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I bought a 125 gallon tank for my turtle about a month ago. Well, I've always wanted to put aquatic plants in with my turtle for her to eat and for decoration. I just noticed that I have a bunch of little tiny snails reproducing fast on the rocks in the bottom that came from my plants. I don't really mind if they are there as long as they aren't going to cause a problem for Brooksie (my RES). I've never really wanted a lot in my tank b/c I just want my turtle to be healthy and not get any diseases from other live creatures. I know that turtle will eat the snails which is fine also. I am just looking for some advice to see if the snails are bad or if it will become a problem. I've also always wanted a sucker fish to help with the nasty stuff and algae in the bottom or on the sides of the tank but didn't know how my turtle would react. Do you think that she would try to eat one?? Even if it was pretty big? Any responses would be helpful!!!!

Snails are fine, but they'll reproduce like crazy. Most times they'll hitch a ride on the plants from the pet store. They became a problem for me when they started to lay eggs everywhere. My filter (crappy submersible) got clogged.

I wouldn't get any kind of side sucker (pleco or otherwise) simply because it will become food and it'll be a grizzly death for the poor fish no matter how big it is.

I recently developed a snail population in my filter, i've never seen one in the tank itself, but maybe my turtle just eats them before i see then, i don't know. I don't think it's a problem at all though. For the sucker fish, it depends on your turtle and the fish, some people have them with no problems, and some get them and they are eaten quickly. Having something for it to hide in might help with that. But if you get one, be prepared to lose it.

Thanks for your replys!! I just wanted to make sure that the snails wouldn't be harmful to Brooks. The snails only seem to be on one half of the tank and I've been noticing her digging around a lot so I'm sure that she has discovered them already but they are so tiny I'm surprised that she can find them. As long as she will keep the snail population down that's all I need to know.

I thought the same thing about the sucker fish. Brooksie doesn't really like other things in her tank. I've tried fish a couple of times and she gobbles them up or I think she got mad at me (b/c I went on vacation) and just beheaded some of them. And not to mention the fish made my tank worse for me to clean. Once I saw her with the fish I realized that she must be a female But she's sweet to me!

Thanks for all of your help

Not all snails reproduce asexually. Mystery snails don't. I don't know what I would do if there were snails in my filter. It seems so gross.

It was pretty disgusting. I ended up throwing the filter out, along with a bunch of other stuff because the eggs were just too gross.

It probably depends on the type of snail whether it's a problem or not. I've always got some tiny black snails in my filter - and a few in the tank - but they haven't multiplied to any nuisance level or grossed up my filter. Spot eats them when he finds them in the tank and they provide him with protein, calcium and variety. I have an XP3 canister filter, don't know whether that makes a difference.

It is a little gross, the eggs are like snot, not gross enough to throw away an $80 filter though! I mostly just feel bad about flushing the snails in the filter down the garbage disposal while i'm cleaning the filter, but i don't know what else to do with them, i'm not putting them in the tank, it's a turtle tank not a snail tank!

I washed a lot of them down the sink. I should've added that I had a crappy fluval 1 at the time so it wasn't exactly a loss

Oh yeah, that's a lot different than throwing away a good canister filter!

Well, I haven't seen any eggs in my filter and I clean that frequently. They are just the tiny black snails that I actually didn't even notice until I saw them on my gravel. I don't see it becoming a problem yet.....Brooksie seems to like to eat them!


Brooks-4 yr. old RES
Gambit-4 yr. old Greyhound/Lab
Nightmare & Jasper-my kitties

Hey Jenaero, love your new avatar!