Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have a small snail infestation. They are clogging my venture system, and they are all over the walls and bottom of my 500 gal system. What can I do to control the snails?

Don't the fish eat them? My trout love snails.

Probably depends on the type of fish and type of snails?



Do you have a species id gil? will probably help in someone offering a solution.

photo/picture will help.

the circular/round ones like Ramshorn tend to be eaten OK as most fish eat the babies (which have softer shells)
But the conical ones can be bit of an issue.

Shrimp or Crayfish here love to eat them. But then again so do the locals.

Install some jars with beer in them. They will go in and drown happily.
Empty the jars daily and put new beer.

Presuming the snails are in the fish tank not the outside/ GB.
But who knows until the OP provides some more info.

hes clearly talking about the tiny water snails that appear everywhere.

there isnt much you can do except manual removal.

Awww, in that case crash them in the FT and make them fish food.

Yes, Snails and pliers make good fish food. You can also snip off the butt with cutting pliers and pull them out by the front. It removes the suction on the shell and will keep the tank cleaner of a million old shells.

These are very small snails. Black in color and shaped like an apple snail but much smaller. It looks like they like to eat algae, but they stop up aeration system and my goldfish suffer. I will eventually have bluegills but not until I get these minor problems ironed out.
Thanks for your advice, Gil

Get some red eared sunfish and they will eat them provided they are big enough and the other fish can't eat the red eared sunfish. Probably won't get rid of them entirely because of the places they can't get to but it should become manageable.

You have gold fish, add a white carp. I feed it snails.

When you say White Carp, what genus and species is this Deuem?

Oh No Mr Bill, The Teacher just gave me home work. lol

I have no idea on the brand of this fish. As far as I know all goldfish and even kois are in the carp family. He has the whiskers and body lines of a carp. And it is jet white. More koi-ish the gold fish. At the store they are 5 bucks each and the golds 1 to 5 each average at 3. So they always cost more. The kois can cost 300 to thousands.

I will hand in my homework assignment a bit late teach. I have to go and figure it out. If I can. I wish I could just ask him. He ate 1 big snail and 2 dead fish yesterday and is still hungry. This fish can eat 24/7. When he takes a dump, the Minnows attack it and gobble it all up. They love his poo. Full of fish and snails.

The thing we like most about the fish is that he is 100% bone white. easy to see from anywhere.