Fish To Take Care Of Snails?

[Zante]

<shrug> I don't know. The water should be fine because I had corys, BN plecs and discus breeding in there. I suspect rummynoses too, because I occasionally saw one that looked too small, but I was never able to count them properly.

 

[Crystal90]

When I had an infestation of snails I examined the tank and found small gelatin-like deposits just over the waterline. Tiny spots were visible which I assume were eggs (or larva), Anyway I just wiped off the jelly as I found them and the snails were under control very quickly. I would examine your tank and see if you can find anything similar. It's much easier than adding more creatures that you don't really want.

 

[Far_King]

When I had an infestation of snails I examined the tank and found small gelatin-like deposits just over the waterline. Tiny spots were visible which I assume were eggs (or larva), Anyway I just wiped off the jelly as I found them and the snails were under control very quickly. I would examine your tank and see if you can find anything similar. It's much easier than adding more creatures that you don't really want.

 
That's definitely pond snail eggs and they'll lay them anywhere they can.  Leaves, bogwood, decor, filter outlets. They're not fussy!

 

[twintanks]

I've got pond snails too. My new-ness to feeding tropical fish meant that they got too much grub (quite different from feeding a gobbling goldfish) and the snail population went up (they originally came in on my first plants, which I failed to clean effectively). I have today found gelatinous blobs inside the U3 filter, so have given them the boot.
I don't actually mind the snails too much but I don't want hundreds of them. None of my fish eat snails, as far as I know. I have collected them each day using a small plastic fish-medicine cup; chucked them in a jamjar and then moved them outside to a small ornamental pond that has nothing in it bar water and an old tree branch. Whether that's the right thing to do or not, I don't know, but I'm not very good at squashing things.

 

[Far_King]

I don't mind them kicking about the filter.  The just clean up the waste in there, as they will in the tank; but too many is unsightly.  You won't fully get rid of them from the filter all the time they're in the tank.  My main display tank had a population explosion.  I have a lot of bottom feeding fish so I was putting a good amount of catfish pellets and algae wafers in (which turned out to be a bit too much).  Adding Assassin Snails eventually got the population under control, that and a snail trap in the short term to help reduce numbers.  Now there's not a single one in the tank.

 

[NickAu]

 
I don't actually mind the snails too much but I don't want hundreds of them. None of my fish eat snails, as far as I know.

I have yet to see an omnivorous or carnivorous fish refuse to eat fresh crushed pond snail, Even my Betta who is a fussy eater loves fresh snail, With a Betta 9 Kuhli Loaches 6 Corys and some number of shrimp 2 or 3 crushed pond snails don't go far.
 
You should have seen the guy at my LFS when I walked in and asked him for pond and MTS, He actually asked if I was sure.

 

[Jeremy180]

No experience with them myself, But I've heard good reports on both yo-yo and zebra Loaches being snail eaters

 

[the_lock_man]

It's not normally wise to add additional fish to take care of snails. Yes, loaches such as clowns, yo-yos, etc., will eat snails, but I would not recommend them. For a start, you haven't said how big your tank is, so we can't say whether it is suitable for a shoal of loaches or not.
 
I used to have a massive pond snail problem, bought a few assassin snails, who then bred prolifically, to the extent that I swapped a load of them for a bag of black aquarium sand.

 

[ShellieMarrelliWelch]

I Hate Assassin Snails.  I hate them.  I have THOUSANDS of the little jerks in my tank.  THOUSANDS!!
 
In my opinion, they are FAR orse than pond snails.  At least there are fish that like to eat those, and they are easy to crush against the glass.  Assassins' shells are too hard to crush.
 
I am fighting my 2nd infestation.  A year ago, I emptied my tank, and soaked and scrubbed it with hot vinegar.  I soaked the decorative rocks in vinegar then actually boiled them in water before I put them back in with fresh gravel.  I even dipped my live plants in vinegar for a few minutes before rinsing and replanting them.  (Lightly planted aquarium)
 
I ​did lose a few fish in the process, but I thought my assassin snail woes were over.
 
NOT.    

 
 ​A couple of eggs must have hitched a ride in a crevice and they are back with a vengeance.  Did I say that I use black gravel??  You can really see the little a--holes.
 
I can't use any kind of chemical control because I have a healthy population of shrimp that I don't want to destroy.
 
The picture is of a 3" wide area.
 

 

[NickAu]

Snail populations only explode when they have food to do so.

 

[Jeremy180]

Snail populations only explode when they have food to do so.

Assasin snails are known to kill and eat shrimplets.
Not much he can do about that food source...

 

[cowgirluntamed]

I had pond snails in my 20 gallon not that long ago. I had gravel as substrate. Couldn't get rid of the things no matter what I did. Finally...I changed the substrate out completely, emptied the tank..put my plants in an alum solution, the rest of the decor(including driftwood), went into a heavy salt solution. The fish, of course, were housed in buckets with heaters as this was going on. I used a bleach solution to completely clean the tank and rinsed well. Used a bunch of dechlorinator to rinse everything else. Now....snail free!!! Yay!! Eventually I will get MTS, maybe when the weather warms up to ship some.
 
Oh, and I even cut back on feeding my fish to only once every other day...with NO luck. If you have driftwood in it, they feed on that....if you have tons of snails...I was reading they feed on each other. One thread I had found somewhere said that they took all the pond snails they could find, put them in a tank with assassins...and...the pond snails killed the assassins!! They will gang up on each other or other things if they don't have enough food to eat. So they initially just start feeding themselves from what I found out...nasty things......
 
However....they were also in my 10 gallon guppy tank. I did NOTHING to that tank(gravel substrate as well). And low and behold...with the guppies "grazing" habits...no more snails! I believe they took care of eating the eggs. Now, during water changes when I rinsed the filter out, I made sure to get anything I saw in it. But..no snails! Other than my two nerite snails. I'm not saying get guppies by any means....especially if you have bigger fish that would eat them. But..maybe we should try seeing what fish like to eat the EGGS of pond snails more than the pond snails themselves?? Just a thought! This is what my experience was. Lol. Now I will never throw plants in a tank without doing an alum soak first! (More delicate plants may not like this...but I haven't tried too many.)