Pond Snails.....Good or Bad?

[Shae]

Are snails good for a pond? Will they help keep the bottom of the pond clean? I was cleaning out a barrel pond yesterday and found several in there and just rinsed them out onto the ground. Now I'm wondering if I should have moved them into the pond. If snails are good, is there a specific snail or will any snail do?

[Esther]

I don't know but my Skippy just abounds with them. They have to have come in on plants. Somehow some must survive the winter because every year they are thick by the end of summer. I have heard where they can get sucked into the pump and clog the impeller. Otherwise I don't know anything about them.

[LeeAnne151]

IMHO, they are bad. They eat plants and they don't keep anything clean. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get rid of them in my aquarium or ponds.

[Esther]

Funny, mine don't seem to be anywhere else in the pond but the Skippy where there aren't usually any plants.

[Bonnie]

My opinion, BAD

[CT]

Bad..they reproduce too quickly and become a pest.
I just cleaned out a 100 gallon deck pond at least 50 snails and snail eggs thick on the sides and bottom of the pond. What a chore. I would never let them loose in a big pond. There wasn't one snail in that container last fall but apparently there were eggs on a plant in there. 

[GAJen]

We don't have nor keep them Shae.

[Johns]

bad bad bad bad 

And before you ask, so are crayfish!

[CT]

Ok. I have to ask what do crayfish do? Are they the same thing as mudbugs?

[PondmaninAL]

Snails are good! One of my troughs have three different types in it, pond snails, ramshorn snails, and apple snails. They seem to eat the wasted food and string algae.

Crayfish are scavengers and predators. They will eat wasted food but wil also attack sick fish. They also eat snails. Don't put any channel catfish in with them. They will also fight with other crayfish. I have only heard them called crayfish, crawfish, and crawdads but not mudbugs.

Happy ponding,
Scott

[Shae]

Thanks for all the opinions. I was a little surprised the majority of you thought they were bad. I had read about the pros and cons and was leaning towards getting some at some point. I saw the Japanese trapdoor snails at a local water garden center today. They were a whole lot bigger than the ones that I had in the whiskey barrel. The feedback is most appreciated! Think I'll hold off for now.

[andrew davis]

By and large the impact of snails is benign.

There are times of the year when they might turn upon the new shoots of tender aquatic plants when there is a shortage of other food

Snails are a munchy part of the food chain for fish and turtles, usually going about the dull chore of eating algae and fading vegetation, turning unwanted stuff into benign mulm, which in turn forms benign clay over time.

In some parts of america aquatic snails are a vector for 'swimmers itch' which is carried from pond to pond by wildfowl. If you wipe out the snails every 30 days or so you can eliminate that lifecycle

In well established ponds, the snail population is usually held in check by a range of predators in the food chain, who rely on snails as part of their food chain

If you see too many snails in a pond, it usually indicates oxygen levels on a pond are low, especially around dawn and snails are being forced to the surface.

Where it is easy to squish surplus numbers...

Regards, andy
http://www.members.aol.com/abdavisnc/swglist.html

[SheilaJ]

I have Japanese trapdoor snails and I really enjoy watching them. They don't reproduce very quickly (they are livebearers and only have a couple of babies each). They do eat some rotting leaves and some algae from the sides of the pond, but I have way more leaves and algae than the snails can keep up with. I don't have any trouble with them attacking healthy foliage. I have some ramshorn snails too, that must have come in on plants. I used to have lots of pond snails, but I think the mosquito fish have pretty much wiped them out by eating the eggs (the trapdoors are too big when born for the mosquito fish to munch on). I think the fish are reducing the ramshorns gradually too.

Snails do poop a lot, so you still have waste to deal with. You're just trading some pieces of rotten leaves and algae for some snail poop!

[rcr203]

Yep, same here - snails are good.  In an aquarium they tend to run rampant, but outside in a pond, they are usually well controlled.

Also, trapdoors - I have them and am hoping some survived the winter!  Just finding shells right now, with no snails inside.

[SheilaJ]

I find they survive the winter just fine. Occasionally I find some empty shells, but mostly I find healthy snails on the milk crates and in the lily pots when I pull them out.

[Johns]

Cawfish, land crabs, crayfish, are all thesame.  Mudbugs is a Cajun name for the same little crustacean.  In a watergarden where you have nice fish, crayfish will shred the fish's tails trying to grab them.  They also can be a problem in low areas of the yard where the water table is high.


Snails that commonly introduce themselves to watergardens via water plants have one really bad habit, and that is to clog pump impellers, so I vote against them.

[Rocmon]

My first year I had an explosion of the little corkscrew shelled ones maybe 1/4" big as adults. Then the population fell off and I don't see them much. Now I have some rather pretty looking ones about an inch or so big. More the garden snail shell type. A nice light tan with black camouflage speckles. I'll have to photograph them so someone can ID them... I see clear areas 3/4" wide—trails where they have cleaned the moss/algae off rocks, liner and left droppings. So far so good. Looks like their population is on the rise and waiting to see if I need to hand pick them out later.