Most snails will either consume algae or leftover food, not both, but there are many wonderful snails that could work out. Here are some good snails that would work well in smaller aquariums and can right themselves if toppled over:
-
Trochus snails: Voracious consumer of various kinds of algae. Offer foods like algae wafers and dried seaweed if they exhaust their algae supply (as with other herbivorous snails).
- Cerith snails: LiveAquaria says they can eat algae and scavenge on uneaten food, these enjoy burrowing into substrate and you might see them laying long egg cases.
-
Nassarius snails: burrowing snails that are great at aerating substrate and consuming uneaten meaty foods (no algae).
Blue Zoo Aquatics offers Tonga
Nassarius snails that resemble brown mystery snails (
Nassarius limnaeiformis is primarily what I received in my batch, but
Nassarius distortus is pictured on the website and one did come in my order).
- Dove snails (
Columbellidae): small, algae-eating snails that can access areas larger snails cannot and breed rapidly (like freshwater bladder and ramshorn snails, which I do not consider to be pests as they are also clean up crew). Produce circular egg cases.
https://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/tank-cleaners
https://www.bluezooaquatics.com/productList.asp?cid=82&did=2
https://www.liveaquaria.com/category/526/snails?c=526
Remember not to introduce all of your clean up crew to your aquarium at once; add a few at a time and wait to see if your aquarium can handle any more (if you still have excess algae, detritus, etc.).
