great pond snails

[sbeau66]

i have been offered some great pond snails, are they good or bad for my pond, they are big and brown and pointed in shape?

[Dogghound]

How big is your pond? do you have shallow sides where birds can get to the pond? do you have lots of vegetation? do you have fish?

[BarbaraEmma]

Hi, my pond is about 6'x6 'by about 2.5' deep.I started off with about 6 pond snails which a friend gave me.I love them ,they are fascinating to watch scuttling about at the edge of the pond and doing acrobatics of all sorts.They help to keep the pond liner clean,they do chomp on the pond plants but in a pond my size that can be a good thing as some plants can get too big.They seem to breed quickly and I now have snails of all sizes but they don't seem to have become a nuisance at all.I aim to have as much diversity in pond life as possible but without interfering too much.Barbara

[sbeau66]

dogghound, my pond is huge and deep with lots of vegetation, and the birds can get in the marginal places,i have also got waterlilies and water soldier, but i don,t want the snails to spoil any chances of getting newts, or for the snails to kill tadpoles, i'm probably being daft but i am being cautious, i dont want to spoil any balance by adding the snails , so if you know anything about them please advise, many thanks

[sbeau66]

Are they native? i'm keeping them in a bucket until i find out they are safe to put in the pond!!

[Dogghound]

Yes this is a native species, in a large pond they are unlikely to be a problem, birds and fish will feed on them. They dont kill tadpoles but will feed on dead ones. If their numbers are small and are kept small they will not damage the plants to much. They prefer to feed on algae. If you want newts I would grow an area of dense native vegetation near the pond preferably liking it to a hedgerow or woodland, or other natural cover etc. Then providing logpiles etc with further benifit them.

[sbeau66]

thanks for the advice, i will release them from their bucket prison!