# Snails eating my Anubias?



## hanky (Jan 18, 2012)

Hello everyone, I have a 5 gallon betta tank which has Anubias, hornwort, and Java Moss. The Java Moss I got from a member about a month ago and I recently noticed a few Ramshorn Snails in the tank. Now my anubias leaves are getting little brown spota on them with a hole in the middle, are these guys eating my plants? I kinda like the little guys but dont want my plants eatin.


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## hanky (Jan 18, 2012)

53 views and no-one has an opinion or advice?


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## BrianTX (Aug 19, 2011)

Holes in leaves can be a sign of nutrient deficiency, I think potassium. I have had holes in my plants before I had any snails, but since I started using ferts it hasn't happened since.


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

I guess I'm the 55th view. I agree with the poster above - I have a lot of Anubias, and when I have seen what you describe, a shot of tertilizers has done wonders. The snails are only scavenging the damaged plants, and not causing the problem. I hate my ramshorns, but I can't blame them for that!

I don't add ferts on any regular basis (which may be wrong) but when I see any yellowish spots in the leaves. It doesn't take a lot to solve that.


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## hanky (Jan 18, 2012)

Thanks guys, so I;ll get some ferts going, thanks for giving me some help here, I was thinking all these people read this and no one has opinion. lol.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

Don't think it's the snails.


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

Snail, don't take the accusations against snails personally... ;-)


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

navigator black said:


> Snail, don't take the accusations against snails personally... ;-)


lol, I hate snails as much as the next guy if they are eating my plants 

Some snails do eat plants but they wouldn't go for the anubias first and if they did eat it they would probably nibble the edges or young leaves first. Some of the bigger ramshorn snails are plant eaters but I've never had a problem with the smaller types. Even snails that don't usually eat plants might have a go at very tender plants, (when I tried growing HC it got chopped up into little bits over night by the MTS) but anubias is about as tough as you get, even my plant eating fish cant manage to get a bite out of it.


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## freeasabird (Mar 21, 2012)

I just saw my snails eating algae on my Anubias last night and the plant was unaffected. I think others are right that the plant had some problems already and the snail was just eating off the degraded parts.


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## hanky (Jan 18, 2012)

I picked up some Seachem Flourish, will start dosing today, after the math I figure I need 1/3 of a ml per dose, do you think once a week is enough? or should I do more? Is it possible to over fertilize?


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## BrianTX (Aug 19, 2011)

Yes it's possible to over fertilize, especially if you have snails or shrimp. A lot of fertilizers have copper in them which is toxic to those guys. Learned that the hard way. I do my ferts once a week, and the plants and snails seem happy.

Fertilizer dosing is highly dependent on lighting and carbon, the more you have of those the more ferts your plants will require.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

Some plants don't like to be over fertilized either but once a week sounds like a good start.


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## hanky (Jan 18, 2012)

Good to know, thanks again for the help.


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