Snails

[jordan.m]

In general, are snails a good or bad thing to have in your tank? I read in George Farmer's nano journal that he has a snail in his tank to keep in clean, but my LFS told me not to have snails because they reproduce like crazy. Which is it?

Thanks,
Jordan

 

[Zatoichi]

In general, snails are good for an aquarium. They perform may useful functions. Those include eating debris and aerating gravel. But, these functions depend on the species of snail.

But, there are many people who find snails to be very annoying and would never have them in their aquarium.

Here is a site/company that I have bought plants from. They also have information on and sell snails:
Arizona Gardens: Snails

 

[jordan.m]

I don't really mind the little bugger, I think he's kind of neat. My only concern is whether or not he'll start dining on my plants!

 

[Themuleous]

The snail George has is called a Nierite (sp?) which do not reproduce in the aquarium (so I'm told) due to their complex reproduction cycle. The more common snails you get from shops plants, etc do a good job of generally cleaning up and Malaysian trumpet snails are good at aerating the substrate, but these do breed like mad given the chance.

One tip, if you find you are getting millions of the little buggers, its a sign you are over feeding the fish. In my experience snail numbers can easily be controlled by the amount you feed your fish, keep this at a sensible level and you'll not have a problem. Or you can add a loach or two, yum!

Sam

 

[mattb]

I have got a few of the bog standard snails that sneak in on plants in my 50 gallon. I quite like them, every now and then i will go round and pick a few up to keep numbers under control!

 

[nry]

I added some nerite snails to my tank about 3 weeks ago, spurred on by George's comments. Amazing little things, my glass, pebbles and some plants are now sparkly clean! I have not had to scrape the glass ever since adding them. They require brackish water to breed, hence they don't multiply in freshwater aquariums. So far they have not eaten any plants, I have read numerous times that they won't eat live plants, so it seems this is correct so far. I would now consider some of these essential in any of my future aquariums, though I would think that otto's may be as useful, especially as they can move around easier and hence keep the larger plant leaves clear of algae.

I have a slowly growing population of some smaller snails, these can have a go at my tiger lotus sometimes, and when I see one it is usually squashed (then eaten by the fish) or removed.

 

[voo]

I had a nerite snail in my freshwater tank, laid white eggs all over my bogwood. They wont scrub off, i had to use a knife to scrape them off. There's still loads on it, i gave up after a while. Other than the white eggs i had no trouble from it. Didnt really see that much of it and unlike other snails they stay mostly in the shell. The nerite is in a brackish tank now, doesnt seem to be laying many eggs now, but they're not hatching either. Probably needs a higher salinity.

Another option could be an apple snail. They'll lay the eggs above the water line and so are easily removed.