# small snail



## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

What are some small types of snails which i could put in my 2.5 gallon with a betta and 2 ADFs to clean up the extra foods that the ADFs don't eat?


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

Ordinary apple snails are much too big. There is a special minuature apple snail called an Asolene spixi that might work. 
http://home.mchsi.com/~masts/asolene_spixi_species_apple_snai.htm
While these are a type of apple snail, they are much smaller than the common ones. I've heard varying reports of max size, from the size of a peanut M&M to 1". I just got one on Tuesday and it's a bit smaller than a peanut M&M, but I presume it'll grow some. It would do very well at cleaning up leftover frog food.

A possible drawback to this snail is that your betta may attack it. It depends on the betta. Reading reports on applesnail.net, some get along well with snails, some go after them. Generally better luck is had when the snail is in the tank first, then the betta goes in. If the other way around, the betta sometimes feels that the snail is invading its territory. 

Do frogs get along with snails? I have no idea.

Another possibility is a nerite snail, like this one:
http://www.petfish.net/Zebra_Nerite.htm
They stay pretty small. I have a couple and they are less than 3/4". But while they will eat algae, they probably won't eat much leftover food.

Still other possibilities are what most people consider pest snails: MTS (Malaysian Trumpet Snails), pond snails, or ramshorns. They will all eat leftover food and will stay small, but if you have more than one of them they will reproduce and you'll soon have lots. You only need one of the MTS to soon have a big number of them, as they can reproduce without mating! MTS are easy to find, many fish shops have them crawling around thier tanks and would probably be happy to give you a few (or charge you just a bit to bag them up). Pond snails and ramshorns come for free on plants, so you can get them from friends with planted tanks.


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