Tiny pond snails

by Ken
(Miami, FL)

I have about a 150-gallon pond with no plants in the pond, but it is surrounded by green island ficus and ground orchids. There are a few fish and tadpoles along with a couple of large toads.
I have two pests that tend to foul the filter: one is very fine filament algae, which I can barely keep under control; the other is very tiny (less than two milimeters) black or dark brown snails with conical shells.
Both of these are so tiny that they get through the filter and into the pump. I know when the waterflow slows that it's time to clean the filter. When that doesn't work, I have to take apart the pump and clean it.
How can I control or eradicate this snail population?
Ken


Doug says the first thing is to understand what they're doing in your pond Simply scavengers.

And the second is to understand that if you want them out of the pond, there are chemical controls that will do this for this size of pond. I never like to use these kinds of things because I'm never entirely sure of the effects on fish etc but do check with an aquarium pet store.

And understand this isn't a one-time thing - at the very best you're going to knock most of them back and they will breed back up fairly quickly.

Cleaning filters is simply part of the job description for being a pond owner I'm afraid. :-)