Snails Have Appeared....

[rms]

Hi,
 
Part of me is tripping out here. Part of me is wondering if this is a bad sign. Part of me is thinking 'haha, you didn't know this would happen....?!!' And finally, part of me is just remarking at starting this hobby and bloody glad I did....
 
Snails have literally appeared in my tank from no where. 
 
Perplexed......!!

 

[BrianMcC]

bought new plants?

 

[BerryAttack]

snails will eat left over food/algae etc.. i find that they are good and usually don't care if they populate... i find that when they are on the glass you can see their mouth and its interesting lol
 
anyways of you don't want them put a piece of lettuce before turning the lights off, in the morning they should be on it.. remove it and repeat until you believe you have them all.

 

[rms]

Nope. They've been in since I got up and running. 4 weeks. Maybe I just didn't notice them before. Damn. There was me thinking I'd become a 'creator'
 
Still. It's an awesome suprise. As long as they help....

 

[Nordk]

Snails are notorious for hitch-hiking into tanks by way of live plants and other means. Provided that you don't overfeed, you shouldn't have any problems, they'll boom and then die off to a manageable poplation. There's plenty of ways to keep their numbers down, such as what BerryAttack suggested or getting an assassin snail or 2, and those that aren't removed can be a convenient cleanup crew, though some can munch on your plants.
Here's a thread you can use to ID them: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/75554-snail-species/

 

[rms]

Oh I don't mind them at all. Populate? As in breed? Just how many can I expect? I'm all for a free offering of clean-up crew though...

    people....

 

[Nordk]

Snails will typically boom and it looks like they're taking over the tank, but if you make sure you're not overfeeding, you'll end up with a manageable ammount, exact numbers vary and depend alot on your tank size.

 

[hrtattk73]

if they become problematic, grab a pair of yo yo loaches. they will decimate your snail colony and provide a good looking addition to your tank. assuming you have a large enough tank. minimum size imo, would be 29g or 75liter equivalent.

 

[rms]

This tank is only 60ltr, but thanks for the info. It, along with other info, gets stored for when I have my 200ltr Discus tank up and running. Yo Yo's might not be compatible, but these things will be checked out.

 

[Ch4rlie]

I found I had snails too, hitch hiked in from new plants I bought from LFS. Thought I cleaned and rinsed the new plants thoroughly to make sure no snails........hah! Wishful thinking!
 
I have a 90 litre tank and theres about, say 15 or so snails in my tank now. TBH i don't mind them at all and help to keep algae at bay, I do have 2 assassin snails though to help keep snail population under control.......sort of!
 
Like has been mentioned above, try not to overfeed, as more snails is pretty much a sure sign of overfeeding!
 
If you don't mind them, just leave them alone and get a couple of assassin snails if you want and they are interesting snails in their own right!
 
And I find I suck up a few snails during gravel clean, I don't return them back to tank, and you could as a occasional treat for the fish, break the shells off the snails and give main body to the fish, they love them! 
At least mine do!