I have over the last 4 months had a number of snails similar to the so
called beautiful snail at
http://www.applesnail.net/content/sn...s.php#Physidae in my
160 litre tank which don't seem to be hurting the leaves of the Crypt
Wendtii and Crypt Becketti or the Amazon Sword plants in the tank, but
could they be attacking the plant roots.

I have tried to get rid of them in the past by taking the fish out and
adding loads of salt, but some eggs must have survived somewhere as
within a month baby snails started popping up again.

Anyway as they don't seem to be hurting the plants that I can see and
seem to be keeping algae in check do people think that I should leave
them alone or should I get a snail eating fish like Clown Loaches.

If you don't mind having snails in your tank (not hurting plants, etc.),
then I would keep them as they can really help to keep algae under control.

I would love to be able to keep snails (MTS, Red Ramshorn, etc.), but I
don't have good luck with them. They always die within a month on me, but
I'm going to try them again in my 75 gal. tank I just bought. I should get
enough "hitch hikers" on my order of plants coming in!

If you don't want them, or if you start getting too many, there are several
things you can do. First of all, if you don't mind adding another fish to
the mix, a Clown Loach will keep the snails in check (if not eliminate them
completely). Another trick is to put a small plate or something on the
bottom of the aquarium. Place an algae wafer on the plate. You should
slowly see the snails migrate towards the wafer. Pull the plate when you
have the snails on it. This really works, and usually takes 8-16 hours for
"a lot" of the snails to get to the plate. This probably won't completely
get rid of them all, but it will certainly slim down the population!

--
Craig Brye
University of Phoenix Online

"Jason Dale" wrote in message
...
I have over the last 4 months had a number of snails similar to the so
called beautiful snail at
http://www.applesnail.net/content/sn...s.php#Physidae in my
160 litre tank which don't seem to be hurting the leaves of the Crypt
Wendtii and Crypt Becketti or the Amazon Sword plants in the tank, but
could they be attacking the plant roots.

I have tried to get rid of them in the past by taking the fish out and
adding loads of salt, but some eggs must have survived somewhere as
within a month baby snails started popping up again.

Anyway as they don't seem to be hurting the plants that I can see and
seem to be keeping algae in check do people think that I should leave
them alone or should I get a snail eating fish like Clown Loaches.

On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 15:30:28 -0500, "Craig Brye"
wrote:

If you don't mind having snails in your tank (not hurting plants, etc.),
then I would keep them as they can really help to keep algae under control.

Thanks for the info. Think for now I'm going to keep them as they
don't seem to be hurting anything other than algae. Main worry was if
they were hurting the plants below gravel level, especially as I'm
getting 20 new plants this week (which are the same as I already
have).

"Jason Dale" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 15:30:28 -0500, "Craig Brye"
wrote:

If you don't mind having snails in your tank (not hurting plants, etc.),
then I would keep them as they can really help to keep algae under
control.

Thanks for the info. Think for now I'm going to keep them as they
don't seem to be hurting anything other than algae. Main worry was if
they were hurting the plants below gravel level, especially as I'm
getting 20 new plants this week (which are the same as I already
have).

This Physa sp. seem to be very effective remover of algae, as it is written
in http://www.diewasserwelt.de/blasenschnecke.htm. It is a German page, but
even if you can not understand the text, look at the pictures. I never heard
that these type of snails does harm to any plants.

Juergen

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 17:38:14 +0200, "Jürgen Beisser"
wrote:

This Physa sp. seem to be very effective remover of algae, as it is written
in http://www.diewasserwelt.de/blasenschnecke.htm. It is a German page, but
even if you can not understand the text, look at the pictures. I never heard
that these type of snails does harm to any plants.

Thanks that is the snail I have and getting a rough translation it was
clear that they are prized for getting rid of algae. So am definitely
going keep them and let them get on with keeping algae at bay.

Clowns are to big, try one of the smaller snail eaters
Bob

"Jason Dale" wrote in message
...
I have over the last 4 months had a number of snails similar to the so
called beautiful snail at
http://www.applesnail.net/content/sn...s.php#Physidae in my
160 litre tank which don't seem to be hurting the leaves of the Crypt
Wendtii and Crypt Becketti or the Amazon Sword plants in the tank, but
could they be attacking the plant roots.

I have tried to get rid of them in the past by taking the fish out and
adding loads of salt, but some eggs must have survived somewhere as
within a month baby snails started popping up again.

Anyway as they don't seem to be hurting the plants that I can see and
seem to be keeping algae in check do people think that I should leave
them alone or should I get a snail eating fish like Clown Loaches.