Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Snails Again One Last Time

The pond is drained and the number of snails in the muck and little springs and feeder creek beds is amazing. I feel it will be impossible to totally eradicate them all. According to everyone that answered my previous question all the replies regarding snails were negative.

Do snails have any positive benefits? Should I quit worrying about them and how prolific they are? i guess I will stock some RES when the pond fills and I restock it.

The snails are large-i think Ramshorn. Can RES eat the full size snails or will they just be eating the little ones.

I want large BG and from what I have read RES will be smaller than the BG. Will the RES compete with BG and hinder growth rates of the BG?

Don't be afraid to tell me I'm worrying too much about nothing.

Not sure if this is applicable or not, so I'm just throwing this out there as a very recent topic of discussion, but freshwater drum get large and feed on snails. Their effect on a pond has not been thoroughly researched, however, but it is believed that they would not pose a threat to your desired fish population. Just something to possible consider or look into.

Ramshorn describes a general shell type, and could be any of several
species of snail. I think adult RES can eat all but the largest of
snails. RES and BG forage overlaps somewhat, but it's not a problem
in a healthy pond. If you feed, it's certainly not a problem.

Ok, I'm not afraid, you are worrying about nothing, which is actually a good thing. Snails are part of the rood chain, the ecosystem. They belong and do thier part to keep things balanced.

I would not go out of my way to plant them.

In my experience I have seen the opposite in bg/res. The res tend to get bigger than the bg, especially in older ponds. Mainly because they just don't breed that well. Thier numbers or percentage are smaller and they occupy a different strata and eat unique food. With smaller numbers the individual fish tend to get bigger. bg just breed. They will eat anything, everything and just take over, especially without control. You might end up with huge ratios of bg over res, but the balance will most likely be little ones, unless you have decent predation, or cull. Cody has a good writeup on producing big bg, would apply to res as well.

Sorry about this. This was the last active post so I thought I would get help here.
I am a new member and want to post, but can't qiute figure out how to start.
Any help would be appreciated, you can send a private message if you like.
Thanks

Duszy

Snails eat some algae, are fascinating to watch (especially for kids) and are part of the ecosystem.

My question is, are there any birds that eat these things? Will a heron eat snails?

Duszy, glad you found us and look forward to your new thread. Find which subforum your topic would be most appropriate, go to that subforum, find New Topic at the top of said forum, create a subject, then type away! Hope that helps. If you post in the wrong subforum, no problem. Our moderators have powers that can move threads. Scary I know. Welcome to the forum!

Duszy from Michigan - WELCOME to the Pond Boss Forum! We're working on a new, more engaging/informative/warmer private message welcome and also an introduction forum room designed just for new members to tell us all about themselves and their present or future ponds to make the transition into the forum easier. I will hopefully have this implemented this week.

I've noticed a growing MI presense on the forum, and your northern fishery perspective/experiences/challenges will help make the forum an even greater source of pond management information. If you EVER have any issues - feel free to contact a moderator, or really anyone on the forum as we are all happy to help and get to know you better.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, your ponds or pond project, list your questions and we'll do our best to guide you to the information you need. I'm glad you found us buddy - we've been waitin for ya!

TJ

Bennie,

Ducks really like snails, and so do the various small shore birds.

Mark, no matter what you do... The snails will show up. Even if you removed every single snail, they will find a way into your pond. Every single pond I have ever seen, even those isolated by great distances from another BOW, eventually get snails in them.

When you restock your BG, add about 20-25% of the numbers as RES instead. They will control your snail population.

Ramshorn snails do get bigger and have harder shells than pond snails and the larger ones will not be edible by RES. I suspect freshwater drum would get large enough to feed on them, but as Omaha said, they are not available commercially. Plus, they are not native to our part of VA, so sourcing them from the wild is not possible. So, they aren't an option. CC will also eat snails and may very well feed on larger ramshorn snails.

I really wouldn't stress over this matter though...

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PondSubWebIndex/pdsnails.htm
Pond Snails, Bane or Boon?
I think this thread posted in first post value of snails thuch upon most of the Yays and Nays.

So would I ?

Well it deepends.
In a aquaqulter operation thats a no, unless I specificly where culturing snails for comercial sale.

As part of a "natural" pond I would say they are wellcome as a part of the chain (native). However I would be wery sceptical to bring in just any snail.
And i also would have second thaughts if I where to use the pond as swimming pool or playground because they atract waterfowl amongst others that prey on them.

So for a specific rason/goal in one pond maybe yes
for other specifics or differente reasons in another pond definetely no

Thanks for the great replies. I wish i would have known about PB before I started construction on my pond in '05 as I have spent almost as much trying to fix the terrible construction and trying to adjust populations.

There is no doubt that snails will be there when the pond refills. They simply multiplied like flys and it will be impossible to eradicate them entirely as we rework the bottom. But thanks to this forum i will add some RES and hopefully they can keep the numbers down. i have never seen drum offered around here and am not sure if they can live in northern VA.

Thanks again for the replies.