How Do Snails Fit into My Aquarium Environment?

Snails for Fish Tank Cleaning & More

If you want to create the optimal environment for plants and fish in your aquarium, it’s time to consider snails. These animals offer a number of benefits to improve the general habitat of your tank. Are you curious about what snails can do for you? Read on to learn about snails for fish tank cleaning and more!

Which Snails Are Best?

There are tons of different types of aquarium snails. Which ones are best for your tank? If you’re interested in snails for fish tank cleaning, you want to shop nerite/nerita snails. The main reason you want to explore this species is because they cannot reproduce in freshwater aquariums so you do not have to worry about snail overpopulation.

Snails are hermaphrodites, so they can reproduce on their own. If you want to make sure your fish tank does not turn into a snail tank, choose a nerite snail. Their inability to reproduce in freshwater environments will ensure they don’t overwhelm the other species in your environment.

Benefits of Snails in an Aquarium

If some snails can so easily overwhelm your aquarium, why get them in the first place? Well, one of the benefits of snails in an aquarium is their algae eating habits. Every aquarium enthusiast dreads the spread of algae! It’s unsightly and can block sunlight from getting to your live plants. Depending on the size of your tank, a few snails for fish tank cleaning can keep tank glass, decorations, and gravel substrate sparkling and clean! They will eat any detritus or uneaten fish food, helping to keep your water parameters just right. They are also a natural part of the environment where your plants and fish come from so it only makes sense to have them in your tank. If your snail population seems out of control, then you should consider more frequent tank maintenance, better filtration, water changes, or feeding your tank inhabitants less. A large snail population is a good indicator that too much waste or uneaten fish food finds its way to the bottom of the tank. Reducing those sources of food will keep your snail population in check and balanced.

Accidental Snail Additions

There’s also a possibility that new live plants and organic decorations carry snail hitchhikers. It might seem that snails are magically appearing in your tank, but it’s most likely because they hitched a ride on some fresh driftwood.

While the team at Modern Aquarium strives to inspect everything we send to you to avoid snail stowaways, we still recommend you quarantine all new additions to your tank in chlorinated water to eliminate unwanted snail additions.

Getting Rid of Unwanted Snails

If you’re looking to get rid of tons of tiny, unwanted snails, adding an assassin snail to your fish tank for cleaning is a great idea. These types of snails eat other snails. They will take care of all snails smaller than themselves so there isn’t a huge worry of these snails affecting the ones that you would like to keep in your tank. Just be mindful that a few assassin snails can overtake a larger snail.

Some tanks only have a few extra snails that are crowding the environment. In these cases, it’s best to simply physically remove them from the aquarium.

Lastly, if all else fails, you can use Snail Zap to eliminate unwanted snails in your aquarium.

Snails at Modern Aquarium

There are many benefits to having algae-eating snails in your tank, but you should always beware of potential side effects. Keep your tank clean and prevent overpopulation when you keep an eye on any snail in your fish tank. Need a little extra help with the snails in your tank? Reach out to us anytime at 917-231-5956!