Why Will They Not Die!

[snork6]

So a couple months ago I decided to be dumb and got some FREE snails from a my LFS. I had heard that they reproduce like crazy but like I said I was dumb and ignored it......1 month later my tank was over flowing with snails

  I started off with 4 and a month later I had 30. so I took some of the snails from the tank and put them in with my guppy fry in the 5 gallon tank. One month later I had around 100 in my main tank (it probably isn't 100 but it fills like it) and 40 in my fry tank. So being the kind person I am, I removed my guppy fry from the tank and put the 5 gallon tank through the dark ages and starved all the snails...........It didn't work so I stopped starving them and put the guppy fry back in (they were not really enjoying the 2 gallon tank I had them in anyway) So my question is WHY WILL THEY NOT DIE!!!! also any ideas how to get them out of the 5 gallon tank?

 

[NickAu]

In my opinion snails are beneficial as long as they don't eat the plants, They clean up and some even burrow thru the substrate ( same benefit as worms in soil ).
 
I have found you only really get a mayor snail problem when there is lots of food in the tank, I have also found that after a while the numbers tend to stabilise, In my six foot tank I have around 30 pond snails and the numbers seems stable, I also have a bunch of those cone shaped ones they live in the substrate no idea on numbers, I have counted as many as 17 on the glass at night, most of the time i don't see them.
 
Others will tell you how to get rid of them.
 
You could get one of those small green nets and once a week when you do a water change scoop out any snails you see.
Like I said just my opinion.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Pond / common snails, as NickAU says, can be more beneficial to aquarium than not as they do get rid of debris and help a little with algae.
 
http/www.planetinverts.com/pond_snail.html
 
Whilst a lot of folks find these snails unsightly and wish to get rid of them, there are several methods you can try.
 
Most obvious is getting a copper based chemical treatment, this will kill all the snails but be warned, they will also kill any shrimps and nerite snails you may wish to keep. And copper can be tricky to get rid of from your tank.
 
You can get or even make simple traps for these snails, easiest one is to get lettuce leaf, leave in tank overnight, remove the lettuce with snails then repeat, this is not a fast way but its easy.
 
You make a trap with a bottle cut about 1/3 off the top and put the bottle neck into the bottom 2/3 of the bottle add lettuce leaf or algae wafer inside and leave overnight, snails will trap themself in there but small fish, fry and shrimps do get caught in that also.
 

 
There are also a lot of types of snail traps you can purchase online fairly cheaply or do DIY.
 
Assassin snaiis, a lot of LFS do stock these, they will eradicate your snail population over time, but they do breed, albeit much slower than pond snails.
 
And there are fish species which will happily munch on snails, dwarf puffer for example but these are not really a community fish.
 
Lastly, clown loaches will eat snails too but they require a tank much larger than your 5 gals, they actually need a tank of at least 6 feet long so thats not really a feasible method.
 
Good luck in whichever method you may try.

 

[Akasha72]

As the other guys have said snails can be a good thing. I have trumpet snails (they're the cone shaped one's that bury in the substrate) and they do me the huge favour of turning my sand and keeping gases at bay. That said they do breed massively and every now and then I have to pick a few out to keep their numbers under control. I don't want to get rid of them entirely but I do need to control the number. What I do is wait until the tank lights go out and then wait for them to start climbing up the glass. I then just go in with my hand and pick them out. I do this maybe once a week.
 
I also have zebra nerite snails and these guys are brilliant. They spend their day cleaning my tank and looking beautiful.
 
If you just have pond snails or trumpets and want to control them another option is an assassin snail. The assassin snail will feast on other snails. I would get one myself but there's a chance it might try to take on my zebra's and that would be a disaster. If your not in that position then consider an assassin. They are nice to look at at least

 
EDIT
I forgot to say ... snails can also do you another huge favour. They can alert you to possible water condition problems. If you see all the snails heading out of the tank then do a water test. I've been there and they've alerted me to both low levels of Ammonia and Nitrite too.

 

[NickAu]

 
I forgot to say ... snails can also do you another huge favour. They can alert you to possible water condition problems. If you see all the snails heading out of the tank then do a water test. I've been there and they've alerted me to both low levels of Ammonia and Nitrite too.

Excellent point.

 

[snork6]

Thank you for all of the replys! I think I will just start removing a couple on the glass eavry time I do a maintenance check to the tank

 

[daizeUK]

If you see small snails on the glass, squish them against the glass and feed them to your adult guppies.  My platies will happily gobble up snails as long as the shells have been crushed for them.

 

[Fishmanic]

any snails I get tend to go onto the glass --- then I pick them out and squish them and throw them in the toilet---keeps my snail population in check