What are snails that you always want in your aquarium?

  • Although snails get some bad names, mostly when people get hitchhikers or pest snails who reproduce unexpectedly, a vast majority are actually highly beneficial to the ecosystem. Some of these are extremely important if you have any live plants (they can eat dead leaves, clean algae from the leaves, etc.), where others are almost required for those who have a sand substrate (to avoid ammonia gas bubbles that can build up over time).

    Which ones do you always try to have in your tank, and what is the reason for having so?

  • For all of my planted tanks, I 100% recommend that everyone get some Malaysian Trumpet Snails to mix the substrate (if you don't use gravel) and to clean up algae without them eating the leaves of the plants.

  • I always add in those mystery snails from Petsmart since they do not lay eggs within the water.

    I know you said they were mystery snails, but do you have any idea what kind or any pictures to help identify? This may be a solution for a friend that wants snails but want easy egg cleanup.

  • Second on the trumpet snails - although if you are aquascaping and trying to keep different shapes in your substrate they are a bad idea because they will dig until it's leveled out again xD!!

    If they get out of hand - get a clown loach - they love them - the pea puffers will bite at them as well but their favorites are the Physa snails (which are harmless to any plants that I've had and lay those clear jelly egg sacs which some fish enjoy eating!)

    They are also easy to breed - along with the trumpet snails - in fact, you can't help it, lol. My puffs did run out of Phsya snails and I had to buy some locally and breed some myself in a little snail jail :P

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!