Dangerous snails?

[Star]

I have noticed five tiny snails in my aquarium, living on one of the plants. They are a bit tricky to spot so there might even be more of them. Are snails dangerous to the plants or the fishes or can I just ignore them? Will they multiply and take over the tank? Or maybe they are good for the ecosystem in the tank? If I should remove them, how? By simply picking them, or should I add something to the water? They are small (<0,2 inches) and beige/brown.

[ladyjai]

they are likely pond snails or ramshorn. They will not be a problem unless you overfeed or have alot of algae growth. If you overfeed or have lots of algae, you will find yourself overrun. then they may be a problem.

They will not harm the fish or plants, and some fish will snack on them.

Weekly removal of visible snails won't hurt, though. You can pick them out by hand. If you ever find yourself overrun, drop in an algae wafer, or some lettuce or cucumber overnight, and scoop up the snail pile the next morning.

[William]

Or get some Loaches to eat the snails, right :wink:

[ladyjai]

depends on what size tank she has. My gut reaction is a small one like a 10, which is too small for most of the botia species.

[William]

Your right. As always :)

[Star]

Well, I do have some problems with algae already so maybe a loach would be good? This tank is 50 liters, would that be enough for a loach? Or maybe they prefer to be together with other loaches and I can't just buy one of them? Is it hard to keep loaches (I'm a beginner)?

[ladyjai]

It is too small for any loaches that eat snails. and all the botias are schoaling, so you can't get just one anyway.

Loaches are actually quite easy, they just need the basics: big enough tank, clean water, and a variety of foods. :)

the snails should help with your algae problem.

[Komar]

I keep snails in three of my five aquariums, for algae control. Some snails got in to my big tank (45 gallon), and I found tons of eggs in the water filter, underneath the sponges and charcoal. Check there if you plan to get rid of your snails, or to at least keep them in check.

Fortunately, my big tank also has Clown Loaches, so the snails were never a problem. Unfortunately, I'll need a bigger tank for the loaches within a few years...

Here's a link about snails in aquariums:

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/breeding/Brown_Snails.html

[Star]

Great article.

Maybe I should just look at the snails as a part of my tiny little eco-system. And if they don't stay put, I'll just do Ladyjai's algae wafer-trick.

[Komar]

You could probably do both; taking some of them out might keep the population under control.

I've had no shortages of snails since I added them to my first tank. They were caught locally to feed a pet crayfish I had, but the crayfish died, and the snails still remain, even though I thought the crayfish had eaten them all...

[Star]

Yes, I'll just keep an eye on them for now and see what happens. If I need to remove or not.

[Komar]

I *think* Ghost Shrimp eat snail eggs and newly-hatched snails, and possibly larger snails when they get hungry enough. I'm sure other small invertebrates would do likewise.

If I'm wrong, Ghost Shrimp are still cheap bottom-feeders that don't add much of a biological load to any aquarium.

[Anonymous]

:mrgreen:

[RiverStar]

Most likely pond snails, probably came in with your plants.

I have heard that dwarf puffers can also get rid of pond snails but it isn't necessary, pond snails are pretty much harmless.

They just reproduce like crazy. :)

[Neptune]

As already stated, most snails (such as pond, ramshorn, trumpet) will do no harm to fish or plants. I actually like having snails in my tanks, and they don't overpopulate unless there is an overabundance of food.

I have found that many fish species will develop a taste for them, especially if you back off on feeding a bit (don't worry, they won't starve). I have witnessed my dwarf chain loaches, my curviceps (dwarf cichlids), my peacock gudgeons, and my dwarf gouramis all eating snails at one time or another. They have become quite good at extracting the pond snails from their shells. The trumpet snails never get bothered though, which I prefer anyway.