Snail Outbreak In A Shrimp Tank - What To Do?

[superdaniel]

Hello.

My tank is being over-run by miniature brown snails. At first I thought they were pond snails, but looking at the snail species index thread, they look more like Bladder/Tadpole/Pouch Snails:

They are all around 5mm or less in size, but despite this, they seem to be laying tiny eggs all over the tank. The eggs are white, hard, little bigger than a pin-hole, and are distributed all over the place (no tight clutches/clusters), attached to plants, ornaments, and even the glass of the tank.

I know that anti-snail treatments are available, but I worry that they might kill my cherry shrimps (which seem to be doing very well). Also, I recently bought an adult "bee staghorn" nerite snail:

Which will almost certainly succumb to any treatment I use on the other snails. It has crossed my mind that the eggs may have been laid by this snail, and I suppose it could have been pregnant when I bought it, but I believe that nerite snails can only develop in brackish water, and the small snails that I keep seeing everywhere look just like the snail in the first picture.

So what should I do?!?!?

 

[TylerFerretLord]

I have the Physa sp. snails as well, and they lay their eggs in a cluster in a gelatinous mass. What you are describing doesn't sound like that. It might be the nerite laying them.

The snail treatment will almost certainly kill your shrimp, either from the treatment itself or the resulting ammonia spike from a sudden amount of decaying snails corpses.

My suggestion for dealing with the snails? Do nothing but make sure you don't overfeed. They're great little cleaners and will eat algae and left over food. If you have a lot of them it is likely you are overfeeding or have large amounts of algae. It could also be that you have just had them introduced; It's not uncommon for them to rapidly reproduce when being added to an established tank as there will be lots of food available for them.

 

[Honeythorn]

I have the exact same problem with the exact same type of snails, PLUS tiny ramshorn snails which seem to have come in on some plants I bought. I have discovered mine have been laying their jellyegg clutches under a clay pot I had. Thing is, I have no algae in that tank and only fed the fish every other-2 days so what they're eating I have no idea.

I've been removing them from the tank and currently have a load in a clean coffee jar next to the tank. I like snails but...well I don't want them in my tank and I dislike squishing them : /
as a breeding colony for food? Or should I just grit my teeth and squish them ( last resort )

 

[~T~]

You need these guys

Assassin snail

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GDalg17TGk