Aquarium snails- Need help?

Question

I have a tank with Cichlids and a Kissing Gourami, and i'm looking for a really good aquarium snail. At the moment I have two apple snails and an algae eater, but it's not cutting it. Are there any really aggressive snails that can take care of plant matter as well as waste?

Answer 1

If you have a sandy substrate or fine gravel you can add in Malaysian trumpet snails. These guys clean tanks like nothing else I have owned, eating algae, detritus, dead plants and leftover fish food. My 20g tank is squeaky clean :)

They also stir your substrate, they burrow. Only drawback they are live bearing snails and will over populate if not well regulated.

I also love Olive Nerite Snails, they don't breed in freshwater and they love to munch algae up in record time. I say 1 of these guys for every 5-10g of water and how much algae is already present. Also they have a defensive hinged shell like a turtle that makes it hard for fish to eat them.

Don't forget to take snails into account for your overall bio load.

Answer 2

In a word, No. No snail is going to make less waste in your tank. Both the excess of waste and the algae problem are related to the same thing, poor water quality due to too few or too small water changes. Be sure to change at least 25% or the water every week and use a gravel siphon to remove excess food and the waste from the gravel each time you do a water change. This will take care of both problems. To help reduce the amount of algae, be sure not to leave your tank lights on for more than about 8-10 hours per day.

MM

Answer 3

Snails are an indicator of overfeeding. Cut back on feeding the fish. To help remove them get some lettuce and submerge it in a bowl. The snails will go to the lettuce and you can take it out with a bunch of snail attached and dump it. Do this over the course of several days and you will see the snail population go down. They actually don't hurt the tank other than being unsightly - unelss there are a lot of them and they would have a die off - then you could have a nitrite or ammnia spike. Dont resort to chemicals to take them out - that is never good in the long run.

Answer 4

Apple snails do not reproduce asexually, so the snails mentioned above are very different. I've never had anything beyond apple snails for cleaning, but I wouldn't get the common snails that grow on plants or they'll reproduce like mad. The type of snail you're looking for is going to be less common and harder to find.

It's interesting that you've been able to keep the snails alive, Cichlids are known for killing snails

Answer 5

apple or mystery snails work the best, but you are better off with an algae eater. Snails usually only clean the algae on the glass which is what my snails do.

Answer 6

Be careful with those apple snails, they lay eggs like mad. I had one and it somehow got itself pregnant and laid eggs. I wouldn't recomend snails for a fish tank. For waste I would get some cory catfish or some clown loaches or some of both! For algae the algae eater should be fine, but if he's not doing his job it wouldn't hurt to buy another.

Answer 7

Well snails make more waste than they eat. Algae eaters should do the job just fine though. But more snails you get sooner you'll lose the plants, especially large apple snails.

Get some shrimp if the fish aren't too big or even some corydoras if the tank's big enough.


If you want to stick with snails get some from a local water source, they'll breed in your tank and grow.

Answer 8

Well Apple snails are not that great when eating, we aquarist use them to wipe the glass and take extra food. You could try a SAE, but they are rare. Pond snails are a no no they will cover your tank. When having cichild's its very hard to get a good alge and scavenger.

Answer 9

Snails aggressive, not to sure about that, but i know the bigger, the more territorial they get.