[Reece]

Hi guys, so today I've bought new plants from my local fish store and there are very small snails scattered around my tank. I like the idea of having these guys in my tank, but I'm worried that they're going to eat their way through quite a lot of my plants like they did the last time (the first time I got plants for my tank and discovered snails, there was quite quickly small holes scattered across the majority of the leaves and it didn't look good at all). What can/should I do? Or isn't this an actual issue? :-?

 

[newtchaplin]

wait till they get older then you will know what you are dealing with. What I do is I squish them against the glass, then the fish eat them.

 

[rexpepper651]

Hi guys, so today I've bought new plants from my local fish store and there are very small snails scattered around my tank. I like the idea of having these guys in my tank, but I'm worried that they're going to eat their way through quite a lot of my plants like they did the last time (the first time I got plants for my tank and discovered snails, there was quite quickly small holes scattered across the majority of the leaves and it didn't look good at all). What can/should I do? Or isn't this an actual issue? :-?

place a piece of lettuce i hear that works well. ive been seeing a few here and their of these weird black snails. not the same as in my other tank ive just been picking them out or smooshing them and letting the danios fight over the meat lol. my other tank on the other hand was getting over populated by ramshorn snails so i got two assassin snails an they have been keeping them in check. the population is lower now. i didnt get to many of the assassin snails so they didnt totally wipe out the population and starve. which ever one you use i hope it works for you!

 

[Reece]

Okay thank you.

The lettuce sounds like it would work! I think I'll wait to see how big the population gets, it could turn out to be a good excuse to get some assassins...

 

[Jeffrey]

What kind of snails are these? Many are very beneficial for an aquarium and the population can be easily controlled by how much you feed.

 

[Reece]

What kind of snails are these? Many are very beneficial for an aquarium and the population can be easily controlled by how much you feed.

Honestly? I'm not sure, but they're very small and have only appeared since I bought the plants. They'd only take up half the length and width of a fingernail. A sort of bright yellow/pink colour.

 

[rexpepper651]

sounds like ramshorn snails to me.

 

[JDM]

I have ramshorn, nitrites, malaysian trumpet, and a variety of pond snails and none of those eat live plants. I intentionally introduced all but the ramshorn, they are in a tank that already had them and I chose not to eradicate them when redoing it.

There are some snails that will eat live plants but most only eat the dead or dying plant material so, unless you knew your plants well, it might appear that the snails might be the culprit.

Jeff.