SNAILS

[sharkbait]

well not really- about 20
I know i can dispose of them by enticing them on to a bit of cucumber, but, Do they actually do any harm. Or for that matter any good?

Stuart

 

[CFC]

Depends on what kind of snail they are, some are good others not so good.
Malaysian trumpet snails are often looked on as a good sign of a healthy tank and help by keeping the substrate turned over, other snails can be a nuisence by destroying plants.
All snails will add to the bio load of the tank and put extra strain on the filtration, it is best to keep populations down to reasonable ammount by having regular culls or adding snail eating fish.

 

[MAM]

what size tank do you have and what fish do youhave in there already? as cfc said, there are some snail eating fish out there like loaches. depending on what you have and size of tank, maybe you could look into adding a group of smaller ones..........

 

[Inchworm]

Hi sharkbait

If you mean those little snails that always seem to come in on plants, you probably won't have to worry. They don't do much harm and you can just pick them out by hand.

However, they can sometimes get out of control. I had this problem, some time back, when they started multiplying like crazy and all but took over a fry tank. There were--literaly--hundreds of them in one 10 gallon tank. The only thing I could do was wait until the fry were large enough to move and then totally take that tank apart and boil the gravel to get rid of them.

There are products to kill them, but I hesitate to put anything like that in the water with my fish. It's better to get rid of them in a more natural way.

I don't think buying fish just to get rid of snails is a good idea, either. Then you have fish you don't really want and which may or may not work out well with the fish you already have. This could cause more harm than good in the long run.

 

[sharkbait]

Hi folks: its 20 uk gallons.

they seem to have conical pointy shells if that helps?

I am planning to get three small clown loaches in a few weeks, when I'm sure my tank is fully cycled and disease free. until then I will cucmber cull if they get out of hand. The plants seem OK however, they just seem to slither over the glass etc. Though i'd sooner have an extra fish or two rather than a tank of snails.
I do however have a weakness for my kids ramshorn snail which lives in the 15 gallon golfish tank.

thanks for the advice

 

[Inchworm]

I like ramshorn snails, sharkbait. And mystery snails are cool, too.

I think the clown loaches will eat the little snails for you so don't worry about them, then. If you have other fish in your tank, you can try crushing the shells so they can get to the snails and often they will eat them. I used to put the little ones in the tank with my goldfish and they would eat them before they made it to the bottom.

I don't know very much about clown loaches, except that they can get big. Just be sure that your tank is large enough before you get them.

 

[Lithril]

Sorry to say that clown cloaches grow very large (10" or so) 20 gals won't be enough, you'd be better of looking into getting some smaller ones like chain loaches if you can find them. conical shells I think that sounds like the trumpet snails CFC was talking about.

 

[carppy]

smalle puffers help with snails too, but if the snails take over your tank they can wreak havock on your filter and they;'re a pain to get rid of. They will survive in your gravel even after you drain the tank(there's drugs for that though). If the snails and plants are surviving in the tank you can add fish

 

[Lithril]

yup small puffers are great for keeping the snail population down as well as the fish population, you really don't want to add them to a community tank.....

 

[carppy]

actuall some of the dwarf pufffers are fine..I have a red eye puffer in my community tank the only fish he picked at was a fan tail guppy...we used to have 2 other dwarves in a community tank as well. Yes they are predators and shoulnd't be kept with slow moving fish or fish with long fins. My community tank is being divided as soon as I get my 100gallon conditioned though cuz I'm kicking the shovel nose otta my 60...yay

 

[Lithril]

Spose if you had a big enough tank with plenty of cover you could get away with it, actual Dwarf puffers are some of the worst normally though, trouble is the older they get the more grouchy they get (they can live up to 15 years so thats pretty grouchy).

 

[carppy]

I've found that they are the most aggressive toward their own species. Then again I keep a lot of fish that nobody else will keeep together. The only one I've ever had to take back was my 15" fahaka pufffer. He and the shovel nose lived together peacefully for about a year, untill the shovel nose ate the large raibow ciclid in their tank. Instead of losin the $80 puffer I sold him

 

[Lateral Line]

Conical, pointed sounds like Malaysian Trumpet Snails. Look like Ice Cream cones. Live for the most in the substrate during the day, if you can see 20 with the lights on, have a peek in the tank after they've been off for several hours - you may get a suprise.

They are relatively harmless. Keep the substrate open, and tend not to bother the plants. They are a load on the filter of course, not usually a problem.

Puffers - no. Aggressive way beyond their size.

 

[Inchworm]

...I don't think buying fish just to get rid of snails is a good idea, either. Then you have fish you don't really want and which may or may not work out well with the fish you already have. This could cause more harm than good in the long run.

Hi sharkbait

See what I mean? You are better off with the snails then some of these fish!!!

 

[fishymania]

Hi,
About snails,
Where should I begin. OK. If you have live plants in your tank, either remove them or get rid of the snails.

The snails also eat eggs if your fish do lay eggs in the tank

Snails also reproduse rapidly so if you want to get rid of them which I suggest you do, Either try to fish them out one by one or you can use a medication which will not harm your fish in any way but it will leave dead snails in your tank and if you don't remove them, they would make your water putrid.