Snail infestation

[Brookenv]

A few months ago, I bought a nerite snail that apparently had some bladder snails eggs on its shell. My tank has hundreds of them now. I've since decided to shut down this tank. But question - I have a rubber lip pleco in this tank, is it possible he will carry any eggs over to the new tank he'll be in? Is there anyway to avoid this?

 

[LyraGuppi]

I doubt the pleco will, as I'm not sure he'd allow a snail to crawl on him.
Snails and their eggs can travel in on plants, substrate, and decor. I believe you can do a snail dip to kill off anything on the decor, but a more experienced member will have to input on the specifics of that.

 

[Byron]

My first comment to such posts is to say that these small snails (bladder, pond, Malaysian Livebearing) are your best friend in an aquarium. They can get everywhere and eat all organics (fish waste, dead plant matter, some algae) which breaks it down faster for the various bacteria.

Snails will be in numbers comparable to the available food. And given the above, this is much more than just overfeeding fish foods, but that will obviously increase them too.

Eggs from bladder and pond snails are laid as small gelatin-type masses on surfaces like the tank glass, plant leaves, etc. So I seriously doubt a pleco moved to another tank would take eggs. The eggs hatch into very, very tiny snails though, and it is easy to move those with anything wet.

Byron.