can be characterized by their trumpet shaped shells. These are livebearing snails meaning they do not lay eggs but give birth to dozens of young snails which are easily undetected. They spend most of their time buried under the substrate and will not appear until foods are dropped or when darkness falls.​


Why do most people despise these snails?
Simple. These snails proliferate quickly and in large numbers, they can become an eyesore as they are found everywhere from your gravel bed to filters. Most filters become clogged by the numbers of snails trapped in the motor leaving to obstruction of flow.​


Do these snails eat plants?
In most cases, they do not. It depends whether you are feeding sufficiently or the species of snails although all the common hitchhikers are not known to do great damage on planted tanks. People fail to point out that plants can have health problems and most of these cases are pointed to lack of nutrients and minerals. A lot of these snails are scavengers and like to eat decaying plant matter so it is purely coincidental they eat the dead plants and dying parts of a healthy plants to nutrient deficiency.​


What are the benefits of these snails?
These snails are often overlooked for their usefulness. They remove the leftover foods which are responsible for the rapid deterioration of the water quality, eat decaying plant matter and in the Malaysian trumpet snails' case, aerate the substrate by their constant burrowing. I have been using the MTS to constantly burrow the substrate with great results thus preventing anaerobic pockets from forming which could form the deadly hydrogen sulfide causing acute health problems for the fish and the snails alike.​


How can these snails be eliminated or minimized?
This has been a very common subject among those who have experienced keeping thousands of these snails in a tank. People do drastic measures to the point even boiling their gravel to kill the snails yet again, the snails recover their population after weeks of not being detected.​




Here are a few widely known solutions. Not all solutions will eradicate the snails completely however nor are some of the solutions considered safe for use.​


1. Manual Removal
This is perhaps the safest solution. You simply pluck the snails within sight and crush them to kill them instantly. Most fish love to eat snails so this is one benefit gained from this method. When you crush the snails, the fish swarm and try to pick on the snails and eventually devour them. Crushing however will not work for snails with very hard shells such as the Malaysian trumpet snails. I tried to crush them with my fingernails and ended up damaging my fingernails mildly and hurting them at the same time so I had to resort to using a hammer before feeding them to my fish.​


2. Baiting
This method is much more preferred than the manual removal. You simply bait the snails with vegetable matter such as cucumber slices, lettuce, carrots, etc. Once they gather into a piece of vegetable, remove the whole piece and discard it to the bin with the snails attached.​


3. Feeding Cutoff
Overfeeding is the main culprit for the overpopulation of snails. Try to avoid feeding your fish generously and siphon away the leftovers. If possible, give your fish five minutes to eat their food. Snails thrive on the abundance of the food. By cutting off the food supply, many snails are unable to survive due to starvation and will eventually die thus reducing the number drastically.​


4. Assassin Snails
Assassin snails (Clea helena) appeared in the hobby in 2007. These are voracious predators that relish other snails for food. Generally, they target smaller specimens by stabbing them with their siphon liquidating the prey in the process. They then eat the remains of the dead snails. There have been a few incidents involving larger snails being victimized by these small predators. The assassins work as a group and begin to gang up the larger prey. The prey eventually succumbs from the attacks and they take turns eating the remains. These snails, as a precaution, should not be mixed with anything but the snails intended as food for the assassin snails. If possible, get a spare 5g tank to breed the pouch snails so you will have constant supply of food for the assassins. In the absence of snails, assassins can take readily to meaty foods such as bloodworms. Assassin snails are not as prolific as most commonly available snails. Neither are they recorded to be fast growers and baby assassins spend most of their time buried in the substrate and they will not appear until they gain half an inch size or so.​


5. Loaches and Puffers
This is a controversial subject as it involves the use of fish for very few good reasons other than to be used to eradicate the snails. Loaches of the botiine genus and puffers are often exploited for snail eliminations. I am on a firm belief that this is a very poor excuse to begin with. When the loaches and puffers completely eradicated the snails, what happens next? A lot of people treat loaches as an afterthought compared to other species and do not give them enough supplemental foods that they simply starve to death. If you like loaches and puffers, then it is not a problem however using them solely to eradicate snails is another story. All requirements of both fish must be considered when you buy them. If you cannot properly accommodate the fish at all, then consider the other options before this. Puffers in general are not good community fish as they will harass other tankmates.​


There are plenty other fish that will work well with most snails. Bettas, goldfish and most cichlids have been known to pick on the snails and subsequently devour them. However, all the same, they should be treated like other fish and not solely to destroy the snails.​


6. Copper Sulfate or Unchelated Copper
I have seen many cases with disastrous consequences involving the use of copper. Copper is toxic to all invertebrates in high concentrations especially when not chelated (where the toxicity is reduced drastically). It will take a long time before you can completely remove the copper as it will stick on silicon sealant, decorations, etc and will leach over time. Copper tainted tanks are rendered unsafe for all invertebrates. To determine the amount of copper traces in your tank, you will need to get a copper test kit although not all test kits are entirely reliable.​


When the invertebrates die from the copper's toxic effects, they foul up quickly and can contribute to the dangerously rising ammonia levels. Rising ammonia levels will eventually destroy your fish especially scaleless ones thus this method is best not recommended when attempting to eradicate a vast number of snails.​


7. Complete Tank Cleanover
This is not an advisable method and it will never work. Some snails and snail eggs are bound to survive the harrowing process and the fish will have to endure the stressful cleanover which is not worth the time to clean the whole tank just to remove the snails which have done nothing harmful to your tank.​
 
#4 ·
Aren't you lucky? :lol: That's a bladder snail (Physas sp.).:shock:
 
#5 ·
Wow that was answered in record timing! Is this type of snail something I should be worried about? If it is I already lost the little guy he somehow left the area he was in in the time I posted the pictues :-?
 
#6 ·
Weeeellll...They breed a lot outta control especially when there is abundant food supply.:mrgreen:
 
#9 ·
it must have hitched a ride on the plants I got 2 weeks ago... I thought I had checked all my plants fairly well and rinsed them... Apparently not. Ever since I took the picture I cannot locate the snail anymore.... Ughhhh I wish I would have just taken it out when I had a chance...
 
#10 ·
I love my Malaysian Trumpet Snails. I have a TON of them in my guppy tank, but I also have an assassin snail to help control the population. I put 10 snail in each of my other tanks as well, and when the population starts booming in them, I will bait some of them out and feed them to my assassin snail.

I have sand for substrate in all of my tanks, and the snails are great at keeping the sand aerated to keep gas pockets from forming, and the keep the sand from compacting too much and crushing my plants roots. They're also wonderful at eating and bits of organic matter that might be on or in the sand.

I understand not wanting hundreds of them like I have in my guppy tank, but anyone with a sand substrate should have some of them for the health of their tank.
 
#11 ·
I still haven not been able to locate the little bugger since I found him.... As long as things dont get out of hand I mind him being in there. However i have read so many thigns about snails getting out of control...


Is it possible this is the only snail in my tank?

I had dreams about it last night that I woke up and I had snails all over the tank and in my bedroom.....
 
#14 ·
You were just worried and your subconscious keeps telling you that.:lol:
 
#12 ·
If I were you I would get rid of him. Before you know it you'll have a snail infestation. If you are looking to put some snails in your aquarium I would recommended nerite snails. There are several kinds to choose from and they can only breed in saltwater so they are perfect for freshwater aquariums.
 
#13 ·
Im not particularly interested in snails. but if all of you really think this is going to get out of control then I need to find a way to locate him...
 
#16 ·
Only if something eats them on a regular basis to keep them in check. In tanks with no predation they alone will soon overload the biological filtration. They are fully capable of deriving nutrition from fish waste so cutting back food will only make a dent, not eliminate them. I've seen bladder snails overpopulate some of my tanks before. Thankfully I have an army of raphael cats and some puffer fish to help me out.
 
#17 ·
While it may be impossible to ever rid a tank of an overpopulation of snails. it's very easy to keep a population under control. When you notice you have more snails than you want, use a piece of lettuce or celery to remove a large quantity of them.
 
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