Introducing Snails

[Orbit887]

I've starting to contemplate the idea of introducing some larger snails, such as apple snails into my tank, firstly to look at, and secondly as a possible way to combat the pest snail population that's in there at the moment.

I've had pest snails in the tank for a while, my best guess is from plants from lfs, and at present i keep the population under control my getting rid of all the baby snails I can find when I do water changes, as well as using vegtables in the tank overnight, then removing with the snails on the next day in the morning.

Question is - if I was to introduce some snails in, such as apple snails, or other plant-friendly larger snails, would they manage to compete with the pest in the tank for food, and being large, hopefully control the pest population, or what they be in direct competition and end come off worse? I like the idea of larger snails in the tank, and it appeals even more if they were able to control the pest snail population!

 

[fish-r-fancy]

I'm not sure your going to have to wait for more advice but I don't think the larger snails will get rid of your pest snails and I think they will breed like crazy also. 1 thing that you can do to get rid of the pest snails is called snail-aside. You just put a small amount in depending on the size of the tank and it kills all of the snails it also kills certain plants unfortunetly. What kind of plants do you have and is there anyway that you could move them to another tank while you use the snail-aside or something similiar?

 

[Orbit887]

I'm not sure your going to have to wait for more advice but I don't think the larger snails will get rid of your pest snails and I think they will breed like crazy also. 1 thing that you can do to get rid of the pest snails is called snail-aside. You just put a small amount in depending on the size of the tank and it kills all of the snails it also kills certain plants unfortunetly. What kind of plants do you have and is there anyway that you could move them to another tank while you use the snail-aside or something similiar?

I'd rather not go down the route of using chemicals in the tank to get rid of the snails, got a lot of shrimp in the tank and some bottem dwellers that I don't think are too keen on the snail treatments. Not got another tank at the moment either to uproot all the plants and rehome them in. I thought that some of the larger snails weren't so prolific in their breeding, but i'll have to check that out later on online. Think I was mainly hoping they'd compete with the pest snails food source, so control the population that way.

 

[severum boy]

Apple snails are not that great at eating algae, so outcompeting them wont really work. If you want to outcompete them, use nerite snails as they are far better at algae eating.
Now, as for predation, canas apple snails are known to eat pest ramshorn snails. They are introduced into rivers and lakes to eat the pests and go a good job of it. However, if there is a lot of food avaidible, they wont bother eating the snails; and they also eat plants.
You can controll their breeding by taking out the eggs when they hatch.

 

[SuperColey1]

Loaches are your best bet for removing snails without chemicals and without having to remove them by hand.

Depending on your tank size you have a good choice available but they do like to be in groups.

Unless you have a very large tank then clown loaches are not for you.

A smallish tank 80L upwards you can get Dwarf/Chain loaches.

Loaches will eat the snails as long aas they are not too big and are not Malaysian trumpet snails as these have a very hard shell.

If your tank is 125Ltr upwards then Zebra Loaches will fit but like I said Clown Loaches need a much larger tank.

 

[Orbit887]

Apple snails are not that great at eating algae, so outcompeting them wont really work. If you want to outcompete them, use nerite snails as they are far better at algae eating.
Now, as for predation, canas apple snails are known to eat pest ramshorn snails. They are introduced into rivers and lakes to eat the pests and go a good job of it. However, if there is a lot of food avaidible, they wont bother eating the snails; and they also eat plants.
You can controll their breeding by taking out the eggs when they hatch.

I wouldn't be after the larger snails for algae control, got a couple of moss balls and a troop of shrimp that keep all of that under control! The food source they'd be competing with would the left over food that the bottom dwellers don't jump on straight away - ie algae wafers. The whole idea of them eating the other pest snails sounds good, but don't really want to risk the health of the plants any more if necessary.

Loaches are your best bet for removing snails without chemicals and without having to remove them by hand.

Depending on your tank size you have a good choice available but they do like to be in groups.

Unless you have a very large tank then clown loaches are not for you.

A smallish tank 80L upwards you can get Dwarf/Chain loaches.

Loaches will eat the snails as long aas they are not too big and are not Malaysian trumpet snails as these have a very hard shell.

If your tank is 125Ltr upwards then Zebra Loaches will fit but like I said Clown Loaches need a much larger tank.

Unfortunately, as much as I want to, I can't fit in any more bottom dwellers there's already a young BN, about 10 shrimp, and also 6 panda corys. Tank is 29 gals (US) so cant fit any more in really, which is a shame, as I think some of the loaches look like real characters!

The whole snail population and it's growth in my tank is no doubt my own fault, as they thrive on over feeding. I try not to overfeed the fish, but it's probably algae wafers that are doing it, the cory's cant really eat them staight away, they seem to have to wait for them to soften up a bit over time in the water, and since the BN is only still small, he cant eat a whole one at once, so it takes a little while for each one to get broken down, which probably contributes.

Can anyone say if there's any sort of correlation in their own experience between adding 1 or more larger (eg apple snails) to their tank and a decline in the pest snail population? I think I'm gonna add a couple anyway as it is, as they look quite crazy, butwould be even better if they ended up being beneficial!

 

[mommyof2bettas]

I think I'm gonna add a couple anyway as it is, as they look quite crazy, butwould be even better if they ended up being beneficial!

if you are looking for another type of snails, since a previous poster said that apple snails harm plants, I'd say malaysian trumpet snails. They are quite cute, I have one myself, and I also have an apple snail, but the malaysian trumpet has to be my faveorite. If you are looking for more help post in the invertebrate section of the forum. Here is a pic of a malaysian trumpet snail: