Unwanted Snails

[max123]

I looked at my tank the other day and noticed 2 snails on the glass, i do not know where they came from. will they cause any harm to the tank? why are they there?

 

[Tuxyu3]

Pictures would be nice but not entirely necessary. Most likely they came in with some plants or something you recently added to the tank. They should do no damage but depending on what kind they are may breed and eat plants, if they do breed it can be a sign of too much leftover food. If you don't want them then just crush them and feed them to the fish (if you have any). You can get things to poison them but i would use that as a last resort as those poisons are often copper-based which are harmful to all invertebrates and scaleless fish. Massive die-offs of snails can also cause an ammonia spike.

 

[max123]

ok thanks

 

[Tuxyu3]

I also forgot to mention that if you do use copper-based medication it will stay in the system for a long time until you remove it with carbon, any invertebrates you add while copper is in the system may become ill or die.

 

[max123]

Ok thanks

 

[Mamashack]

Glad I found this topic as I recently added some new live plants to my aquarium and within a week found 2 unwanted visitors! They looked to be feeding on the plants so I crushed them and left them for the fish to eat. Will the crushed shells contribute to water hardness? If so that will be a help as my water is quite soft at around 3d KH and 10-16d GH.

 

[RCA]

Get an Assassin Snail, they will eat them, I have no pest snails since introducing them to my planted tanks.  They are fairly pretty and spend a lot of time buried in the substrate, plus they stay fairly small.  Do not get more than one unless you want them to breed, although to be honest personally I have found this beneficial, as I get a few more to kill off any pest snails.  Plus they eat any bits of food on the bottom that the other bottom feeders miss.

 

[Mamashack]

Get an Assassin Snail, they will eat them, I have no pest snails since introducing them to my planted tanks.  They are fairly pretty and spend a lot of time buried in the substrate, plus they stay fairly small.  Do not get more than one unless you want them to breed, although to be honest personally I have found this beneficial, as I get a few more to kill off any pest snails.  Plus they eat any bits of food on the bottom that the other bottom feeders miss.

Thanks RCA I like the idea that they eat the leftovers on the bottom of the tank, but I have heard that they can produce quite a lot of waste. Is that true?

 

[CezzaXV]

Glad I found this topic as I recently added some new live plants to my aquarium and within a week found 2 unwanted visitors! They looked to be feeding on the plants so I crushed them and left them for the fish to eat. Will the crushed shells contribute to water hardness? If so that will be a help as my water is quite soft at around 3d KH and 10-16d GH.

 
 
In theory yes, but in reality not enough to be at all noticeable.

 

[the_lock_man]

Get an Assassin Snail, they will eat them, I have no pest snails since introducing them to my planted tanks.  They are fairly pretty and spend a lot of time buried in the substrate, plus they stay fairly small.  Do not get more than one unless you want them to breed, although to be honest personally I have found this beneficial, as I get a few more to kill off any pest snails.  Plus they eat any bits of food on the bottom that the other bottom feeders miss.

Thanks RCA I like the idea that they eat the leftovers on the bottom of the tank, but I have heard that they can produce quite a lot of waste. Is that true?

 
No it's not. Quite the opposite.

 

[David J]

I also forgot to mention that if you do use copper-based medication it will stay in the system for a long time until you remove it with carbon, any invertebrates you add while copper is in the system may become ill or die.

I have at least 8 pond snails in my tank which came in on plants that I introduced. Firstly, while this is my first experience of this, copper based medication did not kill any snails. I noticed my first snail on the evening after medicating the tank for white spot and to my knowledge no snails died. I removed the medication using carbon but it was present in the tank for a week before adding the carbon.

Regarding the assassin snail. A couple of folks have suggested getting them to deal with the pest snails and that the assassins will also clean up any leftover food on the bottom. I just wanted to say that I has considered getting assassins if these pest snails started getting out of control. Before going down that route I decided to cut feeding from twice daily to once daily. Even with that there is always food on my sand. I have no bottom feeders yet but I see the snails eating it. Since they arrived my midweek maintenance takes no time at all.

I guess what I'm saying is, you could consider waiting with the assassins and see how it goes. Identify the snails you have, read up on them and make sure you are not over feeding which will keep the snail numbers under control. When I started my tank, I really wanted it to be natural and while i wasn't happy with these snails at first, I feel they are quite natural and seem to do a good job cleaning up the bottom and the glass.

All of that said, if they do turn out to breed like rabbits there will be an assassin heading into my tank without delay.

David

 

[Mamashack]

Thanks everyone. I've been ruthless in squishing the 2 I've found so far and letting the fish eat the remains. If I find any more, I'll consider all your advice before deciding which path to go down.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I started getting a bit sick to my stomach after squishing a bunch of pond snails (they're live beings too, after all) and so invested in a few assassins. I put some in each of my tanks and after a few months hardly ever see a pond snail. The assassins are very pretty IMO, and I'm glad I have them!

 

[Mamashack]

I started getting a bit sick to my stomach after squishing a bunch of pond snails (they're live beings too, after all) and so invested in a few assassins. I put some in each of my tanks and after a few months hardly ever see a pond snail. The assassins are very pretty IMO, and I'm glad I have them!

You are quite right and if I get any more uninvited snails I will definitely consider getting an assassin. How many should I get - would it depend on the amount of snail infestation or the tank size? I have a 60L with platies only.

 

[RCA]

I was told that an Assassin will eat one snail a day, so it depends how many pest snails you have.  As previously advised first decide if you want your Assassin Snails to breed, as believe me they will.  As I have stated this does not bother me as it has provided me with a supply of them to source all of my aquariums and they generally disappear during the day under the substrate.  Plus baby Assassin Snails are quite cute

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