Instead of scavenger fish I'm thinking about Snails?

[TUCCI]

Greetings everyone. I've got a couple juvenile Carpintis I'm growing out in a 75g and instead of placing a few traditional scavengers (cats, botia etc) I'm researching the feasibility of using snail and which ones can hang with these guys once they get size to them. I could use input on it and if it's a bad idea, which ones to use that might work and if im introducing any kind of parasite with said snails.

thanks ahead of time for the input.

Edited June 21 by TUCCI

[Tlindsey]

On 6/21/2024 at 8:01 AM, TUCCI said:

im introducing any kind of parasite with said snails.

If you buy them from the store and concerned about parasites quarantine the snails. Definitely would quarantine if they were collected from the wild. I personally have magnifying glass for observation. @TUCCI

[TUCCI]

Thanks for the input, Would I use any kind of medication with in the isolation tank ie: Ich-X, PraziPro or just salt? What type of snail would not take over my tank and reproduce to a ridiculous extent?

[Lennie]

The big fish keeping guys I know and those that mightve tried snails at some point are; @tolstoy21 @mynameisnobody and @Odd Duck

I believe they may help better. But normal pet type snails like mysteries and rabbits does not sound good to me. Maybe pest snails? In that case the population bloom in such big tank can be a big issue

[mynameisnobody]

What kind of substrate? You can try Malaysian trumpet snails, these are the only ones that have a chance of surviving. Everything else is either to soft (pest/bladder) or too big and will be seen as a play toy. As carpintis grow, anything that moves in that tank will get their attention. If you post a photo of the tank, there may be certain things you can do to ensure a handful survive. 

[tolstoy21]

On 6/21/2024 at 8:01 AM, TUCCI said:

Greetings everyone. I've got a couple juvenile Carpintis I'm growing out in a 75g and instead of placing a few traditional scavengers (cats, botia etc) I'm researching the feasibility of using snail and which ones can hang with these guys once they get size to them. I could use input on it and if it's a bad idea, which ones to use that might work and if im introducing any kind of parasite with said snails.

thanks ahead of time for the input.

I use Malaysian trumpet snails (MTS) in most of my tanks to churn up the substrate, eat uneaten food, and clean up some algae from the plants.

Their population can EXPLODE if there is ample food for them to eat, but the large majority of the snails will hide under the substrate when the lights are on. If you turn on the aquarium light in the middle of the night, you might be like OMG where did these seventy bazillion snails come from?!?!?! This is why I prefer them over ramshorn snails, because when you have an overpopulation of those they are everywhere, out-and-about, climbing all over everything.

As for keeping them with sizable fish, I have kept MTS with oscars. The oscars did try to eat them at first, but I think after swallowing a few of these hard, pointy critters, they learned their lesson and left them alone. Your mileage may vary in terms of if your fish will or will not eat MTS, and if this causes issues.

For MTS you need either sand substrate or a substrate made up of very small pebbles, as they burrow. Maybe they can be kept with a larger substrate type, but I don't have experience with that.

As for parasites, yeah dunno. But I'd imagine that there are not a lot of parasites that can jump species and live in both snails and fish. But again, dunno. You might need to research that.

Edited June 21 by tolstoy21

[daggaz]

Most snail parasites are internal worms/flukes, and the whole point is that the snail either gets eaten and passes the worm on, or it poops worm eggs on the plants that get eaten and so passed on.  You're not gonna see that with a magnifying glass, though you might catch a snail leech in action.  Snail leeches eat snails, however, and are otherwise fish snacks.  So they are kind of a good thing to have in an aquarium that has loads of snails and no snail predators, tho most people arent going to like that.  

If you are really truly worried, you could run a separate tank for snails only until you get a decent population going, then toss some dewormer in there and give it some time before putting them over in the other tank.  You need to be careful here, some dewormers will kill snails and even invertebrates.  The one you commonly give to kids for pinworms should be snail safe in lower dosages.  

Honestly I think it's overkill tho, at least if you are picking up snails from an established snail tank at the local fish shop.