well, i guess i'll add my two cents...if you are overfeeding then you will have a ton..it is a prime indication that you are feeding way too much and letting a lot of food waste (so apparently the cories aren't eating everything you put in there)...the more leftover food, the more snails...the solution? not loaches, but to cut down on feeding as someone else said - they become carnivorous and will begin to eat eachother which is good for keeping the population down...
i don't really consider 40 snails that many, since they spend most of their time in the substrate...i don't see how you can say that they don't do a "fantastic job" stirring up the substrate...when you have 50+ tiny snails constantly burrowing through the sand (which they do all day), it is getting stirred up and aerated a TON, whether it looks like it or not...
and no, you shouldn't end up with "snail overpopulation" if you are taking care of your tank properly...i think it is a lot different to have hundreds of these vs. having a hundred common pond snails or ramshorns which spend their time visibly moving around your tank, not hidden...
as for paying for them..apparently people do buy them..so scoop out a dozen, stick them in a vile with some water and make a little money on ebay
...simple way to keep the population down and your profits up....
in summary, i also feel that they are integral to any (especially planted) ecosystem...the good they do def. outweighs the maintenance issues they bring up, and as long as you aren't overfeeding there is no reason you should have such a problem....i have (probably) well over a hundred in my 20 long planted and another 50+ in my 10g planted and i have never felt "overpopulated" by them...everyone seems to get so paranoid when it comes to snails in their tanks....so what, feed less each day, toss in a piece of lettuce and remove it the next day, scoop some out with a net and sell them...but why does everyone need loaches to do the (minimal amounts of) work for them?
