Snails!

Michelleuk · Jun 9, 2009

Hi

Can you idenfied the attached snails?

If you need clearer pics please let me know.

Can they live in coldwater?
Thanks

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any one own assassin snails? - do they breed a lot? will they eat baby fish?

AdAndrews · Jun 9, 2009

Michelleuk said:
Hi

Can you idenfied the attached snails?

If you need clearer pics please let me know.

Can they live in coldwater?
Thanks

[URL="http/s131.photobucket.com/albums/p317/michelleuk/"]http/s131.photobucket.com/albums/p317/michelleuk/[/URL]

they are just a pest snail, not sure of species, if you want to get rid of them you should cut down on feeding, pick anyout that you can, and possibly as a last resort use WORMER PLUS, which kills snails and other pests such as parisites, but its safe for plants, fish, shrimp, most things- just not snails lol

Jazzzz · Jun 9, 2009

giant ramshorn I acctuall like them and deliberatly introduced them, They seem quiet slow at reproducing to me so just remove a few big ones everytime the population gets to big

Night61 · Jun 9, 2009

i have to disagree. they do look like a mix of ramhorn and pond snails. cutting down on your feeding is the best way to control the population. however using any kind of snail killing product will harm invertebrates that includes shrimp which are also invertebrates!
chemicals should always be a last resort because the chemicals can linger in the tank for a long time. making it difficult to put any kind of invert in your tank after.

did you purchase these snails or did they suddenly appear?

saltynay · Jun 9, 2009

I think they are a mix of tadpole (pond) snails and ramshorns possibly giant but its hard to get a scale reference. If you like them but want to control the population don't feed your fish excessively and perhaps get a couple of assassin snails as they will limit but not eradicate population growth unless in excessive numbers.

joncairns · Jun 9, 2009

Clown loaches love to eat snails,maybe if you introduced a few that would do the trick.I have also heard of assassin snails which apparently bump them off,the forum that includes inverts will have more info on snails.

Jon :good:

Lorraine1983 · Jun 9, 2009

joncairns said:
Clown loaches love to eat snails,maybe if you introduced a few that would do the trick.I have also heard of assassin snails which apparently bump them off,the forum that includes inverts will have more info on snails.

Jon

I havent bought any of them... But i am tempted... may do a little research on them first to make sure they will be OK in my tank. I have loads of the things.. they seem to come off the plants. Are they harmful to the fish or cause any diseases??

Michelleuk · Jun 9, 2009

They appeared. They came of the plants I brought of ebay. They were ment to be form snail free tanks!

Would they be ok to put in the local lake?

Night61 · Jun 9, 2009

no do not introduce non native species to any environment that why there trying to pass laws against fish keeping.
take them to a fish store or find some way to have them killed but do not and i repeat DO NOT put them in a local lake. they will overrun local populations.

AdAndrews · Jun 9, 2009

sailornight6 said:
no do not introduce non native species to any environment that why there trying to pass laws against fish keeping.
take them to a fish store or find some way to have them killed but do not and i repeat DO NOT put them in a local lake. they will overrun local populations.

this is true, i would get them all out, and kill them.

Cdarmychi · Jun 9, 2009

with the pond snails, just take them out. and check your filter, it took me a looong time to figure out half of those snails are in my filter...lol

Michelleuk · Jun 13, 2009

any one own assassin snails? - do they breed a lot? will they eat baby fish?

Cdarmychi · Jun 13, 2009

if a snail catches a baby fish, there was most likely something wrong with the fish to begin with honestly. So you should be good on that....not too sure on the breeding though.

Sakura

saltynay · Jun 13, 2009

Assassin snails will eat a baby fish but only once it is dead in the bottom of the tank and if they are able to eat the meat with their relatively tiny mouths. They are a sexed spcies of snail, so a male and female would be needed to breed, they lay their eggs on strong stem plants as individual eggs. The spawns are quite small and you won't see the babies for the next 5+ months as they live near constantly in the substrate so sand is favoured. If you don't have any "pest" snails then they can be fed carnivorous catfish pellets plus treats every so often

KieranP · Jun 14, 2009

I have assassin snails. they are great for getting rid of pest snails.
they hardly ever breed as they are not hemaphrodites, meaning they are designated males and females unlike normal snails.
they dont spawn like normal snails either so the number of offspring is incredibly low
they have really cut down the number of pest snails and im very happy with them. i would really recommend them.
the problem is if you run out of snails for them to feed on they need to be fed. they will accept andy food with meat content, like shrimp pelets or anything like that. they also look amazing.
and no they are far far too slow to eat any baby fish unless they are dead which is actually doing you a favour!

just realised the person above wrote something very similar! oh well never hurts to have 2 pieces of advice