The team (my polys)

clm08k · Oct 23, 2018

I’ve been trying to take the snails out every time I see them, but now they are multiplying!!!! Ackk. I’m kinda afraid they will suck on the delhezi when she’s buried in the sand.

Are they bad for the tank/fish/ plants? Will they hurt my sand loving poly? How do I get rid of them?

SNAILS *shakes fist*

clm08k · Oct 23, 2018

I think you guys mentioned they were MTS?

twentyleagues · Oct 23, 2018

They are not going to hurt anything or any one. They can and will grow to large popultions if there is enough food. That is the good thing about them is they will clean up leftovers. They will eat some algaes and any dead or decaying matter. Some people like seeing them other think they are ugly. Coming from salt water where you want a clean up crew I think they are fine. I find empty shells so I think some of my fish eat them sometimes both mts and ramshorn. And obviously I feed the puffer ramshorns, mts are to hard.

magpie · Oct 23, 2018

Yes some people buy them for planted tanks, but they often come in on plants. The MTS are cool because they help stir up your substrate and eat algae, so they are actually great in planted tanks. They won't bother anything but as mentioned by twenty they can overpopulate at times if you're overfeeding a touch. When mine were under control I'd see them mostly at night, just a few during the day. If you start seeing a ton during the day, drop your feeding down a bit, then leave a cut up piece of cucumber in there on a little fork to help it sink, then after lights have been out for a while or first thing in the morning it will usually be loaded with them. Remove. I also used to go through and take them off the glass after lights out - they seemed to want to climb up it at night.

Another option is to get an assasin snail or two. They eat other snails. I've also deployed them in the past.

sevs and sajicas for me · Oct 23, 2018

assassin snail +1. I've had an mts/pest snail explosion a few times before. 1 or 2 assassin snails have eliminated that issue each time. Though this was in a 20 and a 40. Larger tanks may need more.

magpie · Oct 23, 2018

I think I got 3 for my 65? Maybe 4.

clm08k · Oct 26, 2018

Thanks guys! I think I’ll keep them. I need all the help I can get with the algae! If they get out of control, I will try the cucumber thing and the Assassin snail (what a name lol).

twentyleagues · Oct 26, 2018

clm08k said:
Thanks guys! I think I’ll keep them. I need all the help I can get with the algae! If they get out of control, I will try the cucumber thing and the Assassin snail (what a name lol).

Well the name is accurate.