Snail Population Control

[HisMineandOurs]

Is there a fish I can add to my 30 gallon, planted, community fish tank that will be plant safe but still eat some snails. I don't mind some snails but they seem to be all over my tanks.

Thanks for any help.

[sudofish]

I would try to make sure I'm not overfeeding and keep up with the gravel vac. The snail population will only be as large as there is a food source to support it. Then I'd manually remove any that are easy to get to. I love snails but unfortunately so does my Electric Blue Acara. He crunches ramshorns like Murphy going through a crab.

[GameCzar]

Have you considered Assassin Snails?

[lefty o]

dont over feed, and toss in a handful of assassin snails.

[Guppysnail]

After you turn your light off shine a flashlight on plants substrate hardscape and glass the egg clutches are little jelly sacs that get when the light hits they are very visible and easy to wipe off to help control.  Also caves and any shaded terra-cotta or ceramic surfaces are prime egg deposit spots. 

[Isaac M]

It depends on what you have currently stocked but dwarf chain loaches may work. Assassin snails as mentioned by others work as well. If you do not mind having some snails, then making sure not to overfeed generally works well. I have pond snails in a 55 gallon that do not overpopulate just by simply not overfeeding. My amano shrimp also help to eat any leftovers before the snails do. Assassin snails have also gotten rid of ramshorn snails in my 29 gallon before. 

[HisMineandOurs]

These were all so helpful, thank you! I guess it's less food for everyone. The gravel vac'ing sounds interesting too I was wondering how that would work since I have never had it pick up snails before. I haven't vacuumed since I started planting our tanks more heavily. And I will try the assassin snails too. I do probably overfeed. They just look so happy at meal time. I really wish there was a way to figure out just how much. I have heard Cory say he overfeeds to let everyone have something but I can't seem to get it balanced between nutrition and pleasure. They always seem hungry.

[Guppysnail]

i Heard/read somewhere the size of one  of their eyeballs is how big their tummy is. Fed slowly so they can get it all.  True not true I have no clue but seemed as good a formula as any to me. 

[Isaac M]

@HisMineandOurs the way to feed the fish more without letting a lot of the food go to the snails is to feed more often and less in each feeding. Also to feed slowly like @Guppysnail recommended. This will allow for more happiness while minimizing snail population haha 

[DebSills]

will assassin snails eat Nerite eggs? I really want to try Nerites when I set up my 29, but really don't want to have Nerite eggs all over the place 😒

[Guppysnail]

To my knowledge nothing eats nerite eggs. If there is something they would have to have razor teeth. Those things are really hard ...like Drexel tool hard from a post I read on here. I got lucky and got a boy. I think ACO has a video about how to get boy nerites but I have not watched it. 

[HisMineandOurs]

I agree the nerite eggs aren't that great looking. It's a price I'm willing to pay for the benefit. It would be nice to find something that had those razor teeth though. It's the little pond snails that I'm having trouble with. But with all the help here I'm hopeful I can curb them some.

[lefty o]

On 6/16/2021 at 7:52 PM, DebSills said:

will assassin snails eat Nerite eggs? I really want to try Nerites when I set up my 29, but really don't want to have Nerite eggs all over the place 😒

assassins just kill other snails. they may take out your nerites too. something to consider.

Edited June 17, 2021 by lefty o

[DebSills]

On 6/16/2021 at 9:24 PM, lefty o said:

assassins just kill other snails. they may take out your nerites too. something to consider.

Good point, thanks...I still have time to decide how I want to setup my tank, so maybe I'll either try to figure out how to only get males, or forego the cool Nerites for something else...hmmm...

[KaitieG]

I've liked my Dwarf Chain Loaches.  They have taken care of my bladder snail issues.  I still have too many ramshorns--I have issues with feeding since I have corys, hillstreams, mystery snails, and nerite snails that also need to eat (and love Repashy!).  They've cut down on the Ramshorn population--just not as fast as the bladder snails.  The smaller snails tend to also stay off the glass more since the Dwarf Chain Loaches are around.  I think they know they're on the menu.  The Dwarf Chain Loaches haven't looked twice at my mystery or nerite snails for what that's worth.

[HisMineandOurs]

Hopefully I can find some around here. How big do they get? Will they be able to live out their lives in a 20 or 30 gallon and are they safe for plants?

[Roscoe]

Another vote here for assassin snails! They're actually beautiful; check out some pics of their neat bumblebee-stripe shells if you haven't yet. Their wiggly little proboscis is pretty fun too. I don't have them in my tank because I'm weirdly attached to my bladder snails, but if you're not as soft-hearted as me, they're definitely effective.

Also, if there's room in your tank plan for some little shrimps as an addition to the clean-up crew, they might help out-compete the snails for leftover food? Shrimp don't seem as effective as snails at turning food into babies, haha

[JakeH]

You might have luck with a non-fish solution. I added a ehiem skimmer to my planted tank for some additional flow, and was pleasantly surprised when I found it’s little sponge compartment full of my pest snails. You won’t get them all, but I’ve had noticeably less snails since the skimmer when in the tank.

[HisMineandOurs]

I would love to add shrimp into the tank. The 20 might get some but I added 10 cherry shrimp into our 30 with frogs, guppies and mollys and now I have no shrimp. I don't know who got an expensive meal but I'm sure there was dancing and a movie later. Our 20 has Pork Chop?, Mollys and a Betta will shrimp not be the start to a great night for them?

Thanks for the advice about the skimmer. I am tech challenged. It would be great though to just open a drawer and pour out all the excess snails.

[BriannesFishFam]

Shrimp are good, since it's community I wouldn't do pea puffers, some say Kuhli loaches will eat them. Just make sure whatever you end up putting in there is safe for the fish selection you have and right for your temperature. Let us know if you have any questions and what you decide on. Good luck!

[Theresa W]

Regarding the assassin snails, once you put them into a tank, you'll always have them in that tank because they reproduce like it was their job and they want a raise and a commendation. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is up to you, but you really can't have other snails in the tank because the assassins are also known to work in groups to kill snails larger than themselves. Reducing the pest snails' food intake is effective, and you can achieve this without leaving your fish hungry; shrimp do a great job of cleaning up leftovers, and if you choose a larger species such as Amanos or ghost shrimp, losing them would be a much smaller risk. I have both of them in my betta tank and my frog tank, and I haven't had any problems. Good luck!

[Ken]

This is my solution, well it helps. An algae wafer and a jam jar. This is when the lights came back on. 

 

[lefty o]

On 6/18/2021 at 4:17 AM, Theresa W said:

Regarding the assassin snails, once you put them into a tank, you'll always have them in that tank because they reproduce like it was their job and they want a raise and a commendation. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is up to you, but you really can't have other snails in the tank because the assassins are also known to work in groups to kill snails larger than themselves. Reducing the pest snails' food intake is effective, and you can achieve this without leaving your fish hungry; shrimp do a great job of cleaning up leftovers, and if you choose a larger species such as Amanos or ghost shrimp, losing them would be a much smaller risk. I have both of them in my betta tank and my frog tank, and I haven't had any problems. Good luck!

now ive always read assassins were very slow breeders, and in my own case having had assassins for many years i have never had any made in the tank.

[Chiclid addict]

On 6/15/2021 at 6:08 PM, HisMineandOurs said:

Is there a fish I can add to my 30 gallon, planted, community fish tank that will be plant safe but still eat some snails. I don't mind some snails but they seem to be all over my tanks.

Thanks for any help.

Maybe consider a puffer in the future I’m not that experienced with them so idk if you could house one in your tank but in future it’s would be a good idea free food and snail pop control 

[Theresa W]

On 6/18/2021 at 9:35 PM, lefty o said:

now ive always read assassins were very slow breeders, and in my own case having had assassins for many years i have never had any made in the tank.

I've read that too, so I got 4 for a 10-gallon ADF tank that was developing a pond snail problem. The assassins did eventually eat the pond snails, but not before having at least 4 dozen babies. I now have a self-sustaining population in that tank, and I've since put a bunch of them in my betta tank (and wish I hadn't because I'd like to have nerites eating the algae on the glass). I've also taken two batches of at least 20 snails each to my LFS. In fact, it's about time for me to take another batch out, and the ones in the betta tank have also started having babies. 😲

Say, does anybody have any advice on slowing down assassin snail reproduction? I know it's not usually a problem, but mine have gone forth and not only multiplied, but exponentiated.