Too....many...snailssss....

[AmtotheBurr]

I had a pair of what I believe were mystery snails from petsmart. They had 2 or 3 clutches of eggs, so I decided to give one of the adults away so they couldn't mate anymore. Suprise, 2 days later there were more eggs so I figured she must of been pregnant when he left.
Then another clutch after that!
Then I just found ANOTHER and the male snail has been gone for a month now.
How is this possible?
There's like over 100 snails in the tank now easily.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Common snails can produce asexually, meaning they do not need to have male or female partner to fertilise eggs, they can do this themselves!
 
Sounds like you're begining to be overrun with snails.
 
There are several methods you can try to keep the snail population down.
 
DIY snail traps using bottles or plastic boxes with holes and some lettuce or veggies for the snails to be lured in.
 
You can purchase snail traps online fairly inexpensively.
 
Assasin snails, they will hunt and eat any pest snails, though not a fast remedy but it works. And these assassins can breed, albeit at a much slower rate.
 
There are one or two secies of fish that eats snails, such as puffer fish and clown loaches though both these need specific set ups and tank sizes.
 
 
One of the most common rules when comes to snails, do not OVERFEED the tank.
 
Good luck in whichever method you choose and let us know your progress.

 

[AmtotheBurr]

I can drop an algae wafer in and 80% will flock to it by the next day. A local fish store will take all my unwanted babies. These snails aren't reproducing yet, it's just 1 adult having tons of babies. I hate scraping the eggs into the tank or garbage. Guess it's time to get rid of the grown snail. I've just never had this issue before where it lays eggs without another snail

 

[StevenF]

Next time you may want to consider Nerite snails.  They live in fresh water but only reproduce in brackish water.  They are very good at cleaning the glass  of the tank and  the substrate.  they do occasionally get on the leaves of larger plants but often they don't do any damage to the leaves.

 

[Wildbetta]

Female mystery snails can hold sperm for months after mating with a male -- just like live bearing fish (guppies, mollies).  So you could possibly see egg clutches for up to months after removing the male.  My recommendation is to keep the water level raised all the way.  Mystery snails have to come out of the water to lay their eggs so if there is nowhere above water level to lay them -- they they won't lay.   It is easy to keep mystery snail populations in check simply for the fact that they lay their eggs above water and those egg clutches are easy to remove and throw out.  

Nerites are all around nice snails to have and are one of the best algae eaters (although they are a bit slow and lazy).   However I find their habit of laying eggs all over the tank a bit annoying.  Especially since there is nothing going to come of these eggs except them just being stuck to everything in the tank.  Like little super glued sesame seeds -- very difficult to get off.

 

[AmtotheBurr]

 Mystery snails have to come out of the water to lay their eggs so if there is nowhere above water level to lay them -- they they won't lay

She just lays them in my aquarium hood if the water is raised
I'm going to get 2 assassin snails I think to control the population

 

[Wildbetta]

 

 Mystery snails have to come out of the water to lay their eggs so if there is nowhere above water level to lay them -- they they won't lay

She just lays them in my aquarium hood if the water is raised

I'm going to get 2 assassin snails I think to control the population
 

  I have only had mine do that once but that was when I had one of those standard black hoods.  Once I moved them to a tank with the flat glass hood, it never happened again.  Must have had more room with the black hood.  LOL

Assassins might help control the population but I am not real sure since I have never seen or heard of anyone using assassins to control mystery snail populations.   I guess since population control is actually relatively easy compared to most other snails with the clutches being easily accessible to remove and get rid of.
 
I wish you luck with the assassins though.  You will like them even if they don't work the way you want them to.  Gorgeous snails in their own right and will readily eat fish food if needed.

 

[wimaloz]

I have many snail too.. in my all guppy tank
but still their is a lot more algea growing anywhere
what might be the problem?

 

[wimaloz]

I had a pair of what I believe were mystery snails from petsmart. They had 2 or 3 clutches of eggs, so I decided to give one of the adults away so they couldn't mate anymore. Suprise, 2 days later there were more eggs so I figured she must of been pregnant when he left.
Then another clutch after that!
Then I just found ANOTHER and the male snail has been gone for a month now.
How is this possible?
There's like over 100 snails in the tank now easily.

zebra danio may work too in decreasing snail population