Ramshorn Snails - Are They Good Or Bad For Your Aquarium?

Introduction

Ramshorn snails are one of the most popular types of snails found in freshwater aquariums today. But they are not wanted by some Aquarists while others welcome them with open arms.

So why the difference between the two groups? To make things perfectly clear, I am on the side of the Aquarist who welcome Ramshorn snails with open arms.

The Pros On Having Ramshorn Snails

There are several benefits for having Ramshorn snails in your aquarium. The biggest benefit I have from having these snails in my aquarium is that they help keep the nitrates down. They do this by eating up the items that can produce nitrates, such as excess food waste, plants and fish.

They also eat the algae in the aquarium keeping the tank clean.

Another benefit to having Ramshorn snails is there is little maintenance involved in raising them. They essentially take care of themselves.

How To Obtain Them

It is easy to obtain these snails for your aquarium. Some aquariums will have them in with their plants that they sell. This is how I introduced them to my aquarium.

Just rinsing off the plants before you put them in your aquarium will not remove all the eggs or snails. So if you buy your plants from these places you certainly will put Ramshoad snails in your aquarium.

The Cons Of Having Ramshorn Snails

Being hermaphroditic, it does not matter what sex the snails are they will have baby snails. Hermaphroditic means that the snail has both sexes, male and female, so can reproduce individually.

So without proper controls, the Ramshorn snail is very prolific and can soon take over an aquarium.

Another reason they are not welcomed in aquariums is the risk of infecting the inhabitants of your tank. The red Ramshorn has been known to carry a parasite that can infect your tank. Fortunately the red Ramshorn is not as dominate as the brown or black Ramshorn.

Ramshorn snails may also eat certain types of aquatic plants.

Removing Them

The best way to remove them is to not to introduce them in the first place. Since they are introduced with new plants, soaking your plants in a chemical bath of potassium permanganate for at least 15 minutes will remove the snails and their eggs. Be sure to rinse your plants before putting them in your aquarium after the chemical bath.

To remove these snails from your tank you can put in predators that eat these snails such as gouramis and loaches.

Another method to keep them in check or remove eliminate them is by your weekly cleaning of the debris in the substrate or simply pick them off the side of your tank.

J.W. Chase is an amateur Aquarist who has successfully been keeping aquariums for over 35 years. Over 75% of people who start aquariums fail in the first month for lack of knowledge. If you want more information on how to keep an aquarium, go to his web site and download a free eBook on "15 Tips On Building And Maintaining An Aquarium" at http://www.squidoo.com/homefreshwateraquariums.

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Freshwater Aquarium - How I Control Ramshorn Snails

Introduction

One of things I wanted to do when I started my freshwater aquarium was to keep snails out, especially Ramshorn snails, because I had heard they can take over an aquarium. I spent extra money to ensure I purchased snail free aquarium plants just to keep my aquarium snail free.

One time, without thinking, I purchased plants from a a store I was not familiar with and I paid the price. I did take extra care to wash my new plants to remove debris and snails, but that was not enough. All I needed to do was miss one snail or one egg and I could guarantee myself a good crop of snails.

Within two weeks I had Ramshorn snails crawling all over my aquarium.

Research Ramshorn Snails

When I found that I had the Ramshorn snail in my aquarium, I immediately researched the subject to learn how to get rid of them. I quickly found out that I should learn to control them rather than eradicate them.

The snails are very good at keeping my aquarium clean. They will eat the algae and even eat dead plants. Since they were good at keeping my aquarium clean, I rapidly turned from trying to eradicate them to just keeping them under control.

Controlling The Ramshorn Snails

When I looked at trying to control the Ramshorn snails I found that certain fish love to eat them. This includes kissing Gourami and Tiger Barb. I had both kinds of these fish in my freshwater aquarium but they were not eating the snails.

So the question was, why were my fish not eating the snails? Then it hit me, they were not hungry and preferred my fish flakes and blood worms to snails.

I consulted an Aquarist at our local pet fish store who told me that I should only feed them once a day and only feed them what they can eat in two minutes.

I reduced their feeding to once a day and solved two problems when I did that. The first problem was they started eating the Ramshorn snails. This solved the main problem I was trying to solve, keeping my snails under control.

The second problem I solved was the nitrate levels were reduced in in the tank. Apparently the high levels of nitrates in my aquarium water was caused by the decay of excess food.

Conclusion

If you want to control the amount of Ramshorn snails in your aquarium, get some fish that eat them such as Tiger Barbs.

J.W. Chase is an amateur Aquarist who has successfully been keeping aquariums for over 35 years. Over 75% of people who start aquariums fail in the first month for lack of knowledge. If you want more information on how to keep an aquarium, go to his web site and download a free eBook on "15 Tips On Building And Maintaining An Aquarium" at http://www.squidoo.com/homefreshwateraquariums.

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert