# snails -does anyone use?



## xoenrt209 (Nov 22, 2010)

Does anyone have snails in their freshwater aqaurium? I have 3 corys and a plec as my tank cleaners. Would a snail also help with cleaning up algae, specifically on the side glass. Would they be eaten by my clown loaches?


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

I like snails and have kept several species over the years. I think they are more usful in cleaning up leftover food reather than eating algae. If you are trying to spawn egg scatters (Danios, Clouds) they will eat the eggs if they find them. Mystery snails are easy to control, the snails are large and their eggs are above the water line.


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## Alasse (Mar 12, 2009)

I have snails and use them in all tanks, but tanks with loaches in them.


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## Mark13 (Oct 21, 2010)

The clown loaches will eat Ramshorn Snails, Pond Snails, and Malaysian Trumpet Snails.


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## peteyboyny (Oct 18, 2010)

I dont keep Corys or Loaches but I do have 1 mystery snail (apple snail) i've heard a few names tossed around. He does great at picking up leftover food AND algae. he's in my 72g and does a pretty good job by himself.


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## chris oe (Feb 27, 2009)

Love snails myself. I have apple/mystery snails (pomacea bridgesii) have had olive nerites, have currently mts and ramshorns, love them all. Loaches will clean you out of most small snails. 

Algae versus algae eaters are always a balancing act. If you have algae eaters and they're not keeping up you can think about adding more eaters, but you might also want to look at what the algae is, what it eats, why it's there, and what your system has in it in excess that is causing the overgrowth. It is possible that you need to do more frequent water changes, or that you're overfeeding, or it could be something else entirely. 

Really the best reason to have a particular algae eater is because you enjoy watching them work. I love watching the big apple snails scraping the glass with their bony radula, letting loose of the glass and gliding to the bottom, flowing over the gravel with surprising speed (you get used to the idea that snails are slow, but the big aquatic snails move with surprising speed when they want to).


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

Oh I have snail along with some ghost shrimp. I love my snail. He has been growing really fast in this large tank. He is about the size of a ping pong ball, he started at the size of a quarter. I love watching him run along the tank, its fascinating watching him eat the algae off the tank. but he loves his algae wafers, he's gotta compete with the shrimp to get to it.


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## cgskipper (Nov 15, 2010)

I have snails as well. They accidentally came with my live plants and I've just left them alone. They help with algae cleanup and they also burrow in the substrate to clean up the bottom as well.


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

I got MTS and yo-yo loaches in the same tank, there are thousands of MTS and only 4 yo-yo's. They ate all the pond snails first and have been enjoying an MTS or two as a treat at their discretion.


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## Junglebetti (Mar 6, 2010)

My shortcut explanation to my friends interested in stocking tanks is that you either have loaches or you have snails, not both. (I *heart* mystery snailios)

If you're willing to relinquish them as soon as they get aggressive, juvenile Chinese Algae Eaters are very effective algae eaters, and the orange-colored 'albino' variety are very pretty. "Fredrica" keeps my most algae-prone tank sparkling clean (it is very close to a north-facing window and near capacity). Unfortunately, the minute I see her latch onto another fish, off to the petstore she goes . . . or to live a solitary life in a 10gal. I supplement her diet with super-scummy rocks from my daughter's goldfish tank in the hopes that she's too busy eating algae to ever make the transition to her tankmates' slime coat.


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

Brigss are awesome....even when not used as cleaners. Just majestic watching them cruise around.


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

I got loaches AND snails and they do just fine together, the trick is to introduce the loaches after your snail colony is well established.


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## ironbone (Nov 6, 2010)

snails rock..i have a 10g invert tank,mostly used to breed mts and ramshorn for my puffer.but i also have 2 black mystery and bamboo shrimp and i enjoy those guys so much.as far as using them to help clean id have to say no,because plecos and snails poop alot so your kinda making bigger problem than algae.


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## Alasse (Mar 12, 2009)

My clowns cleaned a 5ft tank of every single snail, the MTS population in there were so high that the 'gravel' moved *L* None of my apples go in there, the loaches would have em within minutes.

Any tank that doesnt have loaches though has apples and MTS and the odd pond snail


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## elissamaria (Feb 1, 2011)

I don't have much to contribute (I'm new in this world of aquariums) but I just wanted to say that I currently have snails and loved them. Interesting creatures!


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## PolymerTim (Sep 22, 2009)

As for loaches and snails, never underestimate what might be hiding. When I was first cycling my new aquarium, I used a friends filter sponge from his established aquarium. I was disappointed to see dozens of baby snails crawling out of the sponge the next day! Interestingly, my friend didn't even know that he had snails because he had 3 clown loaches and never saw the snails. But a whole colony was thriving under his gravel and sending their eggs into the filtration system.


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## Mark13 (Oct 21, 2010)

I had a 37 gallon that had so many snails, I could remove 300 at a time and not make a dent. I then put two Clown Loaches in, and two weeks later there were no visible snails. Have not tried Yolo Loaches.


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