Buy Trapdoor Snails Online

Japanese trapdoor snails (Viviparis malleatus) are one of the best large snails for aquariums and ponds.

The preferred food of trapdoor snails is algae, and introducing trapdoor snails to your pond or aquarium is a great natural algae control technique. If you are hoping to use trapdoor snails to control algae, be sure to order enough. You should have at least one trapdoor snail for every square foot of pond surface.

Trapdoor snails also help improve water quality by eating uneaten fish food. Trapdoor snails do not eat aquatic plants unless they are underfed.

Unlike many snail species, trapdoor snails bear live young and because they produce only a few at a time, they rarely cause the same overpopulation problems that many other species of snails create. Young trapdoor snails are also favorite foods of large fish such as koi. This helps control the population, but if you want to breed trapdoor snails, you may have to protect the babies and rear them separately until they are at least one inch long.

Trapdoor snails can survive in outdoor ponds in most regions of the United States, as long as the pond doesn't freeze solid. They do not need mud in the bottom of the pond to overwinter safely.

A concern with trapdoor snails kept in outdoor ponds is raccoons. Raccoons seem to consider trapdoor snails a delicacy and will devour them if given the chance. If raccoons became a serious problem at your pond, consider contacting wildlife control for information about trapping services.

Trapdoor snails are also edible by humans.