Small Snails

[L_Plates]

Found 2 very small snails in my tank must have come from the plants that went in not so long ago. To small for a picture and i have no idea what they are. Would you recommend to take them out ?

 

[Caprichoso]

Yes, they are probably pond snails and you will probably find more. Just pick them out as you see them and they won't cause a problem for you. If you want snails, pick a variety that doesn't eat plants and that serve some kind of a purpose. For example, the Malaysian Trumpet Snail bury themselves in the substrate and aerate it. The wild Spixi Snail eats hyrda...etc. My main issue with pond snails is that they leave small holes in my plants and so therefore I remove them.

 

[L_Plates]

Ahhh so thats where my plants leaves have been going

 

[jkilby]

I don't know if they are the same but I had some really tiny snails turn up in my tank a few weeks after I put new plants in (nothing else new had gone into the tank). Only a couple of mm in size, one morning I had two, next morning over 20, I put half a dozen assassin snails into my 200 litre tank and within a few hours they had eaten all of the little buggers and I haven't seen a single one since.

 

[Caprichoso]

Ahhh so thats where my plants leaves have been going

Lol, maybe, they usually only become a huge problem if you have many snails. Snail populations can get out of hand quickly if you are overfeeding or if there is an abundance of detritus. I'm sure you can keep it from becoming a problem. I go on a weekly snail hunt, lol or you can put a piece of lettuce or blanched spinach overnight in the tank and in the morning before any light, take it out and there will be snails all over it!

 

[L_Plates]

I don't know if they are the same but I had some really tiny snails turn up in my tank a few weeks after I put new plants in (nothing else new had gone into the tank). Only a couple of mm in size, one morning I had two, next morning over 20, I put half a dozen assassin snails into my 200 litre tank and within a few hours they had eaten all of the little buggers and I haven't seen a single one since.

Yep 2-3 mm tops, ill fish them out as i find them.

 

[Monty-2010]

You could get some assassin snails, they'll get rid of any unwanted snails, eat up scraps found lying around and they look pretty decent

 

[XFiSh_CichildX]

i would reccomend assassin snails there class looking and do the job kiryama on here sells them

 

[L_Plates]

Cheers i will look into the Assassin Snails.

 

[Caprichoso]

Cheers i will look into the Assassin Snails.

To eliminate snails using Assassin snails, you will require approx. 1 snail per 2 gallons of tank. I had a 30g with only 1 assassin snail and he couldn't keep up with the growing populations. If you plan on picking them out in conjunction with an assassin snail, then you will not require that many. Once the pest snails are gone, you can still keep the assassin snails but their diet will have to be supplemented with other protein food(flakes, pellets, etc). The assassin snail will NOT eat plants. They are very pretty snails and interesting to watch. I do have yet to see an actual "take down" though...I suspect they do hunting at night. On average, they will eat 1 snail per day.

 

[jkilby]

I have 6 assassins in my 200 litre tank and they decimated my snail problem (around 20-30 snails) in less than three hours and I haven't seen any since, just the assassins patrolling the tank, clearing up flakes that the fish leave behind. They are pretty, don't get very large (only between 2-3 cm) and boy can they shift accross the sand when they want to. they also bury themselves in the sand and rummage around in it which helps to aeriate it.

 

[Caprichoso]

I have 6 assassins in my 200 litre tank and they decimated my snail problem (around 20-30 snails) in less than three hours and I haven't seen any since, just the assassins patrolling the tank, clearing up flakes that the fish leave behind. They are pretty, don't get very large (only between 2-3 cm) and boy can they shift accross the sand when they want to. they also bury themselves in the sand and rummage around in it which helps to aeriate it.

Did you get to see the "attack"? I hear it's pretty cool. I've only ever seen mine eating a cherry shrimp. Sadly, the shrimp was still alive and was shaking and twitching. I think the shrimp had just moulted and was vulnerable.

 

[StandbySetting]

Assassin snails are only capable of eating 2-3 small snails a week, standard pond snails are fine, their numbers are easily controlled and they're a very good indicator of whether you're over feeding or not, if you suddenly find that you have a massive boom in snail population in your tank, then that would indicate that there is a lot of decaying waste lying in the bottom of the tank, this will more than likely be due to left over food, but decaying plant matter could be a source also. Pond snails are good at cleaning up soft algae's on the walls of the tank and on plants. If you want to get rid of them without picking them out, take a slice of cucumber, weight it so it sinks and leave it for a day, then pick it out the next morning, the snails should be feeding on the cucumber, so you can remove quite a few at once.

 

[jkilby]

I have 6 assassins in my 200 litre tank and they decimated my snail problem (around 20-30 snails) in less than three hours and I haven't seen any since, just the assassins patrolling the tank, clearing up flakes that the fish leave behind. They are pretty, don't get very large (only between 2-3 cm) and boy can they shift accross the sand when they want to. they also bury themselves in the sand and rummage around in it which helps to aeriate it.

Did you get to see the "attack"? I hear it's pretty cool. I've only ever seen mine eating a cherry shrimp. Sadly, the shrimp was still alive and was shaking and twitching. I think the shrimp had just moulted and was vulnerable.

Not seen an attack yet, just witnessed first hand the lack of little snails in the tank after introducing the assassins. I do keep an eye out in case I can see one, but as of yet no luck on that score. I can only asume that the cherry that you saw being eaten was weak before hand, as my cherry's are in the tank with my assassins and they are certainly quick to get out the way of anything that gets near them, without a doubt the shrimp are the fastest things in my tank.