# Snails as Janitors



## chuckles75 (Jan 17, 2013)

Hello fish lovers!
I have a tiger oscar about the size of my hand, a jack dempsey, green terror, and black convict. All were purchased at the same time, so they are all roughly the same age. I am curious about adding snails to my tank to help keep the bottom clean (that oscar is a nightmare to clean up after!). I know cichlids will kill/eat snails, but I wonder if I added enough snails to the tank, if there was any chance they would be able to reproduce quickly enough to help keep the tank clean before being eaten?....... Hope that makes sense, I'm not good with words! LOL 
Anyone had luck keeping snails with these fish?


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## smitty814 (Sep 27, 2012)

I have olive nerite snails and malaysian trumpet snails. The nerite will not reproduce in freshwater but the MTS do. I don't keep new world cichlids but have mbuna. The fish try to peel the nerites off the glass but can't really hurt them. The MTS burrow during the day and come out at night so they aren't bothered much. Olive nerites are very cheap so why not try them. They do a great job of eating algae.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

What about a bristlenose pleco?

The MTS and pond and ramshorn snails will reproduce so fast, they cause other problems...clogging filters and Pythons.

I do fine the nerites are killed by my mbuna and Tangs. But also, they only eat algae on the glass and will not eat fish food that might be left over on the bottom.


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## Mschn99 (Dec 24, 2012)

DJRansome said:


> What about a bristlenose pleco?
> 
> The MTS and pond and ramshorn snails will reproduce so fast, they cause other problems...clogging filters and Pythons.
> 
> I do fine the nerites are killed by my mbuna and Tangs. But also, they only eat algae on the glass and will not eat fish food that might be left over on the bottom.


I second the BN pleco.....my only concern is you would have to find one big enough that the oscar would not be able to kill it right away. I usually get mine at 1-1.5" and grow them out in fry tanks and I can usually put them in with my africans at around 1.5-2". I would think a 2" pleco would just be fish food for the oscar.


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## smitty814 (Sep 27, 2012)

Why do ppl automaticly prescribe plecos for algae? MTS will multiply only when the food source is sufficient. I have had nerites in my aquarium for 6 months and no deaths caused by mbuna. I also have found the nerites eating algae off of my broad leaf plants. MTS also burrow so the substrate is kept looseand they don't damage plants. Those are some of the pros for keeping snails.


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## Mschn99 (Dec 24, 2012)

smitty814 said:


> Why do ppl automaticly prescribe plecos for algae? MTS will multiply only when the food source is sufficient. I have had nerites in my aquarium for 6 months and no deaths caused by mbuna. I also have found the nerites eating algae off of my broad leaf plants. MTS also burrow so the substrate is kept looseand they don't damage plants. Those are some of the pros for keeping snails.


In this particular situation, i would think a large oscar is going to make short work of any snails. He isnt keeping mbuna


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## smitty814 (Sep 27, 2012)

Mschn99 said:


> smitty814 said:
> 
> 
> > Why do ppl automaticly prescribe plecos for algae? MTS will multiply only when the food source is sufficient. I have had nerites in my aquarium for 6 months and no deaths caused by mbuna. I also have found the nerites eating algae off of my broad leaf plants. MTS also burrow so the substrate is kept looseand they don't damage plants. Those are some of the pros for keeping snails.
> ...


I was refering to DJransomes report of mbuna killing nerites.
The snails are cheap enough to try. :dancing:


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Mine get killed over a period of time. They can live about 2 years. I have only had one live that long in my tanks...and he was in the hap/peacock tank. I love them, don't get me wrong. But I will put them in the hap/peacock tank so they can avoid premature death. Deaths can occur at 8 months...12 months...18 months.


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## chuckles75 (Jan 17, 2013)

Thanks for the suggestions!
I do have a plecostomas in with them, forgot to mention that.. just doesn't seem to do much to help keep it clean.. I have no idea what kind it is, whatever wal-mart had lol... I do have another tank that has a couple of mbunas in it, and I put what I believe is a mystery snail in it, the mbunas are small, 1.5-2 inches? and the snail is about inch in diameter, that one is doing well so far.


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## BC in SK (Aug 11, 2012)

How long snails might last in an mbuna tank is really beside the point, considering the OP's stock. Not only the oscar, but at large size, GT and especially JD, will eat snails quite easily. As long as they can get it into their mouth, they will break the shell and spit the shell out. When I was a kid, I use to get snails from the slews and feed them to my cichlids all the time....some snails were well over an inch.

If your cichlids are small, the snails MIGHT last for some time. Then again, they might harass them to death. Never seen snails in a tank with large cichlids. I even purchased one of them giant ramshorn snails for my grow up tanks once.....it only lasted a few months.

The fact that snails don't eat uneaten food makes them much less usefull then plecos, from my perspective. There are always some particles from any feeding that don't get eaten. A pleco will eat algae, as well as clean up duty.


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