# Snails eating my plants???



## howie (Jan 5, 2007)

Recently I noticed some of my plants looked chewed up. Does anyone know if snails are eating my plants? I do have alot at the moment.

I have 29Gal with 2x65 watts (on 8hrs), pressurized C02, Flourite substrate, dosing dry ferts from gregg watson.

Fish includes 4 Discus, 26 cardinals, 2 or 3 Otos, 3 Siamese Algae Eater, 2 Amano Shrimps, and a german ram.


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## furballi (Feb 2, 2007)

Those fish are not going to last long in a 29 gal. I suspect the SAEs.


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## howie (Jan 5, 2007)

Thanks for replying. 

Yeah I know about the Discus getting huge. I am planning on moving them into a 70 gallon in a few months.

Are SAEs known for this? I thought they were safe for plant tanks?


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## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

Well, if you don't have enough algae, the SAE's will start munching on your plants. Snails leave plants alone unless the plants are dying or starting to rot. Snails (as far as I know) leave healthy plants alone. You could try blanching some lettuce or getting some algae wafers to see if the SAE's will take to eating that instead of your plants.


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

Some snails will happily munch plants. I have one tank with snails that are up to 1/2" across (so far), tan shell with dark spots and the darn things are even eating the floating plants! I've seen a couple snails drift across the water in the tank until they land on a new plant to munch. I'm planning to bait and remove as many of them as I can. They are attractive with their spotted shells, but much too destructive.


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## evercl92 (Aug 14, 2006)

Depends on the specie(s) of snails you have. Some eat plants, others just eat dead / dieing plant material and algae. Post a pic of your snails, so we can get an ID on it.


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## oRiN999 (Apr 22, 2006)

yeh common pond snails and Malaysian trumpet snails IME leave plants alone they just eat algae but the bigger snails like ramshorn and apple snails really like to eat plants


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

howie said:


> Are SAEs known for this? I thought they were safe for plant tanks?


I've never had a problem with mine eating plants. Even if you have no algae, they will eat regular fish food instead of plants.

As far as snails (pond, ramshorn, mts) go they will usually leave healthy plants alone, but will eat dieing plants. If you have an over abundance of snails this could be a problem, which may cause them to turn to eating plants.


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## Shrimp&Snails (Mar 27, 2006)

Pomacea bridgesii do *not* eat plants.....these snails have been known to starve to death or even eat parts of their own foot rather than plants. Pomacea canaliculata are plant eaters but if you're in the USA you probably don't own these snails unless the USDA haven't been onto you. Asolene spixi are another snail up for potential banning in the US because the young eat plants with great vigor.

It would really help if you could post a photo of the snails.....there's so many different freshwater species I could carry on typing for ages.


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## pharabaras (9 mo ago)

cs_gardener said:


> Some snails will happily munch plants. I have one tank with snails that are up to 1/2" across (so far), tan shell with dark spots and the darn things are even eating the floating plants! I've seen a couple snails drift across the water in the tank until they land on a new plant to munch. I'm planning to bait and remove as many of them as I can. They are attractive with their spotted shells, but much too destructive.


I noticed in Jollies in Tonbridge when they had the plant aquarium they drift upside down with the current using air in their shell. They look like they're swimming and some bladders are a golden yellow. Sadly they removed the plant area possibly due to high maintenance or pump, filter issues.& only have a tropical aquarium part now. Hopefully I can still find coldwater ones for my community tank
🌱🌿🍀


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