# Are snails bad for the tank?



## springboard (Apr 10, 2011)

I am taking care of a tank for my buddy and I've noticed a lot of snails in the tank. These are not apple snails or ones with tornado shells that people tend to like, these are the usual snails.

I've tried scooping them out daily but the numbers don't seem to decrease. There must still be like over 70 snails that seem to pop up daily. I can see several translucent pouches on the leaves of plants with what look like babies.

Is it a problem to have all these snails? The tank is 35gal, there are only like 10 fish in the tank, barbs and neons. There is an automatic feeder that delivers flake food twice a day. And the tanks has an Aquaclear 50. I think water conditions are okay.


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## pisces (Apr 22, 2010)

i guess the problem is Over Feed , if you tried scooping them out daily , try get Assassin snail ! they will crazy eat all the snail! my wife have 20 Gal tank , the tank over 60 Black Balloon Molly and some guppy only, always get Ramshorn snai trouble ! after i drop few Assassin snail on the tank! after 5 days almost kill all the snail.,, and they dont eat the plant,,,,i just got from PJ Pet! only $2.99 ea


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## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

You could also cut down on feeding, and put a lettuce leaf in the tank overnight. The next day there should be lots of snails on the leaf, and you can just take the leaf + snails out and dispose of accordingly. I find that snails are usually a sign of overfeeding, so cut down on feeding and getting some cories to eat up the extra food should help.


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## newfie (Mar 7, 2011)

*Snail problem*

Hi
I had the same in my 33gal and I got about four Assassin Snails there wiil do the job but it will be slow,The fast way to remove them is to pick up a couple of clown loaches,there will get them out faster.I had about 100 or more it took about two months but they are gone now,I hope this will help you.


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

short answer, no they're not harmful. They add a lot of bioload though.


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## springboard (Apr 10, 2011)

Thanks for the tip about over-feeding. There's an automatic feeder, Ill adjust the settings so it drops in less food. It must have been programmed to give too much food. 

And I'll try the lettuce idea to speed up the removal of the snails. Scooping up snails daily off the glass is so time consuming. I suppose then that the snails must be eating the plants in the tank too. No wonder the plants seem to be dying.

Yeah I think they tried two Yoyo loaches before to eat up the snails. But they started nipping the fins of the other fish so they had to put the Yoyo's in another tank.


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## fuzzysocks (Dec 8, 2010)

If they're ramshorn snails (which it kind of sounds like), they don't eat live plants. However, they can clean up dead or dying bits of plants quite quickly, making it seem like the snails are to blame. The dying plants are probably from a nutrient deficiency, or possibly lack of light.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

If you don't like those ramshorn, separate them out and offer them out to pufferfish owners on this forum. i'm sure they'll love the supply of ramshorn to feed their fish.

If you want to rid them, best solution are assassin snails.


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## katienaha (May 9, 2010)

100% agree with getting assassin snails. Often though, assassin snails do too good of a job. I have almost no snails and now I have 3 hungry assassin snails!! Try asking around the forum here and see if anyone would like to lend you a snail or two and try to setup a trade cycle.


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

spixi snails also eat ramshorn snails.


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## pistolpete (May 2, 2010)

snails are a natural part of virtually every aquatic ecosystem on the planet. They also help clean up the tank. As you already found out an over abundance of snails is due to too much food. There is no harm in them being there, but they can be unsightly. If this is not your tank, then you should not add any inhabitants.


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## springboard (Apr 10, 2011)

I deceased the feeding to once a day and increased the lighting period a bit too. The plants are growing normally. It wasnt the snails at all, just the lack of lighting. Now the snails are mostly all gone too, just a few lingering. But since it's not harmful to have a few snails, I'm okay with the decreasing population now.

Thanks for all the suggestions and advice here's a pic of my buddies tank now


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