Snails Appeared Out Of Nowhere?!

[Berkshirebelle]

Hi, looking round my tank this evening and I notice what looks like little brown bugs stuck to the side of the tank- about 10 of them- all come out of nowhere- and upon closer inspection, they look like snails. But we never put snails in- and we haven't put anything new in the tank for the past maybe 2 weeks- bizarre??! I don't know where they've come from. But there looks like there could be a few, so will loads and loads appear. Do I leave them or get rid of them??! Thanks!

Also, can fish become depressed in their surroundings?? We got a Molly 2/3 weeks ago- he started off so lively around the tank but now he just hides all day behind the filter. He use to get excited like the other two about feeding time but now just appears when most the food has gone, and so doesnt eat a lot. He's not under attack by the other two, a guppy and a dwarf guarami, so to me he just looks sad could he be? Thanks!

 

[Ludwig Venter]

If you see so many of them already, I doubt if the spreading can be stopped other than getting a yoyo loach... They (the snails) multiply rapidly to unsightly porportions and are normally transported on the leaves of new plants you purchase (or the eggs - a jelly-like blob on the leaves).

Your second question, I've had Mollies being cheerful for many years without a male or female partner... There must be some underlaying reason for his behaviour... (I know the first indications of "shimmies" is a withdrawall eventually leading up to the shimmering).... Are there no other symptoms apparent?.... Mollies likes some salt in their water, & maybe the store where you got it did add salt and now you've got him in fresh water so the sudden pH change is a bit of a shock to its system.

 

[OldMan47]

What are your water parameters BerkshireBelle?
As Ludwig said, mollies do like a high mineral content water as sometimes takes salt to establish. I don't have that problem because my water is quite hard from the faucet. Mollies also like a rather high pH. Mine thrive in a pH of 7.8 but anything over about 7.5 would probably work.
Another concern I have, noticing that you are new here and may be new to the hobby, is that the tank may not have been set up very long. What kind of readings do you get for nitrites, nitrates and ammonia on your tank using a liquid type test kit? It will help us determine how far along you are in developing the bacterial colony that every new filter needs to establish. As far as possible try to give us the following:

pH
GH
KH
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Temperature
Maintenance practices in terms of water change frequency and magnitude, filter cleaning method and interval, feeding frequency and type of food.

 

[plecostomus-mad]

i have a relatively new tank, added live plants, 2 weeks later i noticed snails! when i removed a cave i noticed a slime like gel all over it ( snail eggs ) so i did a partial strip and got most of the snails and eggs out. this however was in vain because low and behold, there back!

 

[Berkshirebelle]

thanks for your replies everyone- I need to go back to work tonight and then I will give you all the details etc for nitrate, ammonia etc. Thanks again

 

[fishnovice]

thanks for your replies everyone- I need to go back to work tonight and then I will give you all the details etc for nitrate, ammonia etc. Thanks again

Don't worry about the snails. They are harmless and do aa good job of clearing up uneaten food and other debris from tank bottom. I actually added quite a few snails deoiberately to my tanks and they keep sand spotless. As someone has already said, snails(or their eggs) probably hitchhiked into your tank on som eplants. Just relax , you got free snails. I bought mine!

 

[unknowntbeast]

I just got some tank grass from PetSmart the 3 weeks ago and I was warned that they will probably have snails, and bam! I have had about 5 of them. I'm going to keep them in my tank cause they ain't bothering anything.

But one question, will aquarium salt kill them?

 

[waterdrop]

Salt is rarely something you want anywhere near your freshwater fish except in certain special medicinal cases or certain species situations and both of those are relatively rare. An excess of snails would definately not be a reason to use salt.

A search should find hundreds of threads on the snail topic. I and many other members have repeated what we consider to be good techniques with snails, here's a recent post:

A waterdrop snail post

~~waterdrop~~