# How much do snails contribute to the bioload?



## LiquidEric (Jan 16, 2004)

Snails are far less active than fish in general and tend to eat energy poor foods so it would stand to reason they take up far less bio-load than fish. They must use much less oxygen as well with such a slow metabolism.


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## lescarpentier (Feb 2, 2008)

LiquidEric said:


> Snails are far less active than fish in general and tend to eat energy poor foods so it would stand to reason they take up far less bio-load than fish. They must use much less oxygen as well with such a slow metabolism.


Try putting some snails in a bucket for a few hours.
You wouldn't believe the waste that they leave..


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## LiquidEric (Jan 16, 2004)

I agree the volume of the waste they produce is great, but that is because the take in a lot of energy poor foods and extract the little bit of availble energy then extract the left over bulk. Overall they dont respire as much as a active fish flying around the tank.


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## bradac56 (Feb 18, 2008)

The rule of thumb is to give each snail a 1"/1gal of available tank space just
like any other fish so five snails = 5gal. Although my olive nitrites have
stayed pretty small over the last three years (about the size of my pinky nail)
and do not seem to really take a gallon of space.

I'm sure apple or mystery's would really take a gallon each of space.

- Brad


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## eyebeatbadgers (Aug 6, 2007)

bradac56 said:


> The rule of thumb is to give each snail a 1"/1gal of available tank space just
> like any other fish so five snails = 5gal. Although my olive nitrites have
> stayed pretty small over the last three years (about the size of my pinky nail)
> and do not seem to really take a gallon of space.
> ...


So I've got about 1000 MTS, about 200 ramshorn, and maybe 100 pond snails, so I need a 1300 gallon tank for these guys?


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## bradac56 (Feb 18, 2008)

eyebeatbadgers said:


> So I've got about 1000 MTS, about 200 ramshorn, and maybe 100 pond snails, so I need a 1300 gallon tank for these guys?



Yup, that's the rule of thumb I've read on about ten different snail sites/forums.
As I said my experience hasn't matched up to that ether but judging by just the 
amount of snails you have minus fish you probably do have 1300 gallons of tanks 

I've found that being conservative on gestimation for people new to
fish/snails/plants, etc helps to stave off lots of problems and then once
they get some experience they can improvise on there own.

- Brad


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

eyebeatbadgers said:


> So I've got about 1000 MTS, about 200 ramshorn, and maybe 100 pond snails, so I need a 1300 gallon tank for these guys?


...I guess it's time for us to upgrade. I bet you I have that in the 120g.


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## fishsandwitch (Apr 20, 2008)

I bet I have about 500 snails in my 50 gallon. At least.


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## eyebeatbadgers (Aug 6, 2007)

I've got that many in my 29 gallon, except maybe only 3-500 MTS. I probably did have 1000 a few months ago, my substrate would look like it was literally moving constantly.


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## nfored (Jul 5, 2008)

I hate snails and wish I could get rid of them. I have been on an endless quest to find dwarf puffer fish in my local area. I finally realized the snails are the boss and I need to just take it like a man, after removing 20 or 30 a day every day for a week.


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## steak (Sep 3, 2007)

A good method for ramshorn snail removal = some romaine lettuce floating in the tank left overnight. Somehow...my snails ATTACK romaine. I don't want to remove mine because they clean the tank for me, but they are at my mercy on a romaine leaf. There are probably about 100 in my 55 gal...but there numbers are always increasing.

also...anyone know why there shells would be deteriorating? They have small holes forming all-over. Very strange.


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## bradac56 (Feb 18, 2008)

steak said:


> A good method for ramshorn snail removal = some romaine lettuce floating in the tank left overnight. Somehow...my snails ATTACK romaine. I don't want to remove mine because they clean the tank for me, but they are at my mercy on a romaine leaf. There are probably about 100 in my 55 gal...but there numbers are always increasing.
> 
> also...anyone know why there shells would be deteriorating? They have small holes forming all-over. Very strange.



Sounds like calcium defecency add some crushed egg shells to the tank.

- Brad


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## brion0 (Sep 28, 2008)

I have pond snails in my tank.I got corys to eat their food,it helped.I also bought a small silver dollar,I thought he looked cool,I watched him eat a snail off the glass.Silver dollars may eat your plants also.:icon_eek:


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