snail question

[Teelie]

Yes and no. Snails are a huge group and you can't classify them into anything so simplistic. Some are egg layers, some are live bearing, some can change their sex, some are stuck male or female and yet others are both.

 

[luxum]

This may be dependent on what type of plants you keep, but i have 3 different types of snails in my tank (common pond, small ramshorn, and malaysian trumpet) for many years and they have never eaten any of my plants. Ever. They do eat any soft algae from the leaves though. I've also never had a population level of them that i would call an infestation. Their population is directly related to the availabilty of a food supply, so don't overfeed, keep up with your water changes, and there will be just enough snails to eat the algae in the tank.

This is not to say that some snails aren't plant eaters, the large types certainly will eat the plants if you don't give them an alternate food source. I've never had the large types come in as hitchikers, though.

 

[Teelie]

Malasyains aren't plant eaters though Ramshorns are known to be and I think pond snails do though that may be dependent on species.

 

[luxum]

The giant ramshorn eats plants, yes. Mine are a small type. The pond snails in my tank stay small as well. And they've never eaten my plants although they do clean up dying leaves which is quite handy. I don't know if everyone else reports that they eat plants because they got different species, or because they grow tastier plants, or because there is no algae left and the snails are hungry or what.