snails

[wags]

I'm thinking about putting snails in our pond this spring will this help with the algie???  ::)If anybody knows anything about snails please let me know..thanks wags

[tugo]

All the snails I have given to my pond were eaten by the koi. They like it too much.

[Johns]

Snails effect on algae is by my experience, negligible.  Also, small snails clog pumps.  I would not purposely introduce snails into a watergarden.

[marla]

I've recieved the little brown ones on plants in the past, but yes now that the koi are much larger they seem to eat most of them unless they are in areas they can not reach.  I have more in the lily pond as the goldfish don't eat them as well I guess.  I would not say they do to much if you have a larger pond.

[turtlemike]

 I don't know about snails clogging pumps or anything else having to do with liner ponds with filters etc but in my mud ponds I love them. 
  They are excellent for wildlife ponds and they feed countless critters.
  They do eat algae and I purposely use them for that purpose in my seedling tubs.
  They will hurt no plant except for algae. I know because I put Ramshorns and Dwarf pond snails in my seedling tubs and they do no harm to even the smallest slowest growing seedlings and I try to have the highest density of snails as possible.
  They devour dead lily leaves and other plant material and reduce it to a small granular substance,snail poop, which should vacuum up very easily for those of you that do that sort of thing.

  I have the large Japanese Trapdoor snails that give live birth and Ramshorn Snails and Dwarf Pond Snails.
  Ramshorns like string algae more than the other two and I find them just buried in it eating away.

   Snails like low nutrient water and good food- algae and other slimy stuff.  Enough snails in an environment that is good for them will eat ALL of the algae in a given area. that is how I clean them of algae on there shells before cooking them to eat. The big trapdoors I mean not the little ones. Although I suppose they would be the same.
 I put a bunch of Trapdoors in a bucket of clean water and change the water often.  The snails start off with a layer of algae on there shells just like on the sides of your pots and in a few hours there shells are slick and clean another day or two and there intestines are clean and they're ready to cook.  They taste similar to clams but when they are reproducing in summer they have little snails inside that you would have to pick out.  I don't know when is the best time of year to eat them. probably fall when they have quit having babies for the winter and they should be fattened up for hibernation.

   The way I look at it snails are the cleaners of your pond wall algae biofilter.  Just like you need to periodically clean your bio-filter, snails periodically " mow the lawn" keeping the bio layer on your pots and pond walls thinner and more exposed to oxygen so it can regrow and use up more nutrients.

  And they're cool to watch, like aliens from another world, especially the Trapdoors.

  Since trapdoors don't lay eggs they are slow to reproduce but easier to control there numbers if you wanted to.

[karen J]

If they're the Trap door, Ramshorn, or Apple then they're OK. Stay away from the Great Pond Snails... they're the little ones that reproduce worse than bunnies. My son put a couple of them in our aquarium and now it's completely infested. They are also a host for parasitic worms.

[OldMarine]

Wags,

Turtlemike is right about the trap door snails. The are easy to keep track of, and they only have live baby snails about once a year. I purchased most of mine from www.tricker.com, and they are afforable.

At least in my pond, the tarp door snails help in creating that balance between fish, plant life, and keep the algae in check. They don't eat any of my pond plants, and they aren't bothered by any of the other pond life.

Happy ponding,

Rich   

[turtlemike]

  Giant pond snails will eat your plants.  

  Dwarf pond snails will not.

  Dwarf pond snails are a host for liver flukes.  You do not want to get liver flukes.
  
  A Dwarf pond snail CANNOT have liver flukes unless a sheep with liver flukes defecates in or near a pond or stream and that fluke larvae gets washed into the water and enters a snail. The infected snail then has to climb out of the water on a blade of grass and then a sheep has to eat that snail with the grass to become infected thus completing the life cycle of the liver fluke.  It cannot infect deer for instance.

  Unless you have sheep in your yard you will NOT have liver flukes in your snails.  

  There is a deer liver fluke but if I remember right it has nothing to do with snails or won't infect humans so it's no problem.

[miguynmkoi]

I ditto Johns.    I found the problem when my pump was not working well.

[OldMarine]

You have serious snail problem!

Rich