Found snails in my aqurium?

Chris7

As I was doing my water change today, I noticed a snail in my tank after a closer look there was alot?? What should I do, I'am guessing they may have come from the live plants I got about 3 weeks ago?

SomeDudeAtHome

Keep them. There fun little guys to watch and are pretty beneficial to the tank. Lots of people call them a nuisance but I really enjoy watching them and their habits.

thekoimaiden

I do my best to encourage snails in all of my tanks. The only reason I could see to not want them is either a small tank and you don't want to overload the bio-filter or you have sensitive live plants. If not, then keep them. Your fish will enjoy hunting them, and they'll help with the algae cleanup.

SinCrisis

snail overpopulation is a symptom, not a problem. As long as you do not overfeed, your snail population should be limited to the amount of algae they can find. They only become a problem when food is too readily available and they have the opportunity to breed a lot.

As long as you don't overfeed, they are beneficial to your tank as algae eaters and as a clean up crew.

Chris7

Can't there population get out of control? Thats what I read?

Lupin

Their population is based on how much foods you are giving them. Abundant food supply, of course, will encourage them to breed a lot.
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Eddie1KRR

I actually started seeing these guys 4 months after I started my tank, and had not added a single thing other than food all along the way. I still have no idea how they got in there other than I did use cycling agent when I first set it up. (hide and seek champs?)

But, yeah, I been able to keep them under control with feeding. These guys are in my lil 6 gallon desktop tank. At one time I was up to 30 visible, and now I can never find more than 3-4

I witnessed the breeding lol. Not sure how rare that is, but I saw what I thought was one just bouncing on the glass, and I thought that was strange...When I looked closer, yep, there was a friend attached lol.

Nubster

They can but you can keep them in check by not over feeding your tank and you can trap them and remove them manually or you can get something like an Assassin Snail or two that will eat the other snails or you could get one of several snail eating fish. Otherwise, snails are generally good for your tank so don't worry about it.

flight50

They are unsitely. I hated them in my tank. I ended up buying some clown loaches. You can get smaller species loaches if size is an issue and if you can find them. The snails do double as algae eaters and help shift your substrate but it made my tank look and feel nasty. I must have had 80-125 ram horn snails in my 55 several years back when I was a newbie in the hobby. My clown loaches had a feast. Wiped them out in less than a month.

Chris7

I don,t have room for a couple of clown loaches, but I read that the Yoyo Loach stays fairly small and does well by it's self and in a community tank? Does anybody know if this is true?