Hitchhiker Discovery

[pablothebetta]

I bought some hygro last Tuesday and all seemed to be going well until I found a tiny (3mm ish?) snail on my glass. It must have come in on the hygro. I'm not entirely sure on it's type, but I'm pretty certain (thanks to the hitchhikers guide) it's either a tadpole snail or pond snail. I did take some pics, but they were pretty blurry and it pretty much looked like a brown fuzzy splodge

So far, I've only found one. It took a while to prepare the plants for planting though, during which I thought I had checked for snails.

The question is, do I need to take any action? I don't want a huge snail population
So far I've only found one, but I fear that if there's one there may be more. Then again there might not be, I'm not quite sure what I should do.

In the meantime, what do they eat? I do have a little algae on the sides of my tank that it could take a look at and some BBA and hair algae it could attempt to tackle (though from what I've heard snails aren't good at tackling BBA, which I think is the algae type I have on some silk plants in there).

Is there anything in particular I should know about the snails?

From what I've read, I am aware that an individual has both reproductive organs so any two individuals can breed. Will this be an issue if there only ends up being one? How quickly may they reproduce if there turns out to be more?

I really don't want to kill the little guy, so I would like to keep him if I can, especially if he may make a useful clean up crew in addition to my cherry shrimp

Will he eat my plants, though? I've got the hygro (polysperma), some anubias and two marimo moss balls in there. With the hygro doing so well (I'd guess about 5-6cm in just under a week) I wouldn't want it being attacked

Many Thanks

 

[soybean]

They eat leftover food if they find it so the onus is on you to not overfeed the tank and remove uneaten food from the bottom.

If you don't want them to multiply you can remove them as you see them too.

The 'clean up' benefit of one snail is pretty minimal, it'd be going out the window for the birds if I found it.

 

[pablothebetta]

What ways are there to get rid of snails?

 

[swanseastilo]

Crush them against the glass with your finger feel them pop and crush

or just dont over feed

 

[soybean]

Other than the two ways I just told you?

You can weigh some lettuce down in the tank Under a slightly propped up saucer overnight, the snails will go on it to feed and you can remove it in the morning.

You can buy snail traps along the same idea - snails go in to the bait, can't get out.

Don't recommend snail killing meds as rotting snails in the tank can cause problems and they're not great for most other tank life either.

There are loads of threads on snail infestations - have a search.

You only have one, just take it out and watch for any more.

 

[swanseastilo]

Crush it with your fingers go on

 

[pablothebetta]

N'aww, I must admit I really don't want to kill the little guy unless I really have to

Would he make any difference to algae levels in my tank and if there only does turn out to be the one, could/would he become a pest?

 

[soybean]

If you overfeed the tank and provide newly hatched snails with a food supply, yes, it could become a problem. If there's nothing to eat, they don't last long.

One small snail won't make much impact on algae levels.

It's just a snail. If you don't want snails in your tank, remove it.

 

[swanseastilo]

Yeah one snail just what i thought

 

[pablothebetta]

Ok, I'll think about it. If I find any other snails or eggs, I'll get rid of them. In the mean time, I may just see how things go. If there's only the one of them, it can't do much harm, right?

Would it be happy eating just diatom/green dust algae? I haven't got huge amounts, but probably enough for that one little snail if its just him. Do they eat hair algae?

If there ends up being more snails, would an asassin snail be a good investment?

 

[soybean]

An assassin snail is good for population control where reduced feeding hasn't helped.

I dont believe snails eat hair algae but will probably have a go on diatoms and green stuff.

I think you're getting a bit ahead of yourself. You might never see another one.

 

[pablothebetta]

You might never see another one.

Hopefully I won't