Should I Keep Snails That Come With Plant From Shops

[patricka]

hi everyone,

so I'll try to keep this short.

I have a 20 gallon that's almost done cycling... few more days. in this aquarium I have mostly substrat, wood and nice plants, and 2 filters. no snails proabably because the ammonia and nitrite didn't give snails the chance to start anything.

I have a 5 gallon where I start with plants, when I buy plants I put them there first with co2 and eventually they end up in the 20gallon. now yesterday I bought some java moss and there were some snails in the moss.

my thinking is that I would like to keep these snails in my 5 gallon, let them get strong in numbers and then move few in my 20 gallon. they will become my bottom cleaners, a pleco or cory won't clean the trash they eat the exta food at the bottom but the snails are true cleaners.

so is this a good idea or I'll end up regretting this because they'll take over the tank? of course I would also introduce 2...3 assassin snails to keep the population in control.

my thing, will I end up with loads of empty shells in my tank? because that could become ugly in the long run...

thanks for reading me.

 

[Caprichoso]

I let my snail population alone to thrive but after I started seeing ugly holes in my plants, I regretted it.

Some types of snails don't eat plants but your typical pond snail does and will inflict a lot of damage to your plants. I also find them unsightly, sticking all over the glass but maybe that won't bother you.

There are benefits to them for sure, the malaysian trumpet snail will mostly stay in the substrate and aerate it, preventing gas bubbles from forming. They do clean up excess waste as well.

As far as the empty shells, you will be able to vacuum some of them up when you clean your gravel but the heavier shells always stay behind. I have multi-colored gravel so it's not very noticeable.

As far as the assassin snails go, well you need quite a few of them to control populations. You'll need about 5 for every 10 gallons.

A downside to this snail is that they appear to be picky with what type of snail they will eat. Ramshorn will be devoured readily but the plain old pond snails are not preferred. They will also eat fish food too.

So if you don't mind snails everywhere, don't mind holes in your plants and don't mind some shells, you will love pond snails!

 

[julem35]

I HIGHLY disagree, mine havee NEVER caused problems with plants. They are great in tanks with fry or frogs or tetras or livebearers. Loaches and catfish will suck 'em out though. I dont have problems with empty shells, They tend to grow with the snails I have, unless they get eaten, and have to be removed.

It's your choice. I love mine, but many think they are pests.Try them out in small numbers and see what you think. Good Luck to you!

 

[Caprichoso]

I HIGHLY disagree, mine havee NEVER caused problems with plants. They are great in tanks with fry or frogs or tetras or livebearers. Loaches and catfish will suck 'em out though. I dont have problems with empty shells, They tend to grow with the snails I have, unless they get eaten, and have to be removed.

It's your choice. I love mine, but many think they are pests.Try them out in small numbers and see what you think. Good Luck to you!

Then you must either have plastic plants or a snail variety that doesn't eat plants. Lucky you. Pond snails eat holes in Hygro, amazon swords, crypts, java fern, lotus, to name a few. There will be empty shells when the snails die. They will start to pile up. Some will get sucked up when doing gravel vac. I did note that I let my snails thrive before I noticed a real problem. If you only have a few in the tank, it's not a big deal. If there are many, you will see the damage. Sorry, but there is no room for debate on this as it is a fact.