Snails In Playty Tank

[orange shark]

Hi,

Yesterday I found 1 snail in my platy tank and now i have three. I think they must be from the plants but I was wondering if it was safe to keep them in their. They have a black shell and a white body. (Not the most descriptive description).

Thanks Jack

 

[theotheragentm]

Snails are safe for your fish, but they may eat your plants. A better description on the snail is necessary to see whether it will eat your plants and also if it will breed like crazy. You may just want to remove it if i you see it. I have them in my 10 gallon tank I use as a nursery and sick tank, and I can't control their population. They muliply with the amount of food in the tank available to them. Black with a white body sounds like a Mystery Snail to me and most are not harmful to plants, but those are much less common than your general Malaysian Trumpet Snails and pond snails. A picture is best to identify them.

 

[theotheragentm]

Snails aren't harmful, except possibly to plants so it's a preference on whether or not you want to remove them. They won't compete with fish for food as they are more like garbage pick up. If you do run into a problem with snail population, copper kills of invertibrates. That's why people treat plants with copper before tossing them into tanks.

 

[orange shark]

thanks for the replys

 

[james1971]

Snails are safe for your fish, but they may eat your plants. A better description on the snail is necessary to see whether it will eat your plants and also if it will breed like crazy. You may just want to remove it if i you see it. I have them in my 10 gallon tank I use as a nursery and sick tank, and I can't control their population. They muliply with the amount of food in the tank available to them. Black with a white body sounds like a Mystery Snail to me and most are not harmful to plants, but those are much less common than your general Malaysian Trumpet Snails and pond snails. A picture is best to identify them.

I have a similar situation in my 2nd tank. I have been trying to decide what to do for a couple of weeks. the other day I counted 23 of them ( all about 5-10mm Long )

James1971

 

[orange shark]

yes, i have counted 8 now and it has been 5 days

 

[theotheragentm]

They will continually increase in numbers. Placing a piece of lettuce in the tank and pulling it out with all snails attached helps curb the population, but it won't completely put it to 0.

 

[kpintheshed]

i have lots of brown ones. but i dont mind them they are very active and clean ur tank

 

[theotheragentm]

i have lots of brown ones. but i dont mind them they are very active and clean ur tank

Color is not an indication of what type of snail you truly have in your tank. Most likely you have a common pond snail, but some are harmful to plants and others are not at all.