Snails?

[historyreader]

Help! While doing a water change, I found tiny snails, SNAILS!, I have no idea how they got in my tank--- and no idea how to get them out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Essjay]

If you have live plants, they arrived on those either as snails or eggs.

Snails are actually an important part of a tank's ecosystem. They are only a problem when their numbers are out of control - and they do this when they have a lot of food. If you make sure not to overfeed the fish, and clean the bottom of the tank when you do your weekly water changes, that will keep their numbers under control.

 

[historyreader]

Ok--- so I navigated this site and find the info on snail species, these are the kind that you want in the tank. I have a 100 gallon tank home to a huge plecotomus. I'm surprised to see these snails, I haven't added plants in 2-3 years! So to find something that I didn't put there is disconcerting. So, I really shouldn't worry about them???

 

[Essjay]

Just leave them there and don't over feed the fish. They are good things to have in a tank. A lot of people panic when they find snails thinking they must be bad but they are not provided their numbers are kept under control be limiting their food supply.

As for how they got there, have you added anything to the tank recently? Anything at all.....

 

[JuiceBox52]

Have you added any new fish? Mine came in the fish bag