Snails

[Tweety]

I've just noticed that my 11 day old tank that is fishless cycling appears to have snails living in it.

I guess these have come from the plants I've put in, enough thought we gave them a good wash first.

What do I do?

I also noticed that lots of brown specs have appeared over a few of the plants. Is this eggs?

Please help.

 

[thecichlidaddict]

You make snails sound like a bad thing!

They clean up, eat decaying plant matter and other debris, and aerate the plant roots. They are good!

Naturally you are probably more concerned about being infested. Once in a while you can weight down a piece of lettuce on the bottom and turn out the lights (do it in the evening when it's dark). After several hours or overnight most of the adult snails will have converged on it, and you can remove and dispose of them all at once. This will keep the population under control while still keeping the benefit of snails.

Whatever you do, don't use poisons to kill them in the tank.

 

[Tweety]

As I don't have any fish yet won't they just eat my plants.

I'm not adverse to the odd snail , just wasn't what I expected to find in my tank tonight . If they will do no harm I'll just keep them under check as you suggest.

 

[tstenback]

I dont understand everyones aversion to snails. They add variety to the tank and Like thecichlidaddict stated if you keep them in check (and its usually not that hard) they are actually a great help in the tank. The old lettuce trick really does work so if you are concerned about the plants put insome lettuce they will eat that first (usually ) Lost half of a brazilian sword plant to the little creatures Who would have thought that a brazilian sword woould taste better than lettuce

Good luck with the tank Tweety

 

[JoKeR]

Get a jo-jo loach( Not sure of the name) or a clown loach that helped me.

 

[Max]

mabey if you see the snails just pick em out. if i see a snail i put it in my dads pond. they usaly die in there, or i never see em... or somthing... lol