Having snails in your aquarium is actually quite beneficial as they act as a clean-up crew, eating leftover food and decaying plant. While larger snails, like the ones we buy at the fish store, never seem to be a problem, smaller ones that are accidently introduced in our aquariums reproduce very quickly and may become invasive.

There are several ways to keep snails in check

1. Predation

This is one of the easiest and most efficient techniques available. It consists in the introduction of snail eating fish such as the Clown Loach (Botia macracanthus), the Yoyo Loach (Botia lohachata) or a Puffer fish. Most people find that Puffers are not a convenient solution because they often require brackish water, live food and may also nip at other fish. In most case, Clown Loach and Yoyo Loach are much more convenient.
Some other fish that may eat snails are some varieties of Malawi Cichlids, Gourami and Bettas.
If you chose to give this technique a try, remember to make sure your tank meet the minimum requirement for the fish.

2. Manual Removal

Manual removal consists in picking the snails out as we spot them. To make this technique more effective, you may run some hot water over a lettuce leaf and drop it in the tank before you turn the lights off. In the morning, you should find the lettuce covered with snails. Just remove the lettuce and repeat every night until the snail population is under control.
You will probably never get all of them

3. Reduced Feeding

Most snail blooms are caused by. Like any other animals, snail can only populate if there is enough food for them. Watch your fish carefully at feeding time. If there is any food left after 2-3 minutes, then you are most likely over-feeding. By cutting down on feeding, you can effectively reduce the snail population. .

4. Chemicals

Snail killing chemicals are effective, cheap and available in most pet stores. However, they are not healthy for your tank and should be avoided. They tend to kill the bacteria that are responsible for the nitrogen cycle and can turn a fairly balanced aquarium into a highly unstable environment. Additionally, massive die off of snails will leave decaying snail bodies in your tank, which can affect water quality.

5. Complete Cleaning

This method consist in cleaning everything in the tank (gravel, plants, filter and everywhere snails may have been able to lay eggs).

Conclusion

Prevention is usually better than the cure. When buying new plants, make the effort of rinsing them before to add them in the tank. Some aquarist will also soak the plants in warm salty water for about ten minutes. Unfortunately, most small snails that infest aquariums can tolerate high concentration of salt so make sure to rinse plants really well.
Another way to make sure snails won’t be introduced in your tank is to soak new plants in a bleach solution for 2-3 minutes. The formula is 1 part bleach to 19 parts water. Only the leaves should be soaked in the solution, not the roots.

Written by Patrice Lapointe for AquariumsLife.com
  


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