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What can I put in my tank that will eat pond snails and leave my mystery snail alone?


KyleKVK
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The common recommendation is clown loaches or assassin snails but a quick google tells me they think all snails are delicious and not just the tiny annoying ones. I have a mystery snail that I'm very fond of. I'd like it to be unharmed while dealing with my pest snails

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1 hour ago, James Black said:

I believe mystery snails would be too big for a pea puffer and yet the pond snails may be small enough. If you have a empty tank or bucket you could just remove the mystery snail and setup a snail trap. Pretty much just a container with like cucumber or zuchnni in it.

I actually tried that, none of my pest snails were interested. 
 

I’m thinking about ordering an assassin snail and removing my mystery while he does his dirty work. But then I wouldn’t know what to do with him if it meant I couldn’t keep both snails 

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I've read that assassin snails seem to prefer bladder and ramshorn snails over mystery snails. I really like all snails, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. I have loads of "pest" snails, and I really like how assassins look and that they are predatory.

I have 7 assassin snails in a 10 gallon with one mystery snail and a good amount of "pests." It's been about 2 months and so far the assassins haven't taken the mystery snail out. I've seen them directly next to each other at times as well. I feel pretty confident now that assassins prefer a smaller meal.

Now that I've jinxed myself I'll be watching out for my buddy like a hawk. Lol.

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27 minutes ago, OceanTruth said:

I feel pretty confident now that assassins prefer a smaller meal.

I did some reading on assassin snails awhile back. One of the topics mentioned was regarding how they tend to go for the smaller sized snails over the larger ones. At least as long as there’s wasn’t a shortage of food, at which point they would group up and eat the larger snails. 

And from my experience with them I would agree with that. Mine are in a tank with ramshorn and pond snails. Once the ramshorn get to a certain size it seems like the assassin snails no longer go for them, based on the empty shells at least. 

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I have 5 assassin snails mixed with easily 20+ mystery snails of various sizes, some are even smaller than my assassin's and my assassin's have not killed a single one. I wonder if the trapdoor the mystery's have prevent that? Though my assassin's do eat the mystery eggs, they'll go right out of the water for 'em.

The assassin's are obliterating my ramshorn/bladder/mts population and I even have to drop more in from other tanks to make sure they are getting fed.

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My solution has been to have a separate tank with a pea puffer and treat my larger tank like a snail farm. Every few days, scoop out the nearest 20+ little snails you see and plop them in the puffer tank. That should significantly reduce their population really quickly, to the point that you're looking to buy snails to feed the little monster 🙂

Otherwise, I'd recommend just cutting down on how much food you're putting into the tank with too many bladder snails. If you're worried about your mystery snail wasting away, you can put them in a quarantine for a few weeks and feed them separately while the bladder snail population naturally regulates itself.

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7 minutes ago, Alec2cool said:

I have 5 assassin snails mixed with easily 20+ mystery snails of various sizes, some are even smaller than my assassin's and my assassin's have not killed a single one. I wonder if the trapdoor the mystery's have prevent that?

That is very interesting. I would have guessed that smaller mystery snails would be hunted down. That extra little defense along with easier prey present must help.

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Id say grab the Dennerle Snail Catcher. I pull MTS of all my tanks with the snail catcher wand thing and feed them but the handful to my 6" adolescent fahaka puffer. The catcher would make short work of your excess pond snails and doesn't involve a chemical and you wouldn't need a backup plan if the living snail remover options decided your mystery snail was food. 

 

If you want living solutions I use 2

My tanks have assassins mostly because they are cool and aerate the soil. They kill their share of MTS and most ramshorn but I believe my group would rather eat blood worms etc than actively hunt live snails if given the choice. 

I also have a group of 12+ dwarf chain loaches in one of my 50 gallon tanks. They are highly entertaining snail eaters in the smallest snail eating loach that I know of. I havent seen them bother a mystery snail before but i suppose I would have a backup plan if I had one and was concerned. Pond snails out in daylight would be gone pretty fast with them and they are fun to watch.

Simple fix for me would be the snail catcher off the coop store.

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22 minutes ago, Streetwise said:

It may take time to fall in love with pond snails.

I got nothing but love for pond snails. I'm a big time snail lover. Pond, Ramshorn, Mystery, Japanese Trapdoor, Malaysian Trumpet, Assassins I got 'em. :) I like nerites too, but they don't breed. I want rabbits, but I haven't seen a consensus on what plants they won't eat. Only reason, I keep pond and ramshorn snails with assassins is because they are my best producers.

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47 minutes ago, OceanTruth said:

I got nothing but love for pond snails. I'm a big time snail lover. Pond, Ramshorn, Mystery, Japanese Trapdoor, Malaysian Trumpet, Assassins I got 'em. 🙂 I like nerites too, but they don't breed. I want rabbits, but I haven't seen a consensus on what plants they won't eat. Only reason, I keep pond and ramshorn snails with assassins is because they are my best producers.

Those rabbit snails do look pretty cool. Have you seen the chopstick snails? They’re a plant friendly, smaller version of a rabbit snail. Don’t believe they have all the color varieties, not as commonly available or reproduce in freshwater. 
 

@KyleKVK You’ll likely want to do a second tank if looking at loaches to clear your tank of snails. And if you wanted all except the mystery snails gone, I’d remove the mystery snails. Add the loaches and wait for them to do their thing. Then move loaches to the other tank and move mystery snails back.
Assassin snails won’t likely clear your tank of the snails unless you got a large group. 

Reducing available food and/or collecting and removing are some other options. 

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