snails

[timber]

what are the benefits from having snails in a garden fish pond?

 

[gardengimp]

Here is an interesting bit of articles on freshwater snails.

My fish chow down on itsy bitsy baby snails. Some snail are algae eaters, some snails filter water. My trickle fountain is usually covered in snails during the warm months.

 

[addy1]

They do eat some of the algae, I see their tracks (the trap doors)
I think if you have a pond you will have snails, they sort of go together, they arrive just like frogs do.............surprise! I found you

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

Im against snails in my location. The person i purchased them from said theyll survive a wisconsin winter..... Wrong, this year was a bad algae spring. I had 18 inches on algae growth from the side walls. 3 snails out of 250 made it and the stink from the mass death... Last year i would say they did nothing for cleaning imho.

 

[dieselplower]

I like my snails. They are constantly crawling around and eating up stuff I dont want in the pond or tank. They do eat dead plant material which is great. One thing to consider is that since they are always eating (so it seems anyway) they also create a good amount of waste. This does need to be factored into the load of the tank/pond. If you have your pond maxed out in fish capacity and also have a ton of snails, or even a few, which create a ton more, you will be "overstocked". I have found that my goldies and koi seem to keep the population under control by eating the smaller snails.

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

I like my snails. They are constantly crawling around and eating up stuff I dont want in the pond or tank. They do eat dead plant material which is great. One thing to consider is that since they are always eating (so it seems anyway) they also create a good amount of waste. This does need to be factored into the load of the tank/pond. If you have your pond maxed out in fish capacity and also have a ton of snails, or even a few, which create a ton more, you will be "overstocked". I have found that my goldies and koi seem to keep the population under control by eating the smaller snails.

Snails do produce waste, but the nutrient rich poop isnt there. Ie, you will not recieve huge amounts of nitrates when they poop. The problem comes in when they die, this is when its an issue. Ammonia, trites, trates are all affected with the decay of any organic creature. As far as "bioload" i would not consider them any where close to what fish are or even a dying plant.

 

[sissy]

MY FISH EAT THEM EVEN THE TRAPDOOR ONES GOT EATEN

 

[CometKeith]

I have had other ponders tell me not to have snails because they transmit disease. I don't know if that is true but this is the first year in 5 years I have had my pond that I didn't have any fish get sick in the spring. Also this is the first year I didn't add snails, but maybe where I was getting them from was the problem. The benefit is that they reduce some of the algae and also provide food for your fish.

 

[addy1]

I have tons of snails, no sick fish since the start of the pond. I don't worry about them.