Snails or no Snails That is the Question

[ROW FISH]

So I have a 1,000 gallon goldfish pond with about 20 goldfish, one 6 inch pleco, one dojo loach, and 5 white cloud mountain minnos. I am trying to determine if I should get some snails to help clean up the pond. I know se are very prolific but I hear that trapdoor or apple snails are a good choice. I have lots of plants (lillies, iris, umbrella palm, anachas, ect.) And don't want the snails to eat all my foliage. Does anyone have a suggestion on snails from experience. What are my options if I choose not to put in snails. Thanks.

 

[sissy]

I have those pond snails ,lots of them and all they do is eat the stuff off the liner and off the rocks in the waterfall pond

 

[CometKeith]

Do you have raccoons in your area? They love to eat trap door snails and will come through your pond and make quite a bit of mess in the process. Also snails are known to carry bacteria so I would be careful where you get them from. There are a few sources I am comfortable getting plants snails etc from and everywhere else I would rather skip rather than make my fish sick. The best source ...another healthy pond!

 

[addy1]

I have raccoons, so far they have ignored the trap doors, other snails have moved in over the years. No issues with the pond with any of them.

My trap doors came from Trickers years ago.
http://www.tricker.com/Category/pond_fish

 

[Onyxlinkia]

I put in a bunch of red ramshorn snails from my planted tank into my pond. the ramshorn doesn't eat plants and they don't breed as quickly as the pond snails.

 

[sissy]

I had trapdoor snails but my koi ate them but the little ones I have are just whatever snails and they are all over cleaning away .

 

[Onyxlinkia]

I wanted to try trapdoor snails but it'somehow rather hard to find. So I stick with the red ramshorn which I have abundance

I had trapdoor snails but my koi ate them but the little ones I have are just whatever snails and they are all over cleaning away .

 

[sissy]

depends on where you live i guess.If you google them or check ebay ,they ship them and they are pretty cold water hardy

 

[Onyxlinkia]

Ok, just ordered some from ebay

depends on where you live i guess.If you google them or check ebay ,they ship them and they are pretty cold water hardy

 

[Faebinder]

So I have a 1,000 gallon goldfish pond with about 20 goldfish, one 6 inch pleco, one dojo loach, and 5 white cloud mountain minnos. I am trying to determine if I should get some snails to help clean up the pond. I know se are very prolific but I hear that trapdoor or apple snails are a good choice. I have lots of plants (lillies, iris, umbrella palm, anachas, ect.) And don't want the snails to eat all my foliage. Does anyone have a suggestion on snails from experience. What are my options if I choose not to put in snails. Thanks.

The Dojo loach will eat your snails so you need many. The Japanese trapdoors have no chance to survive with a loach since they are slow to reproduce.

 

[Smaug]

What part of US are you located? I woukd love to keep a plec but they don't do well in areas that freeze!

 

[addy1]

I wanted to try trapdoor snails but it'somehow rather hard to find. So I stick with the red ramshorn which I have abundance

I got 100 from http://www.tricker.com/Item/trapdoor-snails-scavengers years ago. They have no issues with frozen ponds in the winter, some are bigger than golf balls now. The live birth babies are real tiny.
I have them in every pond now fishless and ponds with fish. The only ones that get eaten are the ones I step on by mistake when I am in the pond grooming lilies.

 

[ROW FISH]

I live in Houston Texas so my pond will freeze over at the same time hell does. I have had the dojo loach for almost 1 year he is about 4 inches long. I did some Reaser ch on specifically dojo loaches and snails and most people said that they left them along and we're not nearly as agressive as other loaches. I have had my pleco for almost a year as well and he will soon be approaching a foot in length. I ordered 6 trapdoor snails for my local fish store and just waiting for them to come in.

 

[EricV]

My take on the original question is that you are going to have or get snails no matter what. Coming with plants, birds dropping eggs in, whatever. Even keeping an aquarium indoors snail free is a challenge.

So if you're going to have snails, you may as well try to populate it with snails you like.

 

[GinoLicious]

I have to say pond snails is a great idea. They are the cleaning crew. I need to add a couple to my mond. Eat some of the garbage no one else eats.