There are many varieties of snails that can reach the aquarium by different ways. It is important to be able to recognize them in order to determine whether snails are benign to our small ecosystem or, if not, we must fight them so that they do not become plague and devastate plants.
Below are the main varieties of snails present in aquariums along with their habits and adaptability to our needs. It also explains how to combat pests.
Few people know that in the family of this snail (family Ampullaridae) there are very different species from each other. The most common in aquariums are Pomacea bridgesii, Marisa and Asolene, from the American continent.
These snails are harmless to plants, feed on debris and do not often become a pest.
The apple snail is a good choice for a tropical planted aquarium since it usually does not eat plants. It is rare to get specimens of varieties that do.
The importance of Tropidiscus planorbis in the background is really crucial, because its contributions are multiple. First of all, the fact that he devours debris before they contaminate the aquarium.
Then, we can add that on many occasions the waste it devours is in areas such as hiding places between logs or plants where the aquarist does not have access to clean.
Finally, this snail passes through the soil or lateritic clay bottoms in and out of them. The main advantage of this action is the movement generated in these funds, which need this movement to avoid a logical compression that makes it difficult for the roots of plants to expand and provide aeration.
While there are a variety of colors and can be showy (grow up to 1 cm), these snails become a real problem for our planted aquarium.
They devour most plants and their activity has no pauses.
One factor that becomes another problem is that it reproduces at a dizzying pace, being able to wreak havoc in a mature aquarium.
It is also true that there is a risk that it will reproduce rapidly (since it is alive) and become a pest. If this happens, they would compete among specimens for food and start eating plants.
Surely it is one of the most resistant species of snails. Their habits are also interesting, since during the day they are invisible, they bury the substrate, with the benefits that this brings. His activity is nocturnal.
A very simple and always effective way is to immerse in the aquarium a clean leaf of lettuce during sunset. It must remain at the bottom, so a stone will be enough to help us. During the night the snails will be on it safely. The next morning it will simply remain to remove the leaf with all the snails on top.
Another possibility is to include in the aquarium fish that feed on snails, a good example would be the Macracanta Botia.
Personally I recommend trying first with the lettuce leaf, it is a very effective method with zero impact on the rest of the beings that inhabit the aquarium.
© Adrián Blanco 2006 — Prohibited the total or partial reproduction of text and/or images without explicit written consent of the author. —
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