need help thinning out the snails

[KittenFishMom]

I have a lot of ramshorn and bladder snails in my tanks. I'm pretty sure it is caused by over feeding the fish. When I cut back on the fish food, the snails gobble my plants.

I have put an algae wafer in a long handle ladle with holes in it, and the snails climb in and I can lift them out. This works if the fish don't eat the wafer fist. As I keep harvesting the snails, I am seeing that they represent a good bit of fish food, as well as other stuff. Today I didn't feed any tanks, and the snails are all over all the plants.

What type of fish eat snails and hopefully snail eggs.  I like watching snails in general, but the eggs on the glass in deep tanks is not something I like looking at. My yoyo loaches are active, but they don't seem to be eating many snails. I am not seeing many empty snail shells in they tank.  I have heard clown loaches, killifish, and pea puffers eat snails. 

I research pea puffers. A pea puffer sounds fun, but I get the impression they would not like my 2 female guppy tanks because there is only 1 plant per tank. The male guppy tank has lots of plants, but also lots of guppies, and some very young corys and kuhli loaches. I think it would be too many bottom feeding fish, for a pea puffer to be happy. My other tank has less plants and bigger fish. I don't know if a pea puffer would work there. Besides the snails are in all the tanks.

I still need to reach the clown loaches and the killifish.

I am open to suggestions. Please remember I am rehoming the guppies as fast as I can, but there are still too many of them. 

Anyone want a bunch of healthy snails? Not sure what to do with all of them.

[RadMax8]

How big is the tank? Clown loaches live a long time and can get huge, so I don’t think that’s a viable solution. I’m more surprised the yo-yos haven’t been feasting. 

What kind of plants do you have? I have a significant amount of ramshorn snails in my high-tech heavily planted tank, and as far as I can tell the only issues I have plant-wise are of my own doing, the snails just seem to work on algae and extra food. 

Perhaps you could harvest the snails and keep them in a container until you get them all and see if someone wants a package of snails to feed their hungry critters. I think that would be a pretty good way to get rid of them without “wasting” them, so to speak. 

[AndEEss]

In the nicest possible way: buying a clown loach as a solution to a snail problem is a terrible idea. Unless you’re prepared to give them a 150g+ tank, don’t do it.

Fix your snail problem by not over feeding.

[Flumpweesel]

My snails clean the algae off the plants rather than eat the leaves are you seeing damage?

Reducing feeding is probably the best way as they generally balance their population to the available food. 

Snail traps exist or can be made if you want them out of your tank. 

You might have to wait awhile for more tank space for the pea puffer as they can be very territorial.

[Colu]

I have kept ramshorn snail for years in my experience they only eat decaying plant matter and not healthy growth cutting back on the amount of food is the best option 

[The Arthritic Aquarist]

There are some smaller species of loaches that might do the job (depending on your tank size)... and possibly Assassin Snails.  Your could just control the amount of feeding and do regular maintenance/cleaning.  That might help keep the population in check.  The last plant I purchased for my tank came with hitch hikers.  Though I took precautions, there must have been eggs.  I ended up with a Freshwater Limpet population.  It's been a few months and the population has not exploded.  I learned to embrace my limpets and view them as a part of my clean up crew. 

[KittenFishMom]

The tanks are small. I'll work on feeding less and removing snails myself. I really don't want to add to the bio load. I didn't feed yesterday other than 1 algae wfaer to catch snails. I viewed my snails as clean up crew, but now they cover the sinking wafers I put in at bed time for the kuhli loaches before the loaches get to they.. That snails have really done a number on my banana plant and a few other plants. I can look up they names. The yoyo loaches are growing fast, but I am seeing few snail shells, so maybe they are eating fish food instead.

Also a 55 gallon tank without guppies looms in the future, as soon as I do the build and cycle it, so the yoyo loaches and everyone else everyone will have more room.

Edited October 12, 2022 by KittenFishMom

[AnotherHumanPerson]

I have assassin snails in my tanks. They do an amazing job at keeping the other snails in check. It is also unlikely that they will take over, especially if you only get one.

[KittenFishMom]

@Pepere I'm going to try go to try to stick this. It is hard to do when you are looking a hungry blimp of a pregnant guppy. From now on I will mark Tuesday on my calendar as a "don't feed the fish" day. If the fish don't like it, I'll tell the fish to talk to you about it.

[sumplkrum]

Guppy stomachs are tiny and they get far more food in an aquarium than they would ever see in a wild setting. Cutting back on feedings won't hurt anything unless you're actively trying to breed them for profit or something like that. You can legitimately not feed them at all for a couple days and they'll be fine.

Generally snails don't eat healthy plants. If they're already looking ragged, that's a different problem of plant health.

You cut the feedings and the snails will eventually die back. It will take some time since they are pretty darn hardy.

[TOtrees]

Like many aquarium problems, the solution is rarely one silver bullet, but rather a number of practices all implemented together. In horticulture, we would call this integrated pest management or IPM. 🙂

I also have snail problems in my tanks, with the same species you do, ramshorn and bladder. Different solutions work to varying degrees in different tanks, even ones that are right next to each other.  Every tank that has substrate has assassin snails. In some tanks, they provide all the control I need - a balance is achieved over time between predator and prey such that neither one explodes nor dies out. Some tanks aren’t well enough suited for the assassins for them to control the pests on their own. In those, I typically have to resort to manual removal every say 4 to 6 weeks. For this I use the Ista snail trap. I put one or two pleco sticks in the trap, and leave it in the tank for 1-2 hours at a time. When it is loaded with snails I take the trap out, remove the snails, and return the trap to the tank for more. I don’t have any way to use the snails, so I have to dispatch them. I tried keeping a tank of pea puffers, it just didn’t work for my situation.

Good luck!

[Anjum]

In addition to all the suggestions above, you can contact your LFS & see if they want some snails. 

[KittenFishMom]

@Anjum Thanks, I did that weeks ago. Suggested they sell them as "Koi Krunchers" or Goldfish Krispy Krackers" but they said he did not want snails in the store. Oh well.