# Snail eaters



## Simon25 (21 Jun 2022)

Hi all, 

Got a slight problem with a big bloom of MTS, I’m reducing the amount of food I put in the tank (all food is eaten within a 30s to a min) but the MTS seem to be getting more and more. So I was wondering what fish will eat snails? I’ve googled it but I come across a lot of mixed opinions saying some types of fish do and some types don’t… can anyone clear this up for me?


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## seedoubleyou (21 Jun 2022)

hard to advise without knowing what fish you currently have. I’d say get hold of a few assassin snails, they’ll do the job I’m sure.


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## Simon25 (21 Jun 2022)

seedoubleyou said:


> hard to advise without knowing what fish you currently have. I’d say get hold of a few assassin snails, they’ll do the job I’m sure.


I don’t have many 2 gouramis, 2 rams, 2 corys and 6 nerites and 8 amano shrimps. I got a 180ltr tank


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## Simon25 (21 Jun 2022)

seedoubleyou said:


> hard to advise without knowing what fish you currently have. I’d say get hold of a few assassin snails, they’ll do the job I’m sure.


I would get assassin snails but I can’t with my nerites


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## seedoubleyou (21 Jun 2022)

Simon25 said:


> I would get assassin snails but I can’t with my nerites


You’ll have to compromise somewhere mate.
There’s every chance the nerites are too large for an assassin snail but also every chance they’re not. 
Either take them out or start manually removing the MTP yourself.
I don’t think a fish will be the solution here.
You could try some sort of snail trap.


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## castle (21 Jun 2022)

Crush snails with your finger tips, free fish food. They will eventually reduce in numbers, it just takes time. Some snails are always a good thing, imo.

I really don’t like assassin snails, nothing against them as snails, more I don’t like the idea of people buying them and then letting them die when they’ve killed off their food supply.


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## seedoubleyou (21 Jun 2022)

castle said:


> Crush snails with your finger tips, free fish food. They will eventually reduce in numbers, it just takes time. Some snails are always a good thing, imo.
> 
> I really don’t like assassin snails, nothing against them as snails, more I don’t like the idea of people buying them and then letting them die when they’ve killed off their food supply.


You can always rehome them.


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## castle (21 Jun 2022)

seedoubleyou said:


> You can always rehome them.


Understood, but I don’t think people do. I’ve never known someone to return them to shops, I’ve not seen any for free on here for a long time. 

The problem is they’re a cheap solution and therefor something people can throw away - just something to think about 👍


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## Conort2 (21 Jun 2022)

Chuck some weighted lumps of veg in there like cucumber and then remove after a few hours. It should be covered in snails.

They normally balance themselves out number wise if you are definitely not over feeding. Getting something to eat the snails is rarely the solution.


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## Simon Cole (21 Jun 2022)

Personally they are some of my favourite snails. They should come to the surface at night when the lights are out, or in the early morning. That is a good time to remove them. It is a pity to harm them, I would offer them on here or Ebay them. Fish that will eat them are not that suitable for your species. But you could remove the fish and borrow somebody's snail eating fish for a few weeks. Personally I think that they are fantastic at removing algae and aerating soils. If I had to choose any snail then it would be them. I really think that they do a fantastic job of maintaining a balanced aquarium ecosystem. They should just burrow and hide for most of the day. Poor things, I feel pity for them.


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## KirstyF (22 Jun 2022)

If only I’d known. Just paid out (not a lot) for 5 MTS and am rather hoping for a population increase (though not to epidemic levels hopefully). 😂

Just think, everything they eat is something you don’t need to clean out. It’s like someone permanently hoovering the house! 😊 Maybe you could learn to love them. !? 

If not, it could take some time for ur reduced food to show an impact so if you wait it out for a bit, it might well balance out in time.


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## PARAGUAY (22 Jun 2022)

Clown Loaches are probably well known for gorging on snails but  sadly often sold and easily because of their colouration but you need a huge tank to keep them as they are happy in a group but maybe better to look at the positives of them as said


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## PARAGUAY (22 Jun 2022)

My last sentence meant positives of snails as Simon and Kirsty say


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## seedoubleyou (22 Jun 2022)

There are many loaches that will eat snails.


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## tigertim (22 Jun 2022)

Simon Cole said:


> Personally they are some of my favourite snails. They should come to the surface at night when the lights are out, or in the early morning. That is a good time to remove them. It is a pity to harm them, I would offer them on here or Ebay them. Fish that will eat them are not that suitable for your species. But you could remove the fish and borrow somebody's snail eating fish for a few weeks. Personally I think that they are fantastic at removing algae and aerating soils. If I had to choose any snail then it would be them. I really think that they do a fantastic job of maintaining a balanced aquarium ecosystem. They should just burrow and hide for most of the day. Poor things, I feel pity for them.


I recently swapped my tank over, to my suprise i found nearly 40 Assassin snails when cleaning the sand out, i only thought i had about 8, i really ought to sell some of them but as you say they are benign.


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## mort (22 Jun 2022)

My brother has a group of 6 botia striata in his tank and although they love ramshorns, the mts aren't really touched, so loaches aren't always the answer. I'd never buy a fish to solve a problem unless you want that fish anyway but I agree with the above, their population is due to the available nutrients and when those dwindle, so will the population. Manual removal with weighted food works really well but you will see a boom in their population until the food is limited.I like them because they aerate the sand as Simon mentions and they don't harm anything at all.


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## castle (22 Jun 2022)

mort said:


> My brother has a group of 6 botia striata in his tank and although they love ramshorns, the mts aren't really touched, so loaches aren't always the answer. I'd never buy a fish to solve a problem unless you want that fish anyway but I agree with the above, their population is due to the available nutrients and when those dwindle, so will the population. Manual removal with weighted food works really well but you will see a boom in their population until the food is limited.I like them because they aerate the sand as Simon mentions and they don't harm anything at all.



Really bloody annoying when they bring up aquasoil through sand though!


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## KirstyF (22 Jun 2022)

castle said:


> Really bloody annoying when they bring up aquasoil through sand though!



This is true! Though in my case they are competing with Amano shrimp that I’m pretty sure use the aquasoil for football matches and my SAE that whizz around the tank so fast I think they drag it in their wake!  Add that to my clearly inadequate retaining walls…….and clean sand is but a pipedream! 🙄😂


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## Hufsa (22 Jun 2022)

castle said:


> Really bloody annoying when they bring up aquasoil through sand though!


Aquasoil and sand is a huge mess that just _wants_ to happen, the snails are just expediting the process by lowering the aquascaper's hope of things staying neatly separated


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## ScareCrow (29 Jun 2022)

I'd suggest look at why they're able to reach such numbers. Is too much food making it to the substrate and not being consumed? Is mulm building up in the substrate and not being removed during tank maintenance?
They have to have a food source to survive so if you limit that you'll limit the numbers. If the population is increasing I'd be happy that they're helping control the food/mulm accumulation in the substrate.


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## tacy k (29 Jun 2022)

I have 7 clown loaches, 5 are adults and big fish. My tank is plagued with MTS!


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## LondonDragon (30 Jun 2022)

What I found to remove MTS, was to get a coarse net that has holes big enough to pass the substrate, and then symphon the substrate through that and leaving just the larger snails on the net! 
I do this on all my low techs with MTS, standard coarse net is fine for the sand I use in those and every so often remove the adults snails!


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## hwscot (1 Jul 2022)

seedoubleyou said:


> You’ll have to compromise somewhere mate.
> Either take them out or start manually removing the MTP yourself.
> I don’t think a fish will be the solution here.


Late of an evening, when I have lost the capacity for meaningful thought, I sometimes sit beside my shrimp / growout tank, using a drop tube to hoist snails from the substrate. It gives me a kind of solace.


castle said:


> Crush snails with your finger tips, free fish food.


This also brings a satisfaction, and it's excellent food for young livebearers.

The point is balance and compromise: I recognises the value of them. I'm not trying to eliminate them, but now and then a reduction in the population improves the aesthetic. The method you enjoy most / find least of a PITA .. that is the one that will work best. Learn to enjoy your snails, and learn to enjoy killing them.
I do also have a couple of assassin snails in there but tbh have noticed no significant reduction of the snails.


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## dw1305 (1 Jul 2022)

Hi all, 


hwscot said:


> Late of an evening, when I have lost the capacity for meaningful thought, I sometimes sit beside my shrimp / growout tank, using a drop tube to hoist snails from the substrate. It gives me a kind of solace.


We may have <"some music for you">?  If you aren't a Bobby Womack fan, there is always James Carr, <"Bobby Blue Bland"> or <"Gary BB Coleman">.

cheers Darrel


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## hwscot (1 Jul 2022)

dw1305 said:


> We may have <"some music for you">?  If you aren't a Bobby Womack fan, there is always James Carr, <"Bobby Blue Bland"> or <"Gary BB Coleman">.


Having thankfully lost the capacity for meaningful thought a little earlier than usual today, I gave that a shot. Hadn't listened to Bobby Womack for a couple of decades. All three good, but the Gary BB Coleman exceptional. A playlist has been started (have added Stevie Ray Vaughan's version of The Sky Is Crying).

I'd avoided Songs from the Man Cave previously, because it conjured up images of men of a certain age bellowing incoherently into the void. After several months of membership I now appreciate that 'men of a certain age bellowing incoherently into the void' goes for much of UKAPs, and I thoroughly approve.


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## Wookii (6 Jul 2022)

hwscot said:


> bellowing incoherently into the void


 . .  is pretty much mandatory for . . .


hwscot said:


> men of a certain age


 . .  because god knows no one else listens to us! 😂


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## hwscot (6 Jul 2022)

Wookii said:


> . .  because god knows no one else listens to us! 😂


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