Snails, Leave Them Or Get Rid Of Them

[KiltedOne]

I added plants to my aquarium during my fishless cycle and I now have snails apearing in my tank.

Do I leave them or do I get rid of them before I add fish.

Cheers

 

[GoldLenny]

It depends on if you like snails or not. Look at the pinned topics and identify the types of snails you have and let us know.

 

[Yazan]

I,ve seen this in my LFS. The planted tank always has snail eggs and baby snail.

 

[KiltedOne]

It depends on if you like snails or not. Look at the pinned topics and identify the types of snails you have and let us know.

I'm fairly sure it is the Bladder/Tadpole/Pouch Snails. They are very small so I could be mistaken.

Would you keep them or would you try and get rid of this type, are there any advantages in keeping them.

Cheers

 

[Underwurlde]

GET A 12 BORE SHOTGUN AND.....

No seriously, GET THEM OUT. They will multiply like mad - they are considered a pest! Don't be fooled by the 'cute' factor / got something for free.

If you can pick them ALL out before they start laying their damn eggs.

Which LFS btw?

Andy

 

[stang1]

I agree with Andy.
I started out with a couple in one of my small tanks, befor I knew it my tank was infested with them. I ended up having to strip the tank right down, not only to remove the snails but their eggs as well.

 

[KiltedOne]

I agree with Andy.
I started out with a couple in one of my small tanks, befor I knew it my tank was infested with them. I ended up having to strip the tank right down, not only to remove the snails but their eggs as well.

thanks for the advice, I'll try and get them out.

GET A 12 BORE SHOTGUN AND.....

No seriously, GET THEM OUT. They will multiply like mad - they are considered a pest! Don't be fooled by the 'cute' factor / got something for free.

If you can pick them ALL out before they start laying their damn eggs.

Which LFS btw?

Andy

It was my local Pets at Home store.

 

[Underwurlde]

It was my local Pets at Home store.

Strange you should say that! That's where I got (just the one lone hitchhiker) my infestation from....

Thanks for that, P@H
GET A 12 BORE SHOTGUN AND.....

Andy

PS
The med 'Flubenol 15' was the only thing that worked 4 me

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

In my experience snails will only breed massively out of control if you are over-feeding the fish, or have a lot of algae in the tank or don't clean the substrate enough or simply have a lot of bottom dwelling/feeding fish in the tank which need to be fed sinking foods etc. Given that, i've always had a pretty large trumpet snail population, but i think that is due to all the cucumber i feed my pleco's which needs to be sunken to the bottom of tank.

With getting rid of snails, you can either pick the snails and eggs out of the tank by hand, or used a copper based fish friendly med to eradicate the snails (however copper based meds will harm any invertebrates you have like shrimp etc).

 

[Underwurlde]

Sorry Tokis, I have to disagree with adding Copper. On the scale of things it is up there with Lead and Mercury when it comes to being poisonous to fish especially at lower pH. Adding it may also kill any inverts such as shrimp.

Purposefully putting Cu in tanks is such a bad idea. Out of desperaration, I fell into that trap believing that these snail killing products actually did 'something' - in my experience they do not AFAIK. If you read the labels on some of these products it states that they only 'knock them out'! What's the bloody point in that...

breed massively out of control if you are over-feeding the fish, or have a lot of algae in the tank or don't clean the substrate enough

The ones I had just seemed to multiply like rabbits. My tank is clean (weekly vacs) and algae free - I ended up picking out at least 30-40 PER WEEK.

Picking them out obviously helps but will never be a solution. The eggs are clear and almost impossible to spot. Also, if you use an internal filter they ingrain themselves in the media, making them almost IMPOSSIBLE to get out.

Been there, seen it, tried everything, got the Blue Peter Badge. THEN I got some Flubenol! Gone within 2.5 weeks.

Andy

 

[stang1]

We had exactly the same problem Andy. Water is changed regularly, tank cleaned regularly and minimum of food. Once they've laid their eggs, they are a nightmare to get rid of. They are near on impossible to remove by hand. We had to uproot plants, heater, wood etc. and put them in the sink. The eggs are almost like glue and can be really difficult to get rid of.

 

[KiltedOne]

In my experience snails will only breed massively out of control if you are over-feeding the fish, or have a lot of algae in the tank or don't clean the substrate enough or simply have a lot of bottom dwelling/feeding fish in the tank which need to be fed sinking foods etc. Given that, i've always had a pretty large trumpet snail population, but i think that is due to all the cucumber i feed my pleco's which needs to be sunken to the bottom of tank.

With getting rid of snails, you can either pick the snails and eggs out of the tank by hand, or used a copper based fish friendly med to eradicate the snails (however copper based meds will harm any invertebrates you have like shrimp etc).

IT isn't due to overfeeding as I am doing a fishless cycle at the moment. Will they just die off as there isn't any food being added or will they feed on the plants I have in the tank.

 

[GoldLenny]

I agree with Tokis. If there is not much food to eat, they will die off. Of course, in a planted tank, that would be difficult to control as they will go after the plants if there is no other food.

 

[tetraqueen]

You can get fish that eat them .... mine do

 

[GoldLenny]

Tetraqueen,

I just posted and forgot to mention snail eating fish. Depends on the size of the tank though a couple of the loach species stay under 6".