Cold Water Algae Eating Snails

You need to keep in mind that these snails will also eat live plants so consider that when you are buying lava snails.

Cold water algae eating snails. With their beautiful zebra like shell and their huge appetite for algae it s no surprise why these little gems are as common as they are. This species of fish can grow up to 6. The nerite snail is the most powerful of all algae eating snails especially when it comes to keeping the walls of your aquarium clean and sparkly. A snail that kills and eats other snails.

These snails will reproduce in a fish tank but not as fast as smaller snails. Nerites double as both algae and brown diatom obliterators. One of the most popular algae eating snails are the nerite snails. They also tend to move around a lot so keep your water cycled and clean.

Trapdoor snails will even eat decaying matter left over from fish food and plants. To keep your pond algae in control along with plant coverage a snail will keep eating the algae on the sides of your pond on the rocks sides of plant containers and even on plants. Siamese algae water eater is known as crossocheilus oblongus among the community. They can t have babies in fresh water and the eggs they do disperse which won t hatch are easy to remove.

In order for your algae eating snails to have a positive effect on algae growth a minimum of 20 snails per 100 sq feet will be needed and farm ponds will need to have at least 200 pond snails to have any positive effect at all. These snails can survive cold winters and temperatures below 0 degrees. Their close relative the apple snail will also eat algae. They also won t bother most aquarium plants.

However apple snails grow larger to about the size of their namesake fruit and will decimate aquarium plants. There are several different algae eating fish species which will feed on algae as their primary source of nourishment. Because they eat algae with a vengeance while leaving healthy plants alone they make an excellent choice for little tank maintenance helpers and restore the balance of the aquarium. A cold tolerant snail that can adapt to a wide range of temperatures this is one of the few snails that can survive winter outside.

That means you don t have to worry about them starving if they do too good of a job. They only breed a couple of times a year and will not take over your pond like other nuisance egg bearing snails can and will. Black japanese trapdoor algae eating snails are live bearing. Different types of snails and shrimp are also known for eating algae which we will cover.

The lava snails are very effective cleaners they will eat everything from algae to fish food waste. Whiptail catfish is scientifically known as rineloricaria sp. It is not uncommon for aquarium owners to include several algae eaters in their tanks solely to keep algae growth at bay.