# Best Snails for Fish Waste & Algae?



## maxsunny (Jan 8, 2011)

- Ramshorn snail in my opinion


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## GuppyGuppyGuppyGuppyGuppy (Feb 11, 2012)

What about malay trumpet snails? Are they any good?


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## PortalMasteryRy (Oct 16, 2012)

MTS will eat poop in or on the substrate. I rarely see them eat dead or dying leaves. I could be wrong since they come out when the lights are out and I rarely see them. LOL

Bladder snails are good too except that are way smaller than Ramshorn snails.


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## Knotyoureality (Aug 3, 2012)

Never a good plan to expect your snails to clean up fish waste. Uneaten food, dead or damaged leaves, algae, sure--but even if your snails are hungry enough to go after the poo piles, unlikely in the food rich environment of a planted tank, they add their own waste in turn. 

I've billions of MTS, dozens of rams and ponds, and honestly too many nerites in my main tank. They do an amazing job of cleaning out dead plant material and I never have to worry about excess food laying around--but it's my filters that catch the actual excrement in the tank. Lots of it. My 20g has dozens of rams with a sprinkling of MTS and ponds but little in the way of mechanical filtration--and by the end of the week, the sand definitely shows that the snails ain't exactly lining up around the block to eat the stuff. 

Snails are wonderful creatures, but if you're looking to deal with heavy loads of fish waste, you're better off putting your efforts into a good filtration system with solid flow thru the tank.


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## GuppyGuppyGuppyGuppyGuppy (Feb 11, 2012)

It's good to hear they'll attack dying plant matter. I have some sort of bulb plants I put into the tank and the shoot up runners to the surface and make little lily pads... No idea what they are. But the leaves decay really often and I have to clean them out. 

I'll either go with MTS or ramshorn... Not sure which. I really like MTS because I think they're pretty lol.


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## brandon429 (Mar 29, 2003)

accurate call. snails and clean up crew members exude whole waste so they contribute, never reduce detritus loading in a tank.


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## pannyx (May 30, 2014)

I have to agree with the others. I've never seen my snails touch fish waste. They do eat decaying leaves though. I supplement their diets but even if I didn't I doubt if they would ever eat poo.
Oh, I keep pink ramshorns and do have bladder snails as well.


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