Help Snail In My Tank !

[kittencapes]

I just got home and noticed a tiny little snail in the corner of my fishtank! This was a bit of a shock - no idea how it got there and I am not terrified there will be hundreds hidden in there.

How did it get there, and what should I do?

 

[ATK!!!]

Uh-oh, you've got the same problem as me! To answer your questions, yes you probably already have at least four or five in there and even if you dont you will in a week or so's time. If you could post a pic of what it looks like that would be nice but it doesnt really matter, they're all mostly the same. It probably got in with any plants or such that you got recently, or even with any fish you bought! One of the best ways of getting rid of them is by waiting until lights out and then sticking a slightly gone off cabbage leaf in there, they swarm over it and then you simply lift them out. I bought an assasin snail though because im lazy and cant be bothered to get them out manually, this will eat up the snails before they become a problem!

 

[Caprichoso]

I just got home and noticed a tiny little snail in the corner of my fishtank! This was a bit of a shock - no idea how it got there and I am not terrified there will be hundreds hidden in there.

How did it get there, and what should I do?

Pick it out! Hopefully you don't see more. If you do, pick them out to control the population. Snails can get into your tank very easily when you get new plants, new fish...It was probably either sooo small that you didn't see it or it hatched from an egg. The eggs are hard to see because they are like clear jelly. If it hatched from an egg that was already in your tank, you can surely bet there was more than one egg
Now, once your snail population really explodes,(or if it does) you can try a couple of different natural methods to get rid of them or at least control the numbers: Assassin snails or freshwater puffers. Downside: Assassin snails- you need a few of them if you have many snails. Puffers: can be nippy towards other fish and once the snails are gone, you have to take out the puffers.
I would NOT recommend these methods: 1) Snail killing chemicals.(for obvious reasons) 2) Ripping apart you tank and starting from scratch. (that's very exteme and time consuming, plus you ruin any biological environment you have, plus it doesn't guarantee that you get them all and you will probably pick them up again at some point when you add new plants or fish anyway.
Someone once told me that snails are good luck and that they help to aerate your substrate....even so, they are still unsightly and make holes in my plants. Doesn't sound like good luck to me, lol.

 

[kiriyama]

Snails arn't all that bad a thing to have in your tank... They will eat scraps of food from the bottom and eat algae, although there are negative effects also...
If you are hit by a population explosion it's usually caused by overfeeding the tank...
If you want to remove them weigh down a slice of lettuce with a stone just before lights out, in the morning you will find some snails on there. The alternative is adding an Assassin Snail or two, they will eat the pest snails, keep the bottom of the tank clean by removing uneaten food, they won't eat plants and they don't breed as quickly as pest snails

On a side note I have some advetised in the classifieds, PM me if interested

 

[Aqua Tom]

I have seven assassin snails in my tank. i never see a pest snail for more than a day.
Assassin snails do breed, but much slower than pest snails & they have a monetery value so you can sell them on if they do breed.


Edited because of bad spelling

 

[kittencapes]

It would seem to wrong to get rid of snails by introducing more, so I think for now I will just pick them out. They are most unpleasant to look at! Will they harm my fish at all?

 

[Rynofasho]

Nope, shouldn't harm your fish. They probably hitchhiked on a plant or something. Like they said, one good option if you are looking to not add snails to remove snails is put a small glass jar in the tank with a piece of lettuce in and leave it overnight and come collect your snails in the morning.

 

[Caprichoso]

It would seem to wrong to get rid of snails by introducing more, so I think for now I will just pick them out. They are most unpleasant to look at! Will they harm my fish at all?

Assassin snails are different. They don't eat plants, just other snails and they don't breed as crazy as other snails. Plus they are very neat looking. Snails do not harm fish at all.

 

[Gvilleguy]

I know nothing about snails, but just had my first hitchhiker show up in a batch of Cherry Shrimp. It appears to be the only snail, and it has been in the tank about 3 weeks. I hope it is not the variety that can reproduce asexually...

It is interesting to hear about the assassin snails - at least an option exists if I end up with hatching pest snails.

 

[ATK!!!]

Nobody mentioned that assasin snail have to have a male and female to reproduce, this means you'll probably never have a problem with too many assasin snails. Also they do look very nice with the yellow stripes on their shell even if they do take a while to eat all the snails up (1 snail gone every 2ish days)

Hope yours dont become a problem like mine, i've already got around ten in there and my assasin snail seems to have dissapeared!

 

[Aqua Tom]

Hope yours dont become a problem like mine, i've already got around ten in there and my assasin snail seems to have dissapeared!

They like to bury themselfs in the substrate so cane be "gone" for days at a time.

I know nothing about snails, but just had my first hitchhiker show up in a batch of Cherry Shrimp. It appears to be the only snail, and it has been in the tank about 3 weeks. I hope it is not the variety that can reproduce asexually...

It probably is. The majority of aquatic snails can reproduce by themselfs, Snails are not realy a problem untill they get to plague numbers but as long as you dont overfeed your fish then it should be fine.

 

[redbug]

Another way to rid the tank of snails is to get a couple of yoyo loaches..
they cleared my tank in a week I had hundreds of snails now the only place i have snails in in my X5 filter but I don't see them
lol

 

[ATK!!!]

Hope yours dont become a problem like mine, i've already got around ten in there and my assasin snail seems to have dissapeared!

They like to bury themselfs in the substrate so cane be "gone" for days at a time.

Oh thanks, i was getting quite worried there!

About the loaches, you shouldnt get them if your tank is small as they do grow rather larg (dont yoyo loaches grow up to 6inches, sorry if im wrong)

woops i quoted myself instead of Aqua Tom (thanks for the advice)

 

[kittencapes]

There is no way I am having a loach in the tank, I am shuddering at the thought! I haven't seen any more yet but I will be removing them pronto if they show up!

 

[ATK!!!]

Hahaha that bad eh, i think some of them look quite cute but i dont have a big enough tank for them