cool freshwater fish that eats bladder snails.

[finfayce]

hi again
i have so many bladder snails in my shrimp aquarium. is there a fish - cool freshwater-
fish or some other critter that eats bladder snails? also this fish can't be a shrimp eater.
i know buying a different fish to fix something is not advised. the most horrible texture

 

[BleuTheBetta]

hi again
i have so many bladder snails in my shrimp aquarium. is there a fish - cool freshwater-
fish or some other critter that eats bladder snails? also this fish can't be a shrimp eater.
i know buying a different fish to fix something is not advised. the most horrible texture

I have no idea fish wise, though if you’re trying to get rid of bladder snails you could try and sell them on places like Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, a forum post on here, etc. Then, you would be making money to get rid of them anyways.
I don’t think (?) there would be a fish that could eat snails but wouldn’t touch shrimp, but I can’t give much advice at all in that area.

 

[finfayce]

I have no idea fish wise, though if you’re trying to get rid of bladder snails you could try and sell them on places like Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, a forum post on here, etc. Then, you would be making money to get rid of them anyways.
I don’t think (?) there would be a fish that could eat snails but wouldn’t touch shrimp, but I can’t give much advice at all in that area.

I have no idea fish wise, though if you’re trying to get rid of bladder snails you could try and sell them on places like Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, a forum post on here, etc. Then, you would be making money to get rid of them anyways.
I don’tr think (?) there would be a fish that could eat snails but wouldn’t touch shrimp, but I can’t give much advice at all in that area.

thanks for your reply. i have rainbow darter fish and they eat bladder snails. my problem is trying to pick the tiny bladder snails without squishing them. i do give the bigger snails to the darters.

 

[BleuTheBetta]

thanks for your reply. i have rainbow darter fish and they eat bladder snails. my problem is trying to pick the tiny bladder snails without squishing them. i do give the bigger snails to the darters.

Ahh, makes sense. Snails are a real pain in the neck sometimes! Good luck.

 

[sharkweek178]

You can't really count on an animal to do tank maintenance for you. The best way to control snails is to control their food supply. Watch your overfeeding. Keep your algae levels down. And make sure to trim dead leaves from plants. I've actually learned to appreciate pest snails because they tell me when I need to take care of one of those issues. If there's a lot of them, then there is some issue I need to address.
The most common answer people give to your question is assassin snails. But assassin snails will prefer to eat leftover fish food to eating other snails. So if you get assassins and still overfeed, they won't do much to control your snail population.

 

[GaryE]

Every snail eater I have kept would take a run at shrimp. They might even prefer shrimp, eat them all and then set to work on the snails....

 

[Wills]

The answer you are looking for is actually a snail…. The assassin snail!

 

[finfayce]

The answer you are looking for is actually a snail…. The assassin snail!

 

[finfayce]

Every snail eater I have kept would take a run at shrimp. They might even prefer shrimp, eat them all and then set to work on the snails....

yeah - thanks. i agree. there are so many of them. and now i found some white round specks- could it be the nerite snail eggs?

 

[finfayce]

Every snail eater I have kept would take a run at shrimp. They might even prefer shrimp, eat them all and then set to work on the snails....

i guess i'll feed some to my darters- thanks.

Every snail eater I have kept would take a run at shrimp. They might even prefer shrimp, eat them all and then set to work on the snails....

o my

 

[Wills]

I'm really worried people are laughing and not realising I'm not joking.... Assassin Snails are a real thing

https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/help-a...cellaneous/assassin-snail-snail-eating-snail-

They are snails that eat other snails, stay small, quite attractive and don't breed that much. In fact, if you get them breeding they can sell for good money too

 

[sharkweek178]

You can't really count on an animal to do tank maintenance for you. The best way to control snails is to control their food supply. Watch your overfeeding. Keep your algae levels down. And make sure to trim dead leaves from plants. I've actually learned to appreciate pest snails because they tell me when I need to take care of one of those issues. If there's a lot of them, then there is some issue I need to address.
The most common answer people give to your question is assassin snails. But assassin snails will prefer to eat leftover fish food to eating other snails. So if you get assassins and still overfeed, they won't do much to control your snail population.

I would like to expand on this point. I get the idea of buying an animal for utilitarian purposes. I've had that urge myself. I have assassin snails. But I'm also learning why buying an animal to fix something for you is not a good idea.
First of all, when people buy an animal to deal with some issue in their tank (pest snails, algae, etc), they are buying a living creature with it's own needs. There are people who buy corys because they think they'll clean up any leftover fish food. What about those corys own dietary needs? Are they just supposed to live off of the scraps of food that the other fish don't eat? Or people who buy loaches to eat snails and put them in a gravel tank. And many times that creature brings it's own issues. How many people have bought a common pleco to deal with algae only to find out that the fish that was 3 inches long in the pet store is going to grow to 15 inches long? People should really only buy a fish because they like the way it looks and/or behaves and do the research with the expectation that they will see to that animal's needs, not the other way around.
I thought of an analogy to buying an animal to deal with tank issues. It's like if you have a leak in your roof and your solution is to put a bucket under the leak. You haven't really fixed anything. Because the root cause, the hole in the roof, is still there.
When people buy an animal to deal with their tank issues then the underlying cause of those issues is still there. I'm going to confess something. I struggle with overfeeding. But I know it's a problem and it's something I'm working on. I honestly think I've gotten a lot better about it. I also have pest snails in my tank. So I went and got some assassin snails to deal with them. The thing I've learned is that when I overfeed and provide a food source for them, then pest snails can easily breed fast enough to outpace the assassin snails' ability to eat them. And also like I mentioned before, assassin snails will prefer to eat uneaten fish food. Remember that line in Jurassic Park? "T-Rex doesn't want to be fed. T-Rex wants to hunt!". That's wrong. What any predator wants is to eat with the least amount of effort possible. If you have a healthy gazelle on one side and a big pile of freshly prepared gazelle meat on the other, a lion is going to go for the meat every time. Same thing with assassin snails. They will eat the easiest meal that still satisfies their dietary needs. Like leftover fish food that is just sitting there waiting to be eaten. That's my issue. I don't know if it's the OP's but it could be. Or it could be algae. But those pest snails are eating something.
Which is all a long way for me to spell out that if you don't deal with the root causes of a tank issue, then no animal is going to fix it for you.

 

[finfayce]

i guess i'll feed some to my darters- thanks.

o my

better than squishing them ?lol

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I second the assassin snail idea. I had a severe infestation of trumpet snails. I introduced three assassin snails, and within about three months the trumpet snails were eradicated. Completely gone. Assassins won't overpopulate either.

By the way, I have couple opinions/experiences that differ from the common wisdom. First, keeping snail numbers manageable is not as simple as "don't overfeed." In my Sumatra biotope, I fed extremely sparingly, and yet the trumpet snails continued to breed out of control. I don't know what they were eating, but it wasn't fish food. (I should note that the tank had a soil substrate, which certainly added nutrients to the system).

Regarding the "don't ever buy a fish to do a job" mentality, I get that too, but I have a slightly different view. To me, an excess in a tank is often a resource that isn't being used, and it's kind of fun introducing a species that will be able to use it (assuming, of course, that there is a species that will do so, and said species will be compatible with my setup, water, and other residents). In my hillstream tank, I am intentionally cultivating algae and biofilm with excess light, for future hillstream loaches to enjoy. When I see snails overbreeding, sure, I'll try reducing feeding. But I'm also thinking, "Wow, some assassin snails would LOVE this!"

 

[jaylach]

I don't actually recommend buying fish to control snails but many South American Cichlids will eat bladder/pond snails like popcorn. Personally I tend to like bladder/pond snails but can't keep as my Smiling Dwarf Cichlids wipe them out.

While I've never kept the beasties Assassin Snails are reported to be good option.