snails?

[Hamm35924]

i always hear people saying great things about snails, but can anyone tell me anything about them, like why theyre good for a tank, and why everyone likes them so much?

[shev]

Lots of people also hate them. common pond snails can come into your tank from new plants, or even a new fish. then they over-populate and eat their plants. but snails do eat leftover fish food that would spoil if left untouched. Some only eat dead vegetation and leave live plants alone, like malaysian trumpet snails. many fish love to eat them. Some can be very pretty, like the colored apple snails. malaysian trumptet snails also burrow, aerating the substrate and preventing pockets of gas which can lead to anaerobic bacteria making hydrogen sulfide.

[Niki2105]

Some people get snails cause they think that the snails will eat alge and fish poop but most snails dont or dont like to but do it cause there is nothing else to eat. They will eat any food that fall to the bottem of the tank but it is best to buy them a sinking waffer or something so that they have something substantial to eat. Apple snails are nice they come in a lot of different colors and they lay there eggs on the surface of the water so that it is easy to keep there population down. Malaysian Trumptet Snails may be good for burrowing and aerating your ground but they reproduce like crazy and soon you will be overpopulated with them. If you are thinking about getting a snail you should research and find out what type you want and make sure it is compatable with your fish so they dont become snacks. This is a picture of one of my Golden Apple Snails. I got mine because i think snails are cute lol.

[maxpayne_lhp]

This is gonna be good... I don't see many pages for snails.

[ijedic]

I think they are so popular because they are so darned cute!
[img src="http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/216/216271/folders/170726/1256225Purpledancer.jpg" width="280" height="300"]

They are a great source of infusoria for fry. They eat uneaten fish food off the bottom. They will clean up a carcass rather quickly. They will prune the brown leaves off plants (unless it's a canna or marissa, and they will eat the whole plant).

[ChickenScratch]

I have 4 big ivory snails and I think they are the funniest things to watch! Recently they layed a bunch of eggs which hatched before I found them and now I have probably 40 little snails crawling around my tank. Since I can't keep 40 full grown snails in my 20 gallon tank, I have been feeding some of the little snails to my crayfish, who loves them.

The snails I have (they were sold as ivory snails but they might be some kind of apple snail because they lay their eggs above water?) are good because you can control their numbers by removing the eggs before they hatch.

[MyraVan]

Your Ivory snails are definitely Pomacea bridgesii, aka mystery snail, aka spike-topped apple snail. You can tell because of the shape of the shell that's quite clear from the pic in your avatar.

I love snails because they come in cool colors and patterns and because they are interesting creatures. They do have additional benefits of eating leftover fish food and/or algae, and providing infusoria for fry (apple snails), but mainly I think they are great fun to watch.

[fishn00b]

I wanted to keep snails out of my tank... but it seems that the MTS have somehow got into my tank through the live plants. I cleaned them thoroughly and picked them off but I guess I missed some of the eggs. They have over populated my tank but I have since given up trying to get them out. I think they are beginning to grow on me, I don't mind them as much anymore, hopefully they are helping out my tank as well.