For freshwater aquarium owners, especially those who introduce live plants, there is one thing that you may not be prepared for and that is snails.
I think of snails as the Tribbles of the Aquarium World. What are Tribbles? It’s a creature that made its first appearance in the original “Star Trek” series.
The crew first see these creatures and think how cute or how cool they are until they start to infestate the entire spaceship.
With guppies and platys, at least people know that they tend to mate a lot and have a plethora of fry but with snails, people are unaware of it.
They purchase a plant, see nothing covering it and plant it in their substrate or have it flowing on the top of their aquarium. And then you see two, then six, then 12, then 24, then 48 and they are seen all over your live plants and windows.
You said to yourself that “I washed my plants before I put them in my aquarium”, “this package said it came with no snails”, “I have no live plants but yet I have snails”.
Nevertheless, you have a snail infestation.
You can pick them off with your metal tongs (a common tool for live plant owners), your fingers, you can do all you can but simply, they are not easy to find or they are stuck on plants or eggs are already implanted on the glass or elsewhere.
So, you have a choice. There are those who do daily maintenance by picking them, there are those who will remove all live plants to eradicate the snails, there are those who are desperate and add chemicals to destroy all life in their tanks.
But before you start killing the snails, there are a few things to know:
- The number how they multiply depends on how much leftover food is in your tank.
- They eat algae and they also eat dead plant matter, uneaten food and waste. Many people purchase certain fish that they think eat waste, but they don’t. But snails, they do. But remember, as a lot of living things, they do create waste and add to the bioload. Thus the importance of filtration.
- The majority of those in live plants are ramshorn snails or trumpet snails. I’ve never had trumpet snails, almost all ramshorn snails that I see come from live plants.
- They do NOT harm or eat live plants only dead parts of plants.
- They do NOT affect your fish or shrimp.
- They will live in various water parameters and are quite hardy.
- If you plan to pick them out of your tank, find out if your local pet store will take them in and willing to do a trade. A cupful of ramshorn snails in water for fish.
I have a large tank and I have a lot of live plants. My tank which I call the “Amazon Jungle” is also a tank that requires the most upkeep, because it’s a literal breeding ground for many fry, which I have found to be the most beneficial way for me to make sure certain fish I’m breeding, breed more than a handful but also to ensure they live. The hornwort and java moss have been great in the breeding of certain fry but also preventing any larger fish from eating the fry.
I have a plethora of plants in my Amazon Jungle and many of the plants I purchased from my local pet store and online aquatic plants.
If you want no snails, its recommended to put these plants (before putting it in your aquarium) in a gallon of water with 3/4 cup of bleach. Dip the plants for 2-3 minutes and remove and rinse up to five minutes. These will kill all snails and eggs.
Others say that instead of bleach, they put the live plants for 1-5 minutes in a high concentration of salt water for 1-5 minutes. Granted, do know that this can kill the plant if you dip it too long.
Some add copper to the tank but I do not recommend this. You are literally playing with fire by introducing copper to your aquarium
Some purchase Assassin Snails which eat snails but then you can also have a growth of an Assassin Snail colony.
If you really don’t want snails, then you purchase tissue cultured plants. These are plants grown in labs without pesticides and have no snails. There are some who claim they have snails but in truth, they put tissue cultured plants in aquariums that had snail eggs (that they couldn’t see) and the baby snails leached onto these plants.
So, the question is if you want snails. I test my water parameters and because of the fry and higher bioload, my water parameters are actually good and don’t have fish dying. I have a good number of snails and but I also pick off a bunch of snails but I don’t kill them, I gather them and put them in my outdoor pond.
And because I have a lot of live plants, I don’t know the true number that is in my tank, nor do I know how many eggs have been laid. But they are eating waste, so I do want snails, but I try to control the population as part of my daily maintenance.
After feeding time, I try to pick off snails that made it to the top 25% of the thank, while snails on 75% going down, I keep.
I personally see the benefits of having snails, where as my wife, she is disgusted by them.
Where aesthetics is important, we try to have no snails. Where more bioload and breeding by my live bearers and the need of many plants is important, then I do have snails, not a whole lot. I also do not like snails that stick to the glass but if they stay within that 75% on the plants, I can make do with that.
Have I purchased fish that eat snails, I have had cichlids that have eaten them but now my cichlid tank is no-live plants, I have no snails in them. I don’t purchase clown loaches because they tend to grow 4-5 inches in less than two years and then 1/2 to two inches every other year and can grow to about a foot.
But I don’t mind doing the daily pick off of snails as it doesn’t take that long. Have the metal live plant tongs that go sideways at the end to pick them off easily.
But everyone’s different, and it all depends on you. Only two of my tanks that have live plants have them, none of them else do.
They are beneficial but they do spawn quickly. They truly are the Tribbles of the Freshwater Aquarium World for Live Plant Hobbyists, but they don’t have to be.
