Are Snails Good?

[julia298]

Hi,

I have a few tiny browny-grey snails in my tank. Its a new tank so theyve got in from plants Ive bought.

Are they helpful in any way?

Should I leave them in or take them out? Grateful for any advice.

Julia

 

[rdd1952]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

The answer to your question isn't an easy one. Some snails such as the trumpet snails (cone shaped) are good with sand substrate because they bore and keep the sand loose. All snails eat leftover food to help keep the tank clean but therein lies the down side. If you overfeed your fish, you will end up with a snail population explosion that you can't get rid of. I just went through it and ended up having to remove all the sand from my 29 gallon tank, scrub the glass, plants and decorations down and put in new sand. So if you don't over feed, you should be ok but personally, I'm not a fan of them.

 

[beta 1991]

Hi. I also found snails in my tank about a month ago(2), and they have not been bothering my tank. However, snails can reproduce very easily because they are neither male nor female. They can produce a lot at a time, & it would not be good to have too many of snails in your fish tank. I think you should keep up to the most 5 and no more, and if you start seeing more, I would remove most of them from your tank.

 

[julia298]

Thanks for the advice.

I also have lots of sort of crease marks on my plants. Could that be the snails too?

Julia