Smaller snails

[daveb056]

Greetings: looking for recommendations for snails to get. I have a new, planted 6.5 gallon setup for fish , shrimp and snails. The 4 mystery snails I have now (they won't all be staying) are bulldozing the substrate. So I'm looking for smaller snails to keep things clean but in place. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

[Comradovich]

If you like your substrate clean, (but don't necessarily want it reshaped), Malaysian Trumpet Snails are good for that. Keep the mulm down. You only really see them at night, though. They also breed well, which can mean that you need a control measure. I use Dwarf Chain Loaches and Assassin Snails. Neither of those should be big enough to take on a mystery snail. My assassins always left the "tank mastodons" well enough alone. Might be the whole, "eight times my size, I'm not trying to eat that" thing.

Planted tanks do well with bladder snails, any color of ramshorn, or a nerite. Each has their downsides, but they're small and good cleaners. Both Cory and Irene have made videos on snails, (Irene mostly nerites and how to avoid egg laying).

[daveb056]

Perfect, thanx for the info. The mysterys aregreat at keeping the tank clean, but subtle they are not. The tank is mostly built from native materials pulled from my yard and lake, so a lot of moss and algae. The shrimp(orange rilis and 2 bamboo) and snails are working overtime. My biggest problem is I can't get my DBTs, bacopa and grasses to root 'cause the bulldozers keep coming thru. I was worried about assasins going for the mysterys, but I guess they are too big to mess with. I'll also check into the Malaysian trumpets. Thanx again. Hope to post a pic of the tank soon, once I finally clear away all the build debris.

 

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

if you want a snail to clean algae the horned nerites stay smaller then normal nerites, or even any of the nerites they wont mess up your tank and they will help keep everything clean without over populating the tank.

[lefty o]

nerites are great, dont get big, dont repopulate, but they do leave eggs in the tank that some may find an eyesore.

[Levi_Aquatics]

Nerite snails would be my recommendation.

[itsfoxtail]

Nerites all day! Don't get too big and area awesome little cleaners!

[daveb056]

I ordered some assassins for this tank. Have several smaller tanks planned; will def consider nerites, probably go for the horned; they're cool! . Thanx, all.

[Dana]

So assassin snails eat Malaysian Trumpet snails?  I have a tank overrun with MTS!!!!