Could use some suggestion on best,neatest SNAILS for planted tanks? Or just a SNAIL that looks awesome!

I have 2 newly planted tanks. I've read about Nerite snails and picked up a couple that look pretty cool. They are black with a yellow stripe. Bumped into Malaysian trumpet snails and picked up a few. I'm looking for species that look awesome big or small that serve a function like eating algae and or food scraps but not plants. Any ideas I can look into would be great.

A couple large snails would be sweet in my 140 gallon tank as long as they won't eat all my plants. I don't mind some plant nibbling but cant destroy my whole tank.

Thanks,
C~

That's easy just get more nerite snails they are one of the best cleaners
but they will leave eggs all over the tank lol

Apple snails for the bigger tank but I think they eat plants

sidekicking wrote:That's easy just get more nerite snails they are one of the best cleaners
but they will leave eggs all over the tank
lol

I never enquired how big nerite snails can get. The ones I got are about the size of a penciel eraser. Do they get bigger?

Nerite Snails can get to be as big as a green grape, that's usually as big as I've seen them. But I'm sure ones in the wild grow slightly bigger than that.

I like ramshorn snails, although, they breed like crazy. Make sure to keep an eye out for them, or just don't over feed so that the snail population doesn't explode on you

Malaysian trumpet snails work well, and they wont eat your plants. But they can easily overwhelm your tank. If that happens get a clown loach or two, i hear they will happily feast on them

Assassin snails! To control your future MTS explosion of course...

check out rabbit snails

Interesting few suggestions. Even though I like them I read the Ram horn eats plants. The assassin is pretty sweet according to some reading I did. I definitely will check them out if I have over population issues.

I like the Rabbit snails. This is a snail I've never heard about or seen in fish stores (I've never looked for them either). I'll start enquiring about the availability....

I already have a few Malaysian trumpets in my 30g. Im hoping to use that population to establish a colony in my 140g.

The type of Nerite snail i found is Horned Nerite. They look pretty sweet, not any bigger than a pea, you can totally tell by my clean plants they are doing a great job.

As far as I understand it the "normal" smaller ramshorn species that don't get any bigger than a quarter don't eat plants. I have a ton and my plants are fine. Mystery snails also don't eat my plants, but they seem to eat plants for some folks.

Granted, you will end up with holes in your plants if they're not 100% happy and healthy. The snails will find those spots.

the ramshorn snails that pbmax have mentioned are the ones that I have (he's the one that sold them to me! hahaha). I'm sorry, I should have clarified earlier. =P

Yeah, my plants in my 10g haven't had any problems with them being in there

id go assassin snails personally. tried others and just ended up with eggs all over the place (got rather irritating to see little white spots in all my fish pics )

what about mystery snails? Pomacea bridgessii

Im currently breeding purple and magenta ones...

they dont eat plants..or breed out of control..when they breed they lay clutches of big pink eggs out of the water you can just toss them away if you don't want more
they dont eat plants..all of mine are kept in planted tanks.
they get larger than a golf ball

they come in
Ivory
gold
blue
black
wild (brown)
purple
magenta ...and a few others i cant think of.

here are a few pics of mine..here is a gold one
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purple
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ivory
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magenta and purple babies...
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@Kaosu, those are amazing. I would like a couple just for odamental reasons. Any of those would look awesome in my tank but the purple would be stunning under my actinic light. I would be interested in 2-3. Or if you know where I could find some?

theChad wrote:@Kaosu, those are amazing. I would like a couple just for odamental reasons. Any of those would look awesome in my tank but the purple would be stunning under my actinic light. I would be interested in 2-3. Or if you know where I could find some?

well i just so happen to have a a batch that is pea size of the magenta and purple ^_^

Ooh trapdoor snails are pretty awsome too
Midway usually has rabbit snails

Definitely go for some mystery snails - beautiful creatures. Wish I could keep them alive

pbmax wrote:Assassin snails! To control your future MTS explosion of course...

I want assassin snails as well, but I'm afraid they'll harm my rabbits which are like $8 a piece!
This is how I've controlled my snail explosion. These little clingers usually tag along with new plant purchases.


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binbin9 wrote:

pbmax wrote:Assassin snails! To control your future MTS explosion of course...

I want assassin snails as well, but I'm afraid they'll harm my rabbits which are like $8 a piece!
This is how I've controlled my snail explosion. These little clingers usually tag along with new plant purchases.

Along with advice & information read here & other internet reading Im thinking a few Assassin snails within a colony of other snails would be beneficial. Internet reading on these snails profile read that Assassins breed slower than other snails and usually won't erradicate whole colonies but keeps them in check. I dont have any personal experience but im thinking once i notice a point where any other snails are overwhelming the tank i could hunt for these assassins and drop a few in.

I've had those pesky little snails before. I've had them colonize in a sump before too. They never really got out of hand in my sump i believe due to lack of food supply but there would be atlest a few visibly in sight. I thought perhaps this was a good thing if they were eating organic matter. I always break up root balls and rinse them on new plants. But still every once in a while one of those little snails pop up when i buy a new plant.

If you're not over-feeding then snails will rarely become a problem. These days I dump surplus snails, if any, into my assassin tank. It's a graveyard of ramshorn and MTS shells. There are still MTS and the odd ramshorn living in that tank, but there are a good number of assassins now.

Assassins breed sexually so you'll need at least a male and a female to reproduce. They lay eggs singly, not in big bunches. And they don't cover your plants with eggs constantly like nerites do.

You should see some impact from assassins within a week of adding them to a tank. They're pretty effective at what they do.

Ughghghghh... Had I known that you had some MTS as assassin snail fodder, I would've bought some from you! =P I love MTS's!!!

Rams make better assassin snail fodder, in my experience. I have way more of them than MTS, that I can tell (even when the lights go out).

Are you running short of MTS or something??

Yeah, for some reason, I had a bunch of MTS, back when my shrimp tank had gravel, but ever since I switched to sand, I only hand picked about 20 or so, but now I can't see them... they must be somewhere beneath the substrate.... but it never hurts to have more MTS!

As for the ramshorns, they're happily breeding like crazy, everywhere you look, there's a ramshorn snail. But I like them in their sheer numbers

I like these snails: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Sorry could not resist!

Hmmm, I'm not a fan of shellfish or snails. I love fish, but I draw the line at invertebrates. Except squid... I dig squid.

..... I'm surprised you have so many shrimp, for someone who doesn't really dig invertebrates. *gasp* I'll take all your shrimp off of you!!!

SHRIMP ARE FRIENDS, NOT FOOD.

Naaaaaaaahahahahaaha!!! *ahem* moving back to the topic...

Do you have a plethora of snails, namely Assassin and MTS snails for sale? I'd love to have some, the next time I head back down to Olympia!

PM me and we might be able to work something out.

Sending you a g-mail message right now