Snails

[noglet]

Hi, I'm wondering if someone can help me.

I have had an aquarium for a while now but it is at my parent's house and they want to keep it so I've bought another for my place.

I bought some gravel yesterday for the tank, put it in the tank and set everything up. Looked in the tank this morning and found loads of snails (17) crawling up the sides of the tank - they must have been in with the gravel which I don't think is good. As I haven't got any fish in the tank I've removed the gravel (and the snails!) as I was worried they would breed and/or may be carrying disease. Am I being over cautious?

When I finally have my tank up and running I'm planning on getting 4-6 mollies, a couple of gouramis and 4-6 tetras. Does this sound ok for stock levels? My tank is approx 60litres. I'll obviously add them over time.

Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Hi and to the forum

Snails can often come in on something, I think everyone experiences it at some time!

They will breed like crazy, people use different methods to get rid of them. I prefer the humane ones myself. A good way it to weigh down a piee of lettuce in the tank and leave it for a while in the dark. You'll find lots of snails on it, remove the lettuce, reapeat until they are gone.

60 litres is about 15US gallons. I think that you may have too many fish planned for that size tank but I am not sure. It depends on whether you are going to be breeding the mollies and what kind of gouramis and tetras you want as well as the filter you will be using.

 

[noglet]

Thanks for replying quickly. I had snails in my other tank a while back which is why I don't really want them again as like you say they breed like crazy and a nightmare to get rid of - thanks for the tip though.

About the fish - I don't really have any intention of breeding the mollies although obviously it'd be cool. Was thinking 2 dwarf gouramis (thought the usual ones would be too big?) and some neon/cardinal tetras maybe. I generally want a mix of fish that'll get on. Will mollies be ok with gouramis? My swordtails used to give my gouramis a bit of a hard time that's all... want a peaceful tank.

My filter is a hagen fluval 2 plus if that helps?

 

[modernhamlet]

Welcome to the forum, noglet!

I'll pretty much agree with what Cheese Specialist said.

I personally don't have a problem with snails, as long as their population is under control. The lettuce trick is a good way to ensure that. I just got a couple of neat, bigger spiral-shelled snails on some plants and I kinda like them. Pond snails get annoying pretty fast though.

As far as stocking goes, a 15g tank isn't going to support a lot of fish, but you should be able to get a good community going. First, most gourami will get too big for the tank, so you should stick with dwarf or perhaps honey gourami. To be honest, I would try to decide between the mollies and gourami, as they utilize the same space in the tank and may crowd each other a bit. One thing you might consider instead is a small bottom feeder, like corys or otos. They won't compete for space with your other selections and provide an interesting extra little group of fish for the community.

Good luck!

 

[noglet]

Well I've got rid of the snails for now but maybe I won't worry so much if any find there way into my tank in the future!

I'll probably go with the dwarf gouramis for now - presumably I could get 3 or 4 for my size tank if I don't get mollies? I've never had corys before - how big do they grow and do they have special food requirements? Would it be a good idea to use some water from my old tank for this tank to help the cycling process? My old tank is perfectly healthy.

Also, which fish should I add first? I guess not the corys as they're bottom feeders.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I don't think a 15g is big enough that many gouramis. Different cories get different sizes, but most stay at about 2". Pygmy cories are only about 1"!! They should be kept in groups, although they don't all have to be the same kind they tend to school with the same size.

You could get 2 gouramis and 6 pygmy cories. Cories can be added to a cycled aquarium whenever IMO as they get fed in their own right (they are not simply scavengers) and I don't think they create too much waste.

I don't think adding water from an old tank would be much use to be honest but gravel and especially filter media would be a very good idea!

Glad to hear you're controlling the snails.