Snails

Question
Hi
I was wondering if there are good and bad snails. The guy at the pet shop said the snails with cone shells were bad and the ones with round shells were ok but i seem to have a snail infestation there are snails EVERYWHERE. They are chomping on the plants and one of my parents
i have recently had white spot and i am still in the process of curing it however . I have 1 balloon molly, 4 neon tetras and a gourami i only have a few because of the white spot.
thanks

Answer
Hi Molly;

There really aren't any good or bad snails in my opinion. There may be a specific reason the guy at the store said through some experience he's had.

In my experience, snails breed like crazy from overfeeding the fish. They capitalize on the excess waste and food. Even in a planted tank I keep for some little white cloud mountain minnows the snails don't take over. I have malaysian live-bearing snails, pond snails and ramshorns in there. The snails don't overbreed so they don't overtake my plants. It's because I only feed the fish very minimally, usually every other day and only what they can all eat from all areas of the tank in two minutes. They see the snails as food, as they naturally should, and pluck up the smallest ones with the softer shells on the days I don't feed them. The minnows are very healthy and spawn on a regular basis. You see, our fish get spoiled when the only source of food they get is from a big hand that drops it from the sky. They don't need to forage anymore so the tank can become quite messy from excess waste and leftover food.

Your situation is different just for the time being because the snails have gone a bit crazy. Your fish should be seeing those snails as a food source and keep their numbers in check. There's just too many right now. Here's what I would do;

At night when you turn off the tank lights, put a piece of lettuce in the tank. Or, a glass jar on it's side with food pellets inside. In the morning, take it out with the snails that are attached and either shake the leaf or dump the jar to throw them all away, or crush the little devils and offer them to the fish. Do it every day until the numbers of snails drop to a more reasonable level. Don't give the fish any other food that day if you crush snails for them. Your fish will then begin to see the snails as a tasty food source too. The reason we do it at night is because snails tend to come out more while the fish are "sleeping". Also, the fish aren't eating up the bait before the snails get to it.

I am concerned about your fish and the white spot too. It's actually an easy disease to cure but it is stress-related. You didn't mention what size tank you have, what kind of medication you are using, water temperature, water change schedule, how long the tank has been set up, filtration, etc. Let me know more and I may be able to help with that too.

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins