Snail invasion

[Catfish586]

Two snails came home with me via plant and seem to have made themselves very much at home. Two weren't a problem - 30 or so is! Can anyone identify them from the pic (mystery snails?) and tell me the best thing to do with them? I'm happy just to remove them and put them in my outside pond - I'd rather not kill them but they're going to keep breeding like wildfire if I don't act now.
I've cut down on feeding the fish as I know over-feeding contributes to the problem. Thanks!

 

[Mcfly1981]

I have a few of these
I just keep taking them out whenever I do water changes. I mostly miss one or two.

 

[Byron]

Two snails came home with me via plant and seem to have made themselves very much at home. Two weren't a problem - 30 or so is! Can anyone identify them from the pic (mystery snails?) and tell me the best thing to do with them? I'm happy just to remove them and put them in my outside pond - I'd rather not kill them but they're going to keep breeding like wildfire if I don't act now.
I've cut down on feeding the fish as I know over-feeding contributes to the problem. Thanks!

Pond snails and acute bladder snails are very similar and I always confuse them, but whichever this is I have the same suggestion/advice. Consider them your friends in the aquarium. They can get places you cannot, and they eat all organics, which includes all fish waste, breaking it down faster for the bacteria to then deal with. Snails are an important part of a healthy aquarium.

As for numbers, keep in mind that they will populate according to the available food, and they eat all organic matter. So the more there are, the more organics you have in the tank. But they are there doing a useful job with those organics, and without the snails the organics would still be there but causing more trouble.

You can put some in your pond, but make sure none get into the local natural water ecosystem. This can cause serious consequences for the natural fauna. If you must remove/destroy snails, crush them so they are dead before disposing of them. Never flush them or toss them alive as they can survive and cause problems depending upon the area. I don't know about these snails, but Malaysian Livebearing Snails are known to be able to survive freezing solid in a bucket left outside over winter, only to begin crawling about in the Spring.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

Look like pond snails. I think I read somewhere on this forum that 1 female can produce over 2000 offspring so it's important to get rid of them as you find them but be aware it's like fighting a losing battle if they've been in there more than a couple of days. Plus the plants most likely have snail eggs on them which are difficult to see. I got rid of mine 100% after doing a complete tear down of my tank (for some other reasons) and sifting the substrate and getting rid of snails. Keep the normal filter going with all the good bacteria on it running but just go over every plant leaf etc for snails. Unfortunately I added some new plants and got the snail problem back - but I'm jumping right on it and haven't seen any for a couple of days ( but I too may have some snail eggs somewhere).

Snails do eat uneaten food, some eat algae but they also leave waste jus like a fish does.

 

[Byron]

It is true that snails leave waste, but the waste is only the waste that was already there to begin with. Snails eat the organics, they do not create more organics. Therefore, they are very beneficial. If one has a lot of these snails it is because they have food, and getting rid of the snails will not reduce that food which will still be there.

 

[Colin_T]

Lymnaea sp.

kill em, kill em, kill em. death to snails.

 

[DoraCory]

Being a relative newb to fish keeping I was constantly picking out as many snails as I could find when I started up my first tank. However many I took out it didn't seem to make a blind bit of difference.

Now I don't bother with picking them out and it seems like the snails have balanced themselves out to whatever the tank can sustain. Yes, there are still snails, but not as many as there were when I was religiously removing them.

 

[AfternoonNarwhale]

Sorry, but you may have to kill them. Try getting a couple assassin snails, they eat pond/bladder snails!