Pest Snails Are Back

[blinky000]

A couple of months ago my axolotls moved back in, but with them came hundreds upon hundreds of these little snails (and we wondered why the axolotls were getting fat!). Anyway, I've always thought of these things as pests so I boiled literally everything in their tank apart from the axolotls themselves. Today during a water change I saw one of these snails. Then I started to see just how many there really were. Goodness knows how they came to be. Anyway, here's a pic of the biggest one. Seems to be the only adult in the tank and all the babies are around the same size:

Any idea what kind of snail it is? Or what it eats? If they enjoy algae but won't eat live plants, I'm considering putting them in my betta tank since I have a problem with beard algae and my otos won't touch it. Would that work, do you think?

 

[Maz 1979]

These are common pond snails. They hitch rides on plants from the shop usually and they breed like crazy. In my experience they do not control algae and they end up everywhere(the filter is usually a nice hiding place for them) and covering the glass on your tank distracting from your nice view of your pet. I think they eat live plants but i'm not 100% on that.

People usually squash them on sight but i hate killing animals so i have a jar they all go in until they can be released into a pond. They usually have a population explosion if there is spare food hanging out in the tank. The eggs are usually a clear jelly with tiny dots in it about the size of a 5 pence piece.

My advice is to get rid and get some apple snails for the algae in the Betta tank.

I'm sure somebody with more knowledge will be along shortly to give you more info.

 

[micko]

These are usually caused by over-feeding and will take over your tank. I believe they will eat plants but cannot say for certain. Reduce feeding and they'll hopefully stop breeding.
Apple snails are not good for algae control. The best thing to do is work out why algae is in your tank. It usually stems from too much light. How much light do you have? What size tank? How long have you your light on in your tank? 6 hours of light is more than enough to keep a light on, although that depends on the power of light.

Give your tank a good scrub and reduce the lightying