Snails

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.

 

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!!

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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 ;-)

 

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!

 

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.

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.

 

Snails: Friend or Foe in the Aquarium?

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

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

 

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?

 

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...

 

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???

 

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.

 

@Zoom, 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

 

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!!!

 

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!