Ahhhhhhh! Snails! I Think?

[Madjonny]

So I'm cycling my 90l have been for 3 weeks, added a few plants as I was itching to get something but I refrained.

Now I come to do my daily test and notice a snail about 4mm sliding across the glass! So I looked and there are at least 2 more smaller snails...

Does this mean by the time I can have fish I will be infested?
Will my first acquisition need to be an assassin snail?

What should I do, I don't really want to be overrun with snails...
Also how are they living? The temp is at 30 and the nitrates are sky high because of cycling...

 

[KirkyArcher]

If you want rid of them there are commercially available products such as Gastropex, it can be dosed while you are currently cycling 

 

[Madjonny]

I may have to look into that. I really don't want to be overrun!

As I type this I just saw a big 1! 8mm ish

They have just came out of nowhere...

 

[Madjonny]

Iv squished 2 very young ones, picked out 2 with actual shells and thrown them in the garden...

I hope there aren't many more...

 

[Noahsfish]

Lucky..wish I could have pond snails everywhere in my dwarf puffer tank.

 

[KirkyArcher]

They have just came out of nowhere...

 They have 100% definitely come from your plants, Always remove every last scrap of media they are planted in and rinse them thoroughly under tap water, then rinse them again to be sure you don't get infested again.

 

[David J]

This will happen to everyone with live plants pretty much. I worried like you when I saw my 1st few pest snails. They take hold quick in the right conditions. They breed quickly. You will start to find clutches of eggs stuck on leaves or on the glass. In my tank, when they started getting out of hand I added 3 assassin snails. They got to work right away but by that time there were so many pest snails that the assassins didnt even made a dent in the population. They continued to breed. I remember one night I counted the snails that I could see easily and there were about 40. And that was just the ones I could see without really hunting for them.

From there, I started feeding the fish less, removed any snails that I could see easily routinely each night and the assassins continued to do they're part. I manually removed about 10 every couple of days. The assassins eventually bred and I noticed about 10 baby assassins. I continued like this and now for the last few weeks I have only found a few pest snails. Infant I saw a big one tonight, about 1cm, and that was the first one I've seen for days. I just left it because it will be assassin food shortly

Good luck

David

 

[Arbee]

I bought plants this evening, rinsed and rinsed...guess what I have crawling up the side of my tank right now??  UGH 

 

[Ch4rlie]

I am currently undergoing the same problems with snails as you are at the moment. 
 
Having said that, i don't really mind them as they are eating my algae that is everywhere on my plants and gravel. So will leave them for the time being as algae controllers!

 
I had always planned on getting assassin snails anyway once the tank is cycled so they will keep the common snails population under control (I hope!)
 
And like you, I rinsed and rinsed my new live plants and carefully looked for any hitchhiking snails before putting them in the tank  and lo and behold some snails starts appearing within a day or two!

 
Sneaky little buggers!! 

 

[Madjonny]

I not only got snails, but damselfly and dragon fly nymphs aswell! So beware...

I have 2 assassins and they eat a fair few snails, but they just multiply so fast!

 

[meandmykribs]

I don't mean to hijack your post Madjonny but I found a couple snails in my tank the other day and I do not have any live plants in there, does anyone know where they may of come from?
 
Thanks Karen.

 

[Lillefishy]

Just a warning, a lot of chemical snail killers contain copper so if you used one to kill the snails, should you later want shrimp you wouldn't be able to as copper stays in the tank & is almost impossible to get rid of

 

[Ch4rlie]

Madjonny - really would recommend get rid of damselfly and dragonfly nymphs out of your tank as they will eat assassin snails, small fish and shrimps for dinner!  

 

[snazy]

There's nothing bad with having snails. You don't magically get infested with them. I've got several kinds in my tanks as each of them serves particular purpose and eats particular algae. Ponds snails eat detritus, hydra and excess food. Ramshorns eat a large variety of algae(including black beard algae), also planaria and hydra. Malaysian trumpet snails are very good to keep the substrate healthy, eat algae as well, etc...
 
And I can honestly say I've been overrun only when I totally overfed a tank due to keeping fry in them. If that happens, once you stop overfeeding, siphon well and remove excess snails manually, they'll gradually disapper to normal levels, which is almost invisible level.  Excess snails is a sign of something going wrong with the tank but having them is beneficial one way or another as it's better to have snails crawling around, then rotting food and dying fish because of unprocessed food and dirt becoming a pathogenic bacteria magnets.
 
Pond snails for example are really good as tank mates for shrimp because they don't compete for the same food with small shrimplets due to their nature and small size, but keep the tank under control by eating extra detritus and excess food. They are very easily controlled and a clean and healthy tank will hardly have any noticeable amounts. Neither of the above mentioned snails have ever eaten my plants.

 

[coolie]

I like snails, but unfortunately most of mine have been eaten by Rosy Barbs.