Snails

[Fly258]

I have just noticed about 10 tiny snails in my tank, which, I assume were smuggled in on a plant. They are only the size of a match head and I was wondering how I identify them and if they are a pro or con to the tank. Most of them seem to be on the plants rather than the glass.
A one for you William, I think.
Regards
Jim

 

[StiX]

Depending on what snails they are, they have good and bad propertys, they sound like just the sommon snail to me, they will breed like mad and unless u have something to eat afew of them, u will be over run by them! they do help with alge control to some extent tho which is good. So unless u want loads of em remove them now

 

[luvmyfish]

Beware if you have a betta and the snail actually emerges from the shell. My last betta saw the snail emerge and then ate him. Later the betta died because of that.

 

[slt]

grrrrrrrrr pesky plant eating little critters i hate them,

oh but i my apple snails william, lol

 

[StiX]

THose little 'ens dont eat the plants...at least not to my knowlege

 

[slt]

yes there are some that do, is'nt there ?

 

[StiX]

i believe theres a type of apple snail that does!

 

[slt]

not the yellow one is it, my 3 are in there own tank, no plants there lol

 

[StiX]

I'm not sure, willis will know

 

[William]

I know all (about snails at least)

Well the little ones shouldn't eat your plants, but like stickle said they are vivaraporous or something - live young Means you'll be overrun by the critters!

Two plans of action to keep their number down very hard to eradicate without chemicals and chemicals just to kill snails well its not really that good an idea:

1) crush them on site, if you have any fish in the tank they'll eat the corpse's onced crushed.
2) Why are the snails there? Because they eat the rotting food/waste on the bottom - so they are actually good- they just look really unsightly! Ok so, cut back on the feeding a bit will slow the population spike down a bit

Thats about it really, they've not overun my tropical tank - if they do there are some traps you can set for them ie courgetee slice in bottle leave it overnight and bam you catch them all (in theory!!) I've heard people got fish caught in there and I doubt many of the snails will actually be in there usually plenty of food on the bottom for them.

 

[William]

not the yellow one is it, my 3 are in there own tank, no plants there lol

Two types of yellow one:
P.Bridgese -> Non Plant Eater!
P. Canulicata -> Plant Eater!

Bridgesi are not plant eaters and at a guess these are the ones most UK stores have so thats what I reckon your's are. There are applesnails like P. Canulicata which do eat plants. Other snails which are cool and don't eat plants are: Ramshorns - I sent gibbo some they do lay eggs so you can control their population growth (below water) applesnails lay them above water, so are even easier. There are many other cool types of applesnails wich americans have - we just don't get them in the UK! Many of them are just colour variations of P.Bridgesi eg: "ivory" and "blue" and "black?" as well I think. Takes about 2 weeks for applesnail eggs to hatch and 1 week for ramshorns..

 

[StiX]

but like stickle said they are vivaraporous or something - live young Means you'll be overrun by the critters!

LOL, theyr not livebeares, they lay eggs, and i didnt say that

 

[ahkiu]

i'd remove them.
they reproduce like rabbits and in my tank keep going for my vallis

 

[ostrow]

See my horror story in the Emergency section. From a couple of months ago. Was hell. I had to strip the tank entirely.

Clown loaches help. I didn't have them then. Have them now ... as of 2 hours ago! I'll report to all soon.

They came in on the plants if you added recently. See my post in the Garden section for how to treat plants.

I was overrun and took drastic action. Crushing is unlikely to work, I think, because if you see 10, that means there are 20-30, and they've already laid 10x that many eggs. And you'll never find them.

Short of loaches and stripping the tank, you could try Had-a-Snail. Use as directed. But some fish will not like the copper elements in that. In any event, once they die you'll have to do a big water change and vacuum to get rid of the waste.

Snails are not fun.

But my treatment of plants works, and works well ... I intentionally bought plants with snails on them, followed my directions, and I've had no problems.

Good luck.

 

[William]

LOL, theyr not livebeares, they lay eggs, and i didnt say that

Are you sure?? I am sure some of them give birth to live young