# Snail Pros Please



## Skeeter91 (Dec 28, 2011)

Hi aquarium forum! I'm writing this thread to say how I'm starting to LOVE snails. I popped up with 3 small mystery snails on one of my plants, then my plant broke in 2 and I put the other half in my other tank. Now that other tank has a snail in it. Will my Pleco eat it? I got a sailfin Pleco, and the snail is about an inch big. The original tank now has baby snails EVERYWHERE. In case I were to get rid of them, what fish would eat them?


----------



## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

I always get a snail bloom in my new tanks.

I just basically do nothing.

A year or so later there are just a handful left.

Like you I find them interesting and they do serve a function of cleaning the tank and providing food for fish especially the baby snails and eggs.

my .02


----------



## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Snails are very common in planted tanks.You can manually remove them or get assassin snails to eat them.


----------



## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Loaches also eat snails. Be careful though - they also eat shrimp and other inverts.


----------



## Sainty91 (Dec 28, 2010)

Snails are ok, that is untill they keep destroying plants that you spend your money on. My advice. Get two or three assassin snails. They keep the pest snails at bay, don't bother with plants, eat algae and they look pretty cool too. Failing that a clown loach will eat the, too.


----------



## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

Some snails eat plants, some never eat plants. Most of the common snails like pond snails, bladder snails and the smaller ramshorn snails might nibble on very tender plants once in a while but mostly leave them alone unless they are already dead and breaking down. 

The only time I had an actual problem with snails eating plants was when I tried Dwarf Baby Tears. MTS (Malaysian Trumpet Snails), which are considered plant safe, shredded it overnight. In the end I realized I wasn't going to be able to grow it anyway because it needs CO2 but if you were growing a plant like that it would be annoying.

Some people view snails as a pest, mostly just because they don't like the look of them. Personally I think they add to the interest and balance of a healthy tank. I have found that the population of snails stays in check just by not overfeeding the fish.


----------



## pudding (Jan 25, 2012)

May I jump in here, and ask about the compatibility of assassin snails with other, larger snails? I have a lot of tiny rams' horn snails in my tank (I believe they came in with a new Asian marshweed I got last week), and my plants already appear to be suffering. I've been removing them manually but they're so tiny it's really tricky. Would an assassin snail, well, assassinate my two zebra nerites? Should I just keep picking the unwanted visitors out, or is there a simpler way to get rid of them?


----------



## Sainty91 (Dec 28, 2010)

From my experience assigns will only go for the tiny pest snails, I've had apple snails and assassins together for a while with no problems.


----------



## pudding (Jan 25, 2012)

Thanks, I was seeing a lot of conflicting advice!


----------



## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

I have read they eat snails in order of preference. So they eat all of one type and size of snail first, the one they like best then they move on to the next. If I remember rightly it said they like medium sized bladder nails best. The person seemed to know what they were talking about but I can't remember where I read it. I'm just thinking that could explain why people have different experiences with assassin snails ie as long they have enough of their favorite type of snail they will not be a danger to other types of snail. It does seem like a large healthy apple snail might be safe from assassin snails because of their size and speed. None of this is based on fact though, just speculation.


----------

