Is a snail a good idea?

[CarnivorousPlant1]

hi guys im back
Basically the story is that since I've started to grow live plants in my betta tanks, I've had the window open to give them a lot more sunlight, and this has resulted in ALGAE. Brown stuff growing on the walls and ornaments. Only one of the tanks, the one closer to the window that gets more sun, has algae, and it's not a problem persay because i can just scrape it off the tank walls when i do a water change, which is what i have been doing. But ive heard snails help with algae. and snails are fun. i would like a snail. but i've also heard that bettas sometimes attack snails. Does anyone have any experience with this? Is a snail a good idea, and if so is there a particular type of snail i should ask about at the fish store?

 

[Mazain]

i've also heard that bettas sometimes attack snails.

Bettas are fighting fish and they will attack the algae eating snails in your tank.
If you really want snails you could try some malaysian trumpet snails.
They would work perfect with the gravel substarte you got. That would clean up your tank substarte and glass walls when the lights are out.
Try some easy-fast growing plants, that should combat the algae in the tank.

 

[CarnivorousPlant1]

Bettas are fighting fish and they will attack the algae eating snails in your tank.

does this mean the betta will be able to kill the snails and i should not have them in the same tank, or is it more like the betta will try to bite at the snails but they won't care because they'll be protected by their shell? I don't want to get snails if the betta will hurt them

 

[Mazain]

does this mean the betta will be able to kill the snails

Any type of aggression can stress the fish or snail. If you keep bettas with female bettas you should have a balanced hierarchy.

 

[CaptainBarnicles7]

Anubias is a very slow growing plant and doesn't need a huge amount of light to thrive, so closing your curtains would be a good place to start in controlling the algae...you could also add faster growing plants if you wanted to, your Betta would appreciate it.

I think you'd be alright to add a snail, I had nerites in with mine. Their shells will be tough enough to endure a round or two with a Betta. Plants would help give the snail some shelter though so something to consider before getting one

 

[Essjay32 147]

I've heard of bettas nipping the antennae of apple snails (mystery snails) which are long and look like worms. I always had a nerite snail in with my bettas, only one ever reacted to the nerite. That betta flared at the snail when it was on the tank walls but ignored it when it was on the substrate or decor. Presumably the betta thought a snail on the glass looked like something swimming in his territory.

 

[GaryE]

My past Bettas had a love/hate relationship with snails. If they could flip them and pull them out of their shells, they loved them. If they couldn't, they hated them. This applied mainly to ramshorn and pond snails. Putting Malaysian burrowing snails in a tank is like buying cockroaches to liven up the kitchen walls.

I would look at this differently. The experiment of locating the tank where it is with natural light has failed. No creature can fix it except you. I suspect the tank needs to move, and needs to have a controlled, timed artificial light. It was a nice try and it would have been lovely if it had worked, but it sounds like it didn't. Tanks in sunlight can be very hard to manage.

 

[CarnivorousPlant1]

thank u everyone for the advice (and sorry for taking so long to respond in my own thread lol). at this point its looking like a snail is a bad idea, which is fine, I can just continue cleaning off algae when I do a water change, as I said, theres not that much of it so it isn't really a problem. I spoke to the man at my local fish store about it and he said he wouldn't reccomend putting a snail in with my fish as snails often have worms or other parasites which could then infect the fish idk if that's a regional thing and snails sold in pet stores in other places are cleaner (i live in sydney btw) but all signs seem to point to no snail.

 

[Naughts32 104]

thank u everyone for the advice (and sorry for taking so long to respond in my own thread lol). at this point its looking like a snail is a bad idea, which is fine, I can just continue cleaning off algae when I do a water change, as I said, theres not that much of it so it isn't really a problem. I spoke to the man at my local fish store about it and he said he wouldn't reccomend putting a snail in with my fish as snails often have worms or other parasites which could then infect the fish idk if that's a regional thing and snails sold in pet stores in other places are cleaner (i live in sydney btw) but all signs seem to point to no snail.

I was told that snails have different parasites and diseases to fish - which worms etc. do they think infect both species?

 

[Essjay32 147]

Possibly the man at the fish store was thinking about snails being an intermediate host for parasitic worms. I've had a lot of nerite snails over the years and my fish haven't caught anything from them. However I would not risk collecting snails from a local pond or stream for my fish tanks.

 

[BlaiseinLondon]

When I set up my betta tank six months ago (lots of experience but took a break of a couple of years) I added 3 assassin snails, and Jonah killed them within 24 hours! My LFS (who I really trust) suggested adding 3 khuli loaches to help turn the substrate. I was concerned, but my betta completely ignored them. Encouraged by this I've since added 3 more assassins and he is absolutely fine with them.

So, who knows??!!