# A good snail that won't eat my plants?



## m4gichat

I just need a good old snail that does the following
-eats algae of glass
-doesnt eat a lot out of my plants
-doesnt crawl out

is this too much to ask? what snails do you guys recommend?


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## HybridHerp

what size tank and what tank mates?
neuritis are very good in that they are expert algae eaters, the only thing though is that they do not reproduce in fresh water, but will lay little white eggs everywhere
mystery snails don't eat as much algae, but they are safe with plants (do your research though)
malyasian trumpet snails are also fine with plants, but they will breed readily and you will have tons of them before you know it
personally, I keep nerities in my 10 gallon, and then mysteries and hopefully a mts hoard in my 75 (waiting for them to take over)


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## Newt

Nerites leave their small, white dot, eggs all over the tank. Nothing eats them. Quite unsightly IMO.


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## h4n

I love Nerite, great at attacking algae but like other said, they dont breed in freshwater but leave tiny white eggs everywhere. But i've noticed horned nerite barley lay any eggs if any at all.
I also like baby mystery snails.
So I love my smaller snaills.


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## HybridHerp

Don't do mysteries if it's an open top tank they'll probably crawl out


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## gentelmanjack

Get an MT snail
http://www.yamatogreen.com/MalaysianTrumpetSnails.htm

check it out.
They are great w/ my CRS


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## Bananariot

If you're looking for a great snail that won't reproduce like crazy, then go nerites. They don't eat plants and the only con I can think of is that they leave little eggs everywhere.

I would also suggest ramshorn. They breed asexually so watch how much you feed. If you see you have too many, it means you are feeding too much to your shrimp. Also they don't eat plants, however if you're plants are dying and rotting, they'll eat that. 

MTS are okay in my opinion by they are too hard to control. Unlike ramshorn, if you have a population explosion, you can't remove them as easily because they dig.


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## D9Vin

I would recommend ramshorn or trumpet snails. Trumpet snails can really explode in population, but I don't think they are really to hard to control. They usually come out at night, so just wait for about an hour after lights out, and you can pick them off the glass pretty easy. Ramshorns just look cool in my opinion, and they seem to reproduce slower to me. The key to keeping snail population under control, as mentioned, is to carefully monitor feeding.


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## Bananariot

cookymonster said:


> why not some good old tylomelania snails they get great colors and only have one baby a month


Tylo's eat plants if I remember correctly....fairly quickly. If you're unlucky it'll munch down all your plants


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## Michael

_Tylomelania_ defintely eat plants, even fairly tough ones like _Sagittaria subulata_.


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## Celestial

Ive had Jewel Ramshorns for years they are the fancy pants version from selective breeding of the comman little brown Ramshorn.
I think they are the Prettest of the Fresh water snails - these are NOT apple snails. Jewels at the biggest will grow to the size of a quater. they come in Leopard,Icy Blue ,Crystal Pink ,Golden brown to name a few.the flesh color can be Flamingo pink ,purpleish and brown.
they will not climb out of the tank ,i think they are quite amusing sometimes they will float upside down on the water surface gliding around trying to find a fish flake.
they will over populate if you let them .there are fish that will help keep them under control by eatting the snails like puffers and some swordtails and guppies. you just have to keep a eye on them to see if the fish are eatting them or not, other then that you can always cull them yourself.
Jewel Ramshorns will eat algae and fish food along with decaying matter and dead fish. i have given mine grape and mulberry leaves and they loved those! there are some water plants they will eat.
If you are looking for a snail to add to your tank and you like the little ramshorn then check out Jewel Ramhorns. here are some pics of mine


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## Michael

Celestial, welcome to APC!

I've never seen jewel ramshorns before. Are they as prolific as normal ramshorns? Do the different colors breed true?


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## Celestial

Hi Michael,
Jewel Ramshorns are a color variation from the comman ramshorn thru selective breeding by snail fanciers like myself,they are everything the comman lil brown ramshorn is ,but in the wild wouldnt be able to survive because of it's color would make it easy pickings to snail predators.If bred to a brown ramshorn the brown color would take control of the gene pool.This goes the same for the red ramshorn.

you ask if they breed true to color ? ive always kept the jewels together in one tank, breeding -jewel to jewel of any given color will give you a assortment of colors.which i can say is awesome because you really have no idea of what can pop up and new colors. there are people that separate the colors and breed blue to blues or pinks to pinks etc. they say they do breed true. ill seprate some of mine and let you know what i come up with. 
if you are thinking of putting a little Ramshorn snail in your tank , Jewels are beautiful..i think


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## Michael

I'm a snail fan, and think they are almost indespensbile in a planted tank. Ramshorns are among my favorites.

Do you have any photos of these snails in a planted tank environment? I'd like to see how much their colors stand out.


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## Celestial

Hi Michael
I can tell you that aquarium lighting can really make the colors of the Jewels pop out,also what gravel and colors in your tank .
let me see what i can do for you on the planted pics.
I used to have them in a 100 g with my goldfish,then i got a little long fin koi who grew big fast. first my snails started missing so i moved my snails to the 60g then i came home one day to find the koi had killed my stargazer goldfish and was still eatting him he just couldnt get down my goldishes fat little tummy. my favorite goldfish to.. it was sad, so i sold my koi.
my snails stayed in their own tank till i could get enough of them i felt safe that i wasnt gonna lose them.
when i moved the goldfish went in my new pond and the snails i culled out ..some say that Jewels are alittle more delicate then the brown version but i dont have the brown version so i cant compare.Jewels wont have Normal browns but they do have leopards.
here is a pic of a few leopards in with other colors


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## Celestial

you might like this -this has planted tanks even though they are breeding tanks for their snails ,so youll see alot of the snails in there.you can see the contrast of colors.they show red ramshorns (copper brown shell red snail) some blues and a blue leopard and some pinks in there too


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## MsNeoShrimp

Celestial said:


> you might like this -this has planted tanks even though they are breeding tanks for their snails ,so youll see alot of the snails in there.you can see the contrast of colors.they show red ramshorns (copper brown shell red snail) some blues and a blue leopard and some pinks in there too


Oh wow. They are beautiful! I never had issues with them eating my plants


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## Michael

Nice video, and the snails really do show up well. I was especially impressed by the blue leopard.


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## Celestial

I found that video when looking on the web for something that you could get a idea from,though those where not my tanks or snails, it looked like they had good information and variety of colored snails.i did see what looked like a normal brown ramshorn and reds
if you ever get jewels dont mix them with the red variety or the normal browns those two colors versions will take over your gene pool .I would only breed jewel to jewel of any color. jewels are bred for fancy colors,my own thoughts is they are safer then most because they are generaly pets or some one is breeding them .but you wont find them in the wild.
I would never put any wild snails in my tank or mix with my pet snails because just like everything else you never know what the wild one is carring that might kill off your snails ,fish,shrimp or plants.
Its also good to ask if buying red snails or brown off a auction if they are wild caught.


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## xenxes

Ramshorn, malaysian trumpets, pond (bladderwort) snails are all fresh water and readily reproduce, they eat waste and only dead/dying plant matter.

Nerites require marine to hatch, but are the best algae eaters.


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## Celestial

Ramshorns are excellent algae eatters -id say that algae would be their prefered food over decayed matter, but this is just what i notice.they keep a tank algae clean . i give mine algae wafers along with other feed- they love them.


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