# snails



## jbrianchamberlin (Aug 31, 2009)

What do you guys do about the snails you find in your tanks after putting in plants? Do you leave them in or will that result in a manifestation of the little critters?


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

Depends on you. Do you like them? If so...keep em. If not...remove them now before they get overwhelming.

Either way....if they are pond snails as I suspect they are, they will quickly take over if you let them. You can pick them out when their numbers get large to help control the population.


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## JIM (May 27, 2009)

*Some snails are very beneficial in your tank by way of removing algae, but as is mentioned can become overwhelming. Se if you can figure out what type they are, then do a little research, It could be you might decide to let them stay awhile *


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## Saprobic (Nov 14, 2008)

If you like having some snails but don't want them to take over I have had some success in the past by introduction of snail predators. Depending on what type of tank you have there are some options. I have used round gobies (an invasive species here that is easy to get but I am unsure about the legality of keeping them), crayfish (very cool critters but will try to eat your fish and will occasionally succeed). There are also a host of very attractive fish that can used to feed on snails. Such as 
Many types of cichlids and discus (Do some research here there are hundreds of them). 
Puffers
Betas
Clown loaches
There are tons more but thats all I can remember off the top of my head right now. 
Oh and if your going to go this route you need to make sure the fish are a litle hungry. Too much prepared food will often make them lazy and they will not touch the snails. 

Good luck.


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## jbrianchamberlin (Aug 31, 2009)

Thanks. I love clown loaches so I'll probably get a couple of them once I know my water is okay.


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

jbrianchamberlin said:


> Thanks. I love clown loaches so I'll probably get a couple of them once I know my water is okay.



just ensure to have the proper size and maintained tank for these guys.


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## jbrianchamberlin (Aug 31, 2009)

Yeah, I probably can't get them. I have a 75... that's not really big enough for 2 or 3 of them.


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## cichlidkeeper (Jul 13, 2009)

i had some clown loaches for this problem, they rid the tank of them in a hurry.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

There are yoyo loaches that can fit into the 75 and do pretty good at eating snails. They usually max out at 4 inches and you can have 3 or 4 in the tank.


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

an army of DPs would do the trick. *Glasses*

Can you imagine what say about 10 of these guys would be like in a 75g? *n1


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Yeah, but what else would you put in there? They aren't exactly fish friendly.


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

put snails in there.


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