Snails (In Fishless Cycle)

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Poppydrops

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Hi there, can you help me;

I've been fishless cycling my tank for little over a month. It's taking quite a while but I think I know where I've been going wrong and we should be finished soon by my reckoning.

Two weeks ago I purchased a bundle of plants from an internet website retiler, planted them and then went on hoilday for a week or so. I came back a day or so ago to find SNAILS EVERYWHERE! There is at least 7 on the last count and I've just spotted a few more tiny fellas that haven't got a hard shell yet.

Have the plants I put in had snail eggs on them or something? I washed the plants before planting but maybe not thoroughly enough?

Only other thing in there is substrate, gravel, stones, bogwood (soaked for over 12 days whilst away) and i added the Nutrafin co2 with the plants. I began the cycle without any donated media.

I don't mind too much, as long as they don't have any disease or upset my tank in anyway. They seem to be growing at an alarming rate in size and number.


All advice and comments welcome.

Thanks,
Tanza
 
I had snails from plants I bought on eBay once too, I think myt anegl ended up eating them lol
 
thats weird cuz i thought snails could only survive off of left over food and such, and with no fish in the tank, how are they exploding in numbers? coulda been a bunch of eggs that arrived on ur plants, that just hatched, i mean, its gotta be from the plants, cuz its not like they hitched a ride in ur bag of gravel, lol.
 
Nothing to worry about, they're good to have in your tank, they'll mop up any algae and are a good indicator as to whether you're over feeding or not, or whether your plants are dying, if there is a massive population increase where they are absolutely everywhere you look then there must be lots of detritus, this will be a result of over feeding or plant decay.
 
op said they were fishless cycling, so no overfeeding i would hope......
They'll eat decaying plants, and that is inevitable when new plants are added, when adjusting to new conditions most plants go through some change, some will shed leaves etc.
 
Snail eggs of most of the snail species we see infest freshwater tanks are very small clear jelly-like and stick tightly to plants. Large numbers of them can come in on new plants. Sometimes when I'm bring in a new plant that doesn't have too many leaves I pull up a stool to the sink, turn on a bright light over me and just sit there for an hour slowly searching each part of the plant for eggs and removing them if I find them, it's actually easier than it sounds, just takes time. It helps if you're so nearsighted that your eyes act like magnifying glasses when you take your eyeglasses off, lol.

If you search TFF for snail threads you can quickly find all the standard suggestions out there for how to battle snail infestations if you want too. As stated, they are healthy and normal, so they don't hurt anything. It's just a matter of how you want your aquarium to look.

~~waterdrop~~
 
Thanks for all your help guys, nothing to worry about after all. I'll get a couple of assassin snails when I stock, just to show em who's boss and keep their number under control.

Thanks again,

Tanza
 
Id recommend just one assassin if there arent that many. From what Ive heard they are pretty efficient so you may not need multiples.
 

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