How to Care for Aquarium Pond Snails
After introducing a new plant or feeding your fish live food, you might discover aquarium snails in your aquarium. Snail eggs can hitch a ride on these products and later hatch in your aquarium, but don't rush to remove the snails as they can actually be an asset to your aquarium. Identify the snail's species: If it's the right type, it will help keep your tank clean. Be sure to keep the snail population at a reasonable level, though, since they can do more harm than good in large quantities.
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Instructions
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Set the Proper Conditions
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Keep a good supply of plants in the aquarium. Snails are scavengers and will eat dying plants while allowing healthy plants to thrive.
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Don't clean your aquarium too well. As scavengers the snails will do much of the cleaning for you, and they need dead plant and animal material as well as algae to survive.
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Populate the aquarium with snail-friendly fish. Guppies, neon tetras, danios, and white cloud minnows will not view the snails as a threat or as prey.
Control the Snail Population
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Don't overfeed your fish. If there are leftover food particles three to four minutes after you've fed your fish, you have given them too much. Snails will eat the excess food and grow in numbers.
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Heat a lettuce leaf by running hot water over it, then lay it on the bottom of your aquarium and keep it in place with a stone. Remove the lettuce in the morning and you should find a number of snails stuck to it. Dispose of them as desired and repeat the process until your snail population is manageable.
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Consider using fish like loaches or catfish that will eat the snails, but keep an eye on your snail population or you mightlose them all.
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Tips & Warnings
Identify the species of your aquarium's snails. Apple snails are the most desirable as they will keep dead plants and algae at bay. Exercise caution, since certain subspecies of apple snail will also devastate your aquarium's living plant life, as will the ramshorn snail. Follow the link in Resources for help with snail identification.
Should undesirable snail species appear in your tank and cause damage, use the methods from the "Control the Snail Population" section above to an extreme to eradicate them.
Consider introducing snails when trying to breed fish. Certain species of apple snail and trumpet snail keep the water quality high and create the optimal conditions for fish eggs to thrive.
