Snails In Betta Tank

[Mayu]

Well, I was having issues with green algae in my betta tank no matter how many times I did a water change. Levels looked good, it just kept coming back.

So I did a larger water change, cleaned off the decorations, replaced some of the silk plants with real ones, and by the suggestion of a few websites and by the petstore fish guy... I bought a snail... a single snail.

now there are like 20 itty bitty snails in my tank. They're cute... but it's a bit much, I even found one hanging off my betta. I thought I'd have to net him and pull it off, but it fell off on it's own.

What do I do to control the population as they say? I'm very careful not to over feed... I do water changes once a week to control the algae...

do I scoop them out, and remove the live plants? Do I get rid of all the snails all together (including the momma who gave birth to them?) Should I leave some because they can be beneficial? What should I do?

 

[rebrn]

Get your self an olive nerite snail they don't reporduce in fresh water (they have to have salt or brackish water for the eggs to hatch) and they are great algae eaters. I have one in my betta tank and he does an awesome job. I also have some in my other tanks and have yet to have a popultion explosion.

You may have also gotton some extra snails as hitchkikers on the live plants. I here if you put a lettuce leaf in the tank the snails will go onto it to eat and that might be easier to get them out.

If you are in the states here is a link where I got my olive nerite snails from: http/www.bobstropicalplants.com/store/catalog/index.php?cPath=25

This was the only site I found where you didn't have to buy a ton of them and shipping isn't bad eithor. $2 for one or $15 for 10 shipping is roughly $7.00, and I would reccommend purchasing a heat pack ($2) for your shipment here is the link for the heat pack http/www.bobstropicalplants.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=35

 

[Mayu]

I have a little one gallon tank I was going to use to temporarily raise fry... until I realized it was too small to have a heater...

I kept in running for whatever reason... and the water quality is pretty good.

could I just put the babies in there? I hate the idea of letting them die. Momma isn't a very big snail so they shouldn't get too big either... maybe leave a few in the tank to eat whatever algae comes up... put the rest in the small tank until I come up with a better solution.

 

[rebrn]

You can do that if you would prefer, or you can leave them. Just with most snails if you are not careful they will continue to breed and breed and breed, so if you decide to keep them this might be an ongoing problem. Usually a snail population explosion is a sign of over feeding, but you said you don't over feed so the only other explanation I have would be they came in on your plants. Eithor way, now that you have more than one snail, you may be battling this problem for a while if you decide to keep them.

 

[Mayu]

I may call the local "fish guy" and see if he's willing to take some of them when the get a bit bigger. I just hate to let them die. It's not their fault I didn't know you didn't need a male to reproduce. I completely forgot most snails have both male and female reproductive organs so they can breed a-sexually.

I may not have a choice if "fish guy" can't take some of them off my hands... but I'm going to try to do what I can to save a few. Who knows... they may be beneficial when I eventually get my 30 gallon tank up and running, and my 75 gallon tank I want to get next month.

 

[rebrn]

I totally understand, I hated the idea of killing mine, luckily I found someone willing to take them, but still if I didn't have that option I wasn't sure if I could out right kill them. If you can find someone to take them look into the olive nerite snail, they are great little snails and no danger of breeding if you have freshwater tanks, they will lay eggs, but the eggs won't hatch unless in brackish or salt water so you really don't have to worry about over population with them. Some people don't like the eggs, they say they are ugly, and they kind of are, but I find with the weekly gravel vaccuming they aren't too bad, and I think some of my fish might be eating the eggs because I don't seem to have as many as I should! Also check the wanted section in the classifieds of this fourm I vaguely remember someone looking for rams horn snails, which is probably the ones you have.

 

[Assaye]

IMO, there is nothing wrong with snails. Sure, they might not look sexy but I don't think it's worth getting rid of them (which usually entails killing them).

What kind of snails are they? If they are something desireable like apple snails, you could sell them or give them away to other fish keepers. If you can't do that, just keep feedings to a minimum, do a gravel clean after each feed and keep the tank clean of algae in the glass. If they have nothing to eat, they'll die off a bit.

Might not be babies from your snail. Might just have come in on the plants. As I said, they'll die off naturally if you carefully control the food.

 

[Mayu]

I'm not sure what kind of snail any of them are. However, I think you're right, I think the baby snails probably came with the plants and are now just big enough to see crawling around. But they're so cute.

I'm going to use the lettuce to try to catch some, put them in my other 1 gallon tank until they get a tad bigger, and see if the local fish guy wants some of them for the store's tanks.

I'm considering going back to silk plants and just doing more frequent water changes to take care of green algae. I'd rather just focus on keeping the fish healthy instead of worrying about keeping the fish happy and the live plants alive. I've done well with silk plants in the past.

I dunno. lol