Am I going to be infested with SNAILS?!

[Maroonostrich]

Was staring at my plants today and trying to work out what the tiny black dot on one of them was... Then I realised it was a tiny, tiny snail, so minute you could hardly work it out!

I cut out the leaf with the snail on and chucked it in the bin...

But are there likely to be many many more?

 

[evofish]

i too had about 10 snails i didnt do nothing and nature took its course and havnt seen one in 2 weeks but a clown loach you can here them suck them up or if u have small tank some other kind of loach,

 

[glolite]

Probably will be more, they tend to sneak in on plants. If you pop an algae wafer in the snails will attach to it then you can take out wafer and snails. Alternately, some people squash them on the tank glass

 

[Bloo]

I sometimes get a malaysian trumpet snail or two in on plants - that's why I tend to wash plants extremely well before putting them into a tank. But if you do spot them, just fish them out by hand. I haven't had snails in over 2 years now.

 

[-*-MicHAeL-*-]

clown loaches kill snails hav u got room for one

 

[Bloo]

Not malaysian trumpet snails though. And before recommending a clown loach - please mention in the same breath that they require a 75 gallon tank minimum and at least 3 or more in a group

 

[fishwatcher]

I don't know why people hate snails... I have them in my tank, and I see no damage to anything. They just crawl around and eat whatever it is they eat. I esp like the trumpet snails as they help turn my sand.
If you ever see a big explosion of them, it's probably due to overfeeding. It seems to go hand-in-hand. You can always just pick them out though if you dislike them. I've heard floating a piece of lettuce overnight attracts them, but I'm not sure.
Anyway, good luck!

 

[glolite]

Not malaysian trumpet snails though. And before recommending a clown loach - please mention in the same breath that they require a 75 gallon tank minimum and at least 3 or more in a group

and they don't always eat snails anyway, mine don't.

 

[3fsh]

I think Malaysian Trumpet Snails are extremely beneficial to tanks because they are like mini gravel vacs!!! I went to vacuum the gravel in my 12g the other day, and absolutely nothing came out. It was perfectly clean. If you have Ramshorns or some other related snail, however, they will eat your live plants. The easiest way to keep down their numbers is to drop an algae wafer in at night and throw it away along with all of the snails attached to it in the morning. Something else I've found out that kills them is having salt in their water.

 

[Maroonostrich]

Thank you everyone.

I definitely can't fit a batch of clown loaches in my pretty small tank so I just hope that I don't have too many more!

I spend a lot of time staring at the plants at the moment, haven't seen anything else yet, but I'll keep you posted!

 

[Maroonostrich]

Aaaargh there's one of the little blighters! I'm going to bed, I'll pull him out later... grrrrr

 

[willtang3000]

ive never had snails before and how do they get to your tanks?

 

[@ombomb]

They come attached to plant from the fish shop.

Don't really bother me, they're harmless enough.

 

[Polardbear]

I had a little snail hitch hike a ride on a plant. Within a few weeks he had multiplied into an army of snails determined to take over my tanks. His friends even managed to sneak over to my other tanks and begin a multi front attack. I finally gave up on the 55 gal last weekend and stripped it down completely, washed everything and replaced the gravel with sand. Everything including the filters was infested with the little monsters. Trust me, it was not a fun project. Last night I went after them in my 75 gallon tank, a good 6 hours of work crushing them and cleaning plants. The swordies enjoyed it though, they were all crowding around my hand waiting for me to crush one.

Some snails are desireable, but unless you are certain of what type it is and if it's something you want in your tank, kill it now!

 

[love cichlids]

I had bought a new plant and at least a month later i saw one, only one snail in the tank that had gotten bigger. I kept it and is still in the tank and is doing well. Thankfully there was only one and i didn't see him when he was tiny, he was hiding in another plant that is in a pot until he was big enough to come out and say hi