need help snail infestation

[brianwar]

i have a 10 gallon tank that has pretty muck been abandon except for 1 male betta. ill admit i havent taken great care of this tank since thers only one betta its pretty low mantinece the water is a little green but today i noticed 25- 30 snails have just magicly appeared rangeing from clear to black in color all about the size of a piece of gravel. Whats going on? is te betta safe? should i get rid of them ? how? what will happen if i justt leave it alnoe?

 

[Tropjunky]

if u leave it then ur gonna have thousands. so use a snail treatment b4 it's too late once they've tanken hold snail treatments will kill all of them and ur ammonia will spike if u don't tanke them out. and for god sake clean that tank so what if theres only a betta in there, ur betta needs a smaller tank.

 

[Silly me]

ur betta needs a smaller tank.

thats scary..



But besides that, snail is not a bad thing at all, they would love to eat all the extra food left by the betta, and might even help cleaning some algae.
but they also do mess more that they clean.

so is your betta safe? Yes he'll be fine..
you might want to start looking better after the tank, a 10% water change one a week is not that much work and if you dont over feed the fish to much you'll notice the snail population wouldnt get out of control...

 

[Loopyness]

if i was you i'd clean your tank! how would you like it living in some green yuk stuff? if you want to get rid of the snails before they overrun you tank get a few clown loach!! they'll eat them out of there shells!! just keep an eye in you filter, i had loads of snail hiding in there from the clown loaches! But firstly.... clean your tank!!!!!

 

[JamesTasker]

I just take the snails in my tank out and throw them away. You can lure them onto a piece of lettuce if you leave it in there and take it out and throw it away.

 

[guppymonkey]

You could transfer the betta to another container for awhile and get a blue gourami. They are snail eaters. In a sort time your tank will be snail free. I had a snail infestation in my 20 gallon and after I got my gold gourami (just a color variation of the blue gorami) the snails all disappeared. Unfortunately some appeared in my 55 gallon because I use the same hose for all my water changes. But I can live with them in the 55!

 

[Tropjunky]

ur betta needs a smaller tank.

thats scary..

well no bettas' would live in the wild in a puddle they only just manage to fit in and sometimes just wet mud dats why they can breath air for a short while (this was the reason why my betta survived, it jumped outa my tank and i found it on the floor when i woke up) anyways bettas' are usualy kept in a container no bigger than 3L and thats massive for them

 

[silver]

Tropjunky.......... in my opinion you are REALLY wrong about that........

A betta in less than 3L.....that's like 1/2 of a gallon....sorry but I just don't agree with that.

I am glad you have that betta in a 10 gallon........just do the water changes and you're good!!!!

 

[Becca]

Tropjunky.......... in my opinion you are REALLY wrong about that........

A betta in less than 3L.....that's like 1/2 of a gallon....sorry but I just don't agree with that.

I am glad you have that betta in a 10 gallon........just do the water changes and you're good!!!!

Forgive me, silver. I'm confused what you're saying Tropjunky is wrong about.

Tropjunky has the facts right. Bettas, in the wild, are often found in small puddles or rice patties - which is why they've developed a labyrinth - to allow them to breath air from the surface of the water. Here's an article about the history of Bettas: http/www.bettasrus.com/bcorner/bettahistory101.htm

If, however, you're saying that Trop's wrong because a Betta can NOT be kept in a 10-Gallon tank, then I agree with you. A Betta can be kept in just about anything you like. I, myself, wouldn't keep them in less than a Gallon just because they're beautiful to watch swim. Regardless of whether they can cope or not, if I'm going to have one, I'd prefer to be able to watch it swim instead of laying on the bottom of a cup all the time. Give him some room to stretch out his fins, so to speak.

brianwar - IMO - I'd clean the tank more (1 water change a week) and get a small algea eater to keep the green stuff under control. As for snail advice, there's some really good tips in this post - and if you search this forum for "Snails" I'm sure you'll find more. The lettuce trick, from what I've heard, works wonders. The tip about the Clown Loach - not sure about that. I thought those got pretty big and their adult size would NOT fit in a 10-Gallon. Dunno though - might want to run that by someone else first.

Good luck!

 

[silver]

I totally think it's wrong to keep any fish no matter what in a 1/2 gallon tank....... they may live like that during certain seasons......but not all year round

!!!!!!!!!!

that's all!

 

[Becca]

Silver,

Ahh, I thought you were debating whether or not they *could*. Whether they can or not doesn't matter much to me. Personally, I can't keep anything in a Gallon or less. In fact my Betta has 2.5 all to himself. Like I said before, I love bettas for their fins, what's the point in watching them if they're cooped up in a small area of a tiny tank?