Snails

[Pleco102]

Hi ive just noticed a snail in my tank while feeding my fish. I haven't added any new fish or plants in 2 or so months that could have carried the snails.

Does any one know how they could have ended up in the tank?

I've removed 3 that i could find in the tank. They were a round shape.

And i do have snail away that i can add to the tank to ged rid of snails will use that if i see some more.

Just just wanted to know how tank ended up with snails.

[Zoom]

Woooa bud... slow the train a little...

Firstly... take that snail away chemical, and flush it! 99% of these snail chemicals will destroy your plants, and almost all of them will completely wipe out your filter's bacteria.
Secondly... Why would you want to get rid of snails? Their benefits FAR outway anything!!

They help with getting rid of excess food. They eat algae. They bury in the substrate and through their movement in the substrate, they prevent anaerobic conditions in the substrate, thus providing a better soil condition for you plants.

I would ALWAYS advise someone to rather CONTROL them than get rid of them. Firstly, you will more than likely never get rid of them completely in any case... if you see 3 that you have already removed, chances are there's up to 50 under the substrate somewhere, and by the time you've removed that 50, you have a few hundred eggs throughout the tank.

And they very easy to control. Simply remove the ones you can see whenever you do WC. Chuck them onto your lawn in the evenings, and let the night insects chow!

Another way to control is to get a school of clown loaches (But ensure your tank is big enough for a school of minimum 5 of them, and that the tank mates are compatible)

I still cannot fathom why people have this thing against snails. They are so much part of the food chain in your ecosystem! The moment I got 5 clown-loaches into my tank, my snail population died... BUT my algae suddenly got out of control. The excess food wasn't being removed any more, so the algae thrived on the excess nutrients... and the fact that there was no snail to eat the algae... it thrived even more!!

[jedigenie]

100% in agreement with Zoom about the benefits of having snails in your tank, also the chemicals are bad news for aquariums. Controlling the population manually is far better than any other form of pest control.

I have to say however that I totally disagree with adding Clown Loaches to your tank (or any tank for that matter) with the aim of controlling snails. This is a bit of a shotgun approach to the problem and as Zoom pointed it could also lead to other problems. Most dont realise that other fish can be just as effective in controlling snails. Starting with other smaller loaches (B. Striata, B. Histrionica, B. Rostrata), mollies and even corries have all shown to be willing and capable snail crunchers. Corries (from what I've read Pepper and Sterbai corries mostly) in particular like to munch on the snail egg clutches and the small snails. Clown Loaches have a well earned rep for killing snails but the drawbacks of getting them have to be considered as well. There are other fish that have been known to control snails as well, you might even have something that has been controlling the population for a while without you even knowing it and only a few have survived to grow large enough to see.

[Vez]

well said, even my khuli loaches like to "take down" a few small snails, so does my Female Betta, and you will know when they are getting to much, when you see that they are eating your plants, then you follow what Zoom said, and remove the bigger ones.

just my 2 c

[Pleco102]

Thanks for the info Zoom jedigenie and Vez appreciate it alot. Will definetly look into getting some corries or loaches if they are ok towards my other fish.

[jedigenie]

Only add fish as a last resort. Take out the snails manually first and check that you are not overfeeding because snails will multiply according to available food. Like I said earlier, you may already have something crunching escargot without realising it.

[DesertConvert]

Glad I spotted this thread this evening...found a snail yesterday, which was promptly removed. Another this evening. Was about to remove it, but then I figured..."I'm trying to create an ecosystem here...snails are part of that". It will all balance out eventually. As with any closed system, you get to the point of max. carrying capacity (in a nutshell: amount of food available for the growing population) . If there isn't enough food for the snails, they'll die off naturally. The number of snails in the tank probably depends on how much you feed your fish :-)

[Neville]

Delayed response from me here, but just want to second advice above: SNAIL ARE GOOD! ;-) Definitely part of a greater eco-system and adds more life to the tank. Some of my friends that visit are almost more intrigued by the snails than the fish, haha. Another good thing is that not only do they take care of extra waste and some algae, but if you have a very well planted tank and cant always see everything, everywhere, they're great for cleaning up little carcasses that you don't always spot easily. When a little rummynose tetra dies for example and ends up at the bottom somewhere in a thicket of plants, I'm too happy to find it covered by a small flock of snails. Much better than letting it just rot and introducing nitrite into your system ;-)

A comment re clown loaches and snails... I've kept both together before. Loved my clowns as they're great fish but you have to have to right setup for them. E.g. lots of space and if you have plants, make sure they are firmly planted or they will get uprooted either during foraging or simply when swimming around with those powerful tails of theirs. I kept apple snails in the same tank and it works well if the sizes are matched. E.g. if the loaches are smaller and the apple snails are quite big, the latter survives nicely. Any small snails though get munched quite easily. But it also depends on feeding - if you feed the loaches a nice protein rich diet they tend to not go for the snails as much and they get chance to breed a little. So its all about balance and also what you actually want. If you want to keep clown loaches, do it because you want to have clown loaches, not because you want a quickfix for snails. Remember, these fish can get up to 30cm in size under the right conditions ;-)

[Jimmy]

Haha I also had a big snail that did the cleaning etc. but my female betta did not approve... Killed him quite quickly.. Bit his eye stalks and feelers off!

[mydummyname]

mmm.. i hear what the guys are saying that the snails are good and all that, but i've read that snail carry parasites whcih is a big fear for me. i cant afford to lose any fish because of a snail.. but really, for me, i just cant deal with seeing them all over the tank and the glass...

an apple snail or two i might be able to deal with, but those little ones that multiply like flies.. not if i can help it.


I haven't added any new fish or plants in 2 or so months that could have carried the snails

perhaps the plants had snail eggs in them that only hatched recently.. the eggs can lay dormant for a long time and when the conditions are right, they hatch.

[larch]

Snails: Friend or Foe in the Aquarium?

By Richard Brown
First published in Tank Talk, Canberra and District Aquarium Society, Australia
Aquarticles


Introduction

Snails have a bad reputation. When I first started keeping fish around 12 years ago, I was told by many ‘reliable’ sources that snails were bad news: "They will eat your plants," "they will breed like crazy and turn your tank into a creeping mass of snails," "they will foul your water." Not surprisingly, for several years I have treated snails with an amount of disgust and contempt. However, over the last few years I have discovered that snails are actually a very useful and decorative creature. I hope the following account will encourage some of you to give snails a go.

The Biology of Snails

Along with creatures such as Clams and Oysters, snails belong to the phylum Mollusca. A generalised trait of molluscs is that they are soft-bodied creatures lacking supporting structures such as bones or exoskeletons. The topic of this article, snails, belong to the class Gastropoda. Gastropods are distinguished by their having a single shell. This shell is usually coiled and is part of the snail's living body. The soft-bodied section of the snail can be withdrawn into the shell, thus forming a defence against predators.

An important thing to know about snails is that they have been on this planet probably longer than us, the primates, and our pets, the fish, combined. Snails appear in the fossil record around 500 million years ago. They are easy to find around many of the limestone cliffs on the Australian coast.

Snails are a very successful species, there are around 80,000 species of snails that have been identified. The majority of snails, approximately 55,000, can be found in the marine environment. The remainders are land snails and freshwater snails. Water snails breathe through gills whereas land snails breathe through a hole in their body near the base of the shell.

Land snails are hermaphroditic, that is, each snail has both male and female parts. They still must mate to reproduce, however. A hole near the head is the genital orifice where the snail mates and also from where it lays its eggs. Aquatic snails have both hermaphroditic and heterosexual reproduction. Most snails lay eggs, however a notable exception to this is the Malaysian Trumpet Snail, which is a live-bearer.

The shell of the snail is largely calcium carbonate. This chemical is familiar to aquarists as the buffering agent that promotes pH stability. As a consequence of this, snails generally tend to prefer harder and more alkaline water. In fact, acidic water tends to dissolve the shell and leave its occupant open to attack from predators - either to the joy or the horror of the fish keeper.

Apart from their shells, other features that generally distinguish gastropods from other molluscs is that they have an eye located at the base of each tentacle. The ‘foot’ of the snail is a muscular appendage used to ripple its way across its environment. Under the tentacles is the mouth. Inside the mouth there is a rasp-like tongue that acts like a saw. It shreds the snails' food much like a grater sheds cheese.

This leads me to a topic that may be of interest in the context of the home aquarium - snails’ eating habits. The diets of snails vary depending on the species. Indeed, some snails are carnivorous and will actively hunt down other gastropods. Generally though, snails eat algae, plants, and on occasion the decomposing flesh of dead animals.

The Advantages of Snails

The fact that snails eat algae and decomposing flesh can be of great benefit to the aquarium keeper. I am sure that many of you keep Bristlenoses and other algae eating catfish. While I do not want to criticise these valued fish, for they do make fantastic pets in themselves, their algae eating capacities are often over estimated by their owners. Snails however are very thorough cleaners of glass and rocks and can get into the nooks and crannies that catfish may miss.

Some species of snail are renowned as decorative plant eaters, however, in my opinion, only the pond snail should be regarded with any real suspicion in this regard. Most healthy aquarium plants produce cyanides and other poisons that prevent animals such as snails from making meals of them. The myth that snails can destroy your plants probably originates from observations of snails eating the leaves of plants that are already highly deteriorated or close to dying. At this point, the plant was probably doomed and at least the snails are preventing the plant from decomposing, a process that can potentially unbalance aquarium water chemistry.

Another great advantage of snails is that they are less likely to eat the eggs of fish. While eggs laid by fish in or around the substrate of the aquarium are vulnerable to attack by Bristlenoses and the like, snails are much less likely to embark on such raiding excursions. Consequently, if you are keeping egg-laying fish in a tank with alkaline water specifically for the purpose of breeding then snails are probably the solution. They will keep maintenance down by cleaning your glass but will not scoff the eggs at the first opportunity. For instance, I am currently keeping a breeding pair of Neolamprologus ocellatus in a two foot tank and rather than keeping Bristlenoses, I have a crew of Red Ramshorns to keep the tank clean. Interestingly enough, in nature these little cichlids, which originate from the hard waters of Lake Tanganyika, adopt used snail shells as their homes. They keep their shells immaculately clean, hide in them when threatened and eventually lay eggs and raise their young in them. Although they are brave little fish, the heavily armoured Bristlenoses that I keep tend to be oblivious to the attacks of the ocellatus, presumably their eggs would be helpless at night.

Lastly, snails make interesting and hardy pets in themselves. They can be quite attractive, especially in the case of the Mystery Snail. They also have interesting habits and life cycles.

The Disadvantages of Snails

There is no doubt that snails can get out of control. Unfortunately, given the right conditions of hard alkaline water and without natural predators, snails can multiply very rapidly. I have experienced this first hand in the case of the Malaysian Trumpet Snail. Several years ago, in a four foot Malawi tank that I was keeping at about 250 ppm of total carbonate hardness, the floor of the tank almost seemed alive. The plague of snails was most unsightly and remedial action was called for.

There are several ways to keep snails in check:

The “predator” method. Several species of fish just love snails, for breakfast that is. The most common snail eater is the attractive Clown Loach, Botia macracanthus. The Clown Loach will grab the unprotected soft part of the snail and literally suck the poor gastropod out of the shell. If you don’t mind me saying, this can be quite entertaining. In the marine tank, Pufferfish are good snail eaters and will crunch the shell of the snail and eat the soft parts. In fact, some people grow snails specifically to feed to their Clown Loaches and Pufferfishes. I have to admit that my Red Ramshorns live side by side with a healthy Clown Loach. Perhaps I overfeed him.

· The “bait” method. Run some hot water over a lettuce leaf and just before you turn the lights out, tie a piece of cotton around it and drop it in the tank. It will sink to the bottom and in the morning you should find it covered in snails. Remove the lettuce, snails and all. Repeat until the snails are under control. In fact, this was the method that I used to remedy my Malaysian Trumpet Snail problem. Needless to say, persistence may be called for.

The “starvation” method. It is important to note that most snail blooms are caused by overfeeding. In these cases, the only reason that the snails are overpopulating is because they are feeding on the excess food that the fish leave behind. Watch your fish when feeding, if they do not eat all their food after 3-4 minutes or less then you are overfeeding.

The “local fish shop” method. There are some commercial snail killers available that local fish shop owners might try to sell you. If used as instructed these remedies may well kill your snails. However, these chemical based solutions should be avoided because they tend to kill the bacteria that keep ammonia and nitrite levels in check. In turn, this may also kill your fish.

Prevention is usually better than the cure. If buying plants from a local fish shop or even at a CDAS meeting and you don’t want to accommodate any hitchhikers then I suggest that you take the following action. Before introducing your plants into the aquarium, make the effort of soaking them in warm salty water. After ten minutes remove the plants and wash thoroughly. This should remove or kill any unwanted gastropod guests. It will also remove potentially harmful parasites such as White Spot (Ich).

Conclusion

I have to admit that despite my first impressions, I am now very happy to see a few snails in my aquarium. When kept in check, they can form an integral part of a well balanced aquatic environment. So, why not give snails a go?

Source: http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/breeding/Brown_Snails.html

[DesertConvert]

snail carry parasites

I suppose this is a possibility, but I would think that by the time you spot the snail the parasite is already in the gravel / water?

[Spawn]

I found a few snails in my tank also... Every once in a while I will take a few that is near the water edge, especially the very small ones and crush it under my finger. My Diamond Tetras has learned that if I put my hands in the tank a treat is on the way and hover close by! Very entertaining...

[hein24]

I have a question on this I know we are not allowed to talk about snails acc to the forum rules but which snails are not on the BL if any? Zoom or any other mods???

[Zoom]

ALL ARE BL! The ENTIRE Species of Molluscs.

(There's actually enough scientific evidence to show that a snail falls under crustacean too... and all of these are BL too.)

[hein24]

ALL ARE BL! The ENTIRE Species of Molluscs.

(There's actually enough scientific evidence to show that a snail falls under crustacean too... and all of these are BL too.)


Thanks Zoom just wanted to know, won't discuss this further then.

[Vis]

Zoom, can we still discuss how to get rid of snails?

[TroyFish]

can we still discuss how to get rid of snails?

I feed the ones that are in my sump to my tinfoil barbs....shell and all! Good or bad? they the size of a BB bullet and the fish are about 130mm

[Spawn]

I just crush mine and the Phantoms spit out the shell. The young ones are really soft, so they chow the whole snail. I dont think we are breaking any rules by discussing snails. We are trying to get rid of them, and snails are a fact of life! Every LPS has them and you will get them if you like it or not. Think Zoom will agree. As long as we dont discuss SPECIFIC snail species. Rather discuss the topic, than have a newbie(me) go out and buy overpriced chemicals that would surely have killed my fish! If this thread wasn't there I would have bought Snail away or something to that effect to assasinate my whole tank!!! AND I NEVER WOULD HAVE KNOWN WHAT I DID WRONG :(

Lol, you dont stop your teenage daughter from becoming pregnant by avoiding the birds and bees topic LOL!!!

[Big G]

You can happily discuss the removal of snails, but regardless of whether they are a 'fact of life' and 'all LFS's have them' does not make them ok.

Yes, we are pretty much all going to end up with snails in some form or another at some point, so effectively we are all breaking the law by having them, regardless of whether or not we can 'do anything about it'? With this in mind, it would be irresponsible of TASA not to allow any discussion of how to get rid of them. Infact, this is to be encouraged.

Unfortunately, snails are not as easy to get rid of than fish. At least a BL fish can go on the Braai! ;) I don't fancy snails off the braai myself! Infact, I just don't fancy snails!

So, Discuss their removal freely, but the keeping of, or the getting of/asking for is off limits!

Regards
G!

[Spawn]

:beerglass:Thanks Big G.