# Do snails eat algae?



## kcrossley

I'm sure this is probably a silly question, but I have a quite a few snails in my tank and before I remove them I wouldn't mind them doing a little algae cleanup work. So do snails eat algae?

I'm told that when I want to get rid of them, all I need to do is leave a piece of zucchini in the tank overnight and they'll all gravitate to it. 

Does this make sense or is it better to remove them now?


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## killacross

yes...most snails will eat some algae...but at the pace they move
kinda depends on how many snails you see right now...

if it's a handful (5 or less)...you may get lucky and be able to remove them before they reproduce

if it's 5 or more...youre never getting rid of them without chemicals or loaches because theyve already laid their eggs everywhere (outta sight of course) and while the zucchini is effective...it wont catch them all


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## kcrossley

Crap. I'm pretty sure it's more than 5. What do you recommend?


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## EdwardN

kcrossley said:


> Crap. I'm pretty sure it's more than 5. What do you recommend?


Lucky you!!! Now you will have your own hunting grounds until kingdom come...


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## VincentK

EdwardN said:


> Lucky you!!! Now you will have your own hunting grounds until kingdom come...


Lol @ his answer,

but yes, some snails do eat algae, I believe Nerite snails and brown/red Ramshorn snails eat algae, there may be others, but I don't know them. If they're snails you don't want like pond snails, then yeah, you pretty much have a hunting ground for the whole life of your tank.


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## tuonor

Assassin snails will help control the population, but probably won't eradicate them.

I've seen people say loaches completely cleaned out their tanks. Dwarf puffers will also hunt them (but they may also hunt other things you have in your tank so check this first).

The trap and squash isn't a bad place to start, just have to keep doing it over and over again...


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## kcrossley

That sucks. Do you think I should get a clown loach to help with the problem? I wonder where they came from? I dipped all of my plants in Potassium Permanganate.


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## tuonor

Clown loaches get huge, so I wouldn't go down that road unless you can accomodate a 8-10" fish eventually. Yoyo loaches stay smaller and eat snails.

On the disinfecting process, you can try following up the PP dip with a 3-day soak in alum (its a pickling agent you can get at the grocery). Supposedly kills the snail eggs better than PP.

Of course, this sequence also seems to kill some plants so do half initially and see how it goes. Pretty sure I killed some mini pelia this way.


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## Ugly Genius

There's also the option to do nothing. If you've got your tank balanced, the snail population will establish itself at a level that they are not a nuisance and are barely noticeable.
The only time I would worry about snails would be if they were the type that eats plants. Other than that, I see them as a part of the ecosystem.


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## tigerbarb420

I have several snail in my tank that hitchhiked in from plants. I originally decided to leave the 1(that I had noticed) because he was eating the diatoms in my newly setup aquarium. Now that the aquarium has matured the snails have multiplied. There are several types of algae and I have seen them eating all of them except for BBA and BGA(cyanobacteria).

I plan to go the route Ugly Genius mentioned. I will leave them in there and they can sustain their own popluation. They help with the algae and left over food so why not leave em in. 

LOL just a funny sidenot I noticed that the oldest snail in the tank actually has algae growing from him shell. LOL


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## alohamonte

+1 with ugly. the population will stablize and be hardly noticeable. 

Snails add a bit of interest to the tank (people always say 'hey nice tank' from 10 ft away, get close then squeal 'I see a snail!') without doing any harm. They eat a bit of everything, dead plant material, algae, and extra fish food. if you have white substrate, their poop can be ugly, but otherwise just learn to enjoy them.


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## minicrazy592

alohamonte said:


> +1 with ugly. the population will stablize and be hardly noticeable.
> 
> Snails add a bit of interest to the tank (people always say 'hey nice tank' from 10 ft away, get close then squeal 'I see a snail!') without doing any harm. They eat a bit of everything, dead plant material, algae, and extra fish food. if you have white substrate, their poop can be ugly, but otherwise just learn to enjoy them.





tigerbarb420 said:


> I have several snail in my tank that hitchhiked in from plants. I originally decided to leave the 1(that I had noticed) because he was eating the diatoms in my newly setup aquarium. Now that the aquarium has matured the snails have multiplied. There are several types of algae and I have seen them eating all of them except for BBA and BGA(cyanobacteria).
> 
> I plan to go the route Ugly Genius mentioned. I will leave them in there and they can sustain their own popluation. They help with the algae and left over food so why not leave em in.
> 
> LOL just a funny sidenot I noticed that the oldest snail in the tank actually has algae growing from him shell. LOL


:iamwithst

Seriously though, this is how I have all the snails I do. Their population spiked and then they all but disappeared. They are back to normal levels now. I keep a Triop in my 10g tank as he keeps the snail eggs and smaller snails under control. I know kind of unusual, but he does the job and leaves my plants, fish, and shrimp alone for the most part.


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## gpodio

I usually add olive nerites to my tanks, they don't reproduce like the others do...

As for getting rid of them, clown loaches have always worked for me. My oldest clown loach is now 8 years old and is about 4.5" long... I wouldn't worry too much about how big they get as they don't grow that fast. Initially I had to squeeze a few snails to get him interested in them, once that happened they were all gone in a matter of a couple months, only wish he had left the MTS alone... In other tanks however where I haven't used loaches I have been able to control the population by controlling the food I give the fish. By feeding once every other day I find the snail population tends to remain very limited and I only see baby snails, none seem to make it to adulthood. A skinny fish is easy to spot and I think often we just tend to feed the fish a little too much... 

Regards
Giancarlo


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