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?

 

[tstenback]

The betta is safe from the snails. However the sudden snail boom means that there is an abundant supply of food for them so it could mean that you have not been cleaning the tank well lately and possibly overfeeding the betta. I would remove the snails while they are still small, remove the algae and give the tank a few water changes over the next number of days and that should help keep the population down. Snail number increase in direct relation to the food supply, less food , less snails. HTH