Snails

Daga Taga

I'm not sure how, but I have a lot of snails (to many to count) in my 55 gallon now. I guess they got there when I added some plants, anyway I was wanting to know how to get rid of them or if I should get rid of them. I have no idea I've never had this happen before. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.

lovemygoldy

I know you can get a fish like a Clown Loach and they'll eat them all. Or you can just pick them out yourself and I've heard to just throw them out. If you don't do something about them they will take over your tank totally. Little buggers

MBilyeu

It is probable that you will never get rid of them fully, but there are ways to control them. I would pick as many out by hand as you could, then put a few loaches in there to control what you can't see. That's what I did.

klutchewsky

I started off with 2 snails, and then after awhile ended up having roughly 2000 of them, I honestly didnt feel like cleaning them, so I clean the tank as much as possible, bought new rocks, and got rid of all reaL plants including my deadwood...

snails are gone and i will NEVER go back to getting a snail

Lupin

They proliferate quickly because you are overfeeding your fish which means you are leaving food leftovers (whether you claimed you don't overfeed). No need to use fish as a means to eliminate them. Snails can be beneficial and easily controlled by controlling your food rations.

watts300

If you decide to go the fish route, I can attest to clown loaches love for snails.

Daga Taga

I think I will try the Loaches. How do they do with live plants? I have barbs and and Algae eater too I read they are compatible, is this true? Thanks everyone this forum has helped us out tremendously!

Byron

Clown Loaches grow to 12 inches, although in aquaria usually max out at 6-7 because they get stunted from too small a space. Not good to get such largish fish just to control snails, and certainly not if you are not prepared to house them adquately when they grow.

As Lupin said, there's too much food for them. They will scavenge leftovers (which is why they are good in my opinion) but also eat algae. It used to be said that they ate plants, but lately aquarists are no longer subscribing to that theory; they don't eat my plants. If you have soft slightly acidic water they will not get out of control, they don't fare as well as they do in harder alkaline water because the calcium for their shells is lacking in softer water. I have a healthy population of pond snails and malaysian livebearing snails, and they're never a problem. They're part of a balanced ecosystem--but you have to keep it balanced.

Lupin

They don't eat my plants either. I have MTS, bladder snails and ramshorns in my planted tanks and no plants have been destroyed. I've pointed out in a debate in another forum that it is coincidental their plants are already dying and the snails seized their opportunity to scavenge on them. They just point the blame straight to the snails without checking their facts.

I would never recommend using a fish to eradicate something that never really harmed your tank. True they can be unsightly in large numbers but it indicated your actions need to be corrected. Abundant food supply allows them to thrive but if outcompeted or if food rations are controlled, the resulting babies may not make it for a long time thus the population is put under control. I tested my MTS with my brigs. The MTS could not breed as quickly as I wanted since I needed more MTS for my assassin snails. I found out my brigs are outcompeting them of every food hence their population remains moderate.

WisFish

I don't see a problem with having snails. After all, their main function is cleaning the tank. But I don't like seeing tons of them. So every time I clean my tank I remove every snail I see. That's usually about 1 dozen. I do this every two weeks.