Like many of you, our 55 gallon freshwater tank had a lively snail population. A community tank with Platys (orange Mickey Mouses, Sunburst), some Neon Tetras, Mollies, and most recently a couple of Gouramis.

We always had snails on our ornaments, rocks, plants, the tank itself, and nothing we did seemed to slow down the population.

That is until I picked up a couple of Striped Raphael Catfish, on a lark, from our local pet store. We lost our upside-down catfish a while back when the tank was stricken with a couple of nasty problems. We saw the Raphael Catfish and thought they'd be a nice addition.

First, these catfish hid in our large castle ornament and never came out except at night. Far more nocturnal than our previous catfish, we thought maybe we'd made the wrong choice.

A few weeks later, the snails were pretty much gone. I found a ton of clear snail shells when Vac-ing the gravel - all under the big castle ornament where the Raphael Catfish would hide.

The Gouramis are known to enjoy snail eggs, and the smaller younger snails (when they can find them), and these Raphaels seem to enjoy them straight-out.

Didn't expect this, but it's been hilarious.

I find that most snails are pests that are destructive to my plants, but Malaysian Trumpets (Red-rimmed melania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) I give credit for keeping my tank practically algae free. I love them.

What species of snails were infesting your tank? Or do you have some photo of them you could post?

No idea which species, I wish I knew. They're tiny and there's a billion of them (exaggeration).