Found a snail in my tank

[Swimmer32]

A week or so ago, there was always this blob on the side of my aquarium. I took no notice of it thinking it was just algae or something.

Now I see it's grown (quite quickly) into a snail!

Now, reading about all the dramas people have with snails and how rapidly they can breed, how hard they can be to get rid of, should I get rid of this one asap, or keep it in there to see what happens?

I don't want a full scale explosion of snail populations in my tank, nor do I want to kill the poor thing.

Any thoughts?

 

[Guest]

if you keep it in there to 'see what happens', you will see it make more snails. if they are common pond snails, they breed rapidly. i had a population explosion in a 30 gal tank before. i tried everything to control them, from chemicals to lettuce on the bottom of the tank overnight, to simply scraping them out with a net. the thing that finaly worked was the addition of clown loaches who ate every single snail.

now i keep mts, mystery, ramshorn, and pond snails in their own small tanks. i add mts to my 55 gal, but i never see them. i have 6 loaches in there so that could be the reason.

 

[GodOSoot]

I have noticed that with substrates with resemble soil more like sand that MTS will be out and about quite frequently but with my gravel substrate they very rarely can be seen poking out.

The sand tank MTS of all sizes could be seen while in the gravel I only ever saw the really big ones.

 

[Zagz]

You would not believe how quickly snails repopulate! Get rid of it now if it is a pond snail. JMHO.

 

[GodOSoot]

Honestly if you don't want any snails then throw it out but ideally they do no harm and actually help by eating the waste and decaying matter.

Too me unless the hole tank is nothing but snails they add to the natural diversity of a tank.

 

[7Enigma]

Snails, like any other organism, will multiply to levels above their food supply, some will die, and then an equilibrium will be reached. This equilibrium is different for each tank, and the tanks where you hear there was a massive takeover of snails is due to a large food supply in the tank. Most times this is caused by decaying matter and fish waste in the substrate. If allowed to build up over time due to overfeeding, lessened water changes, plant debris, you have a massive food supply and yes your snail population will explode.

In tanks that have well aerated substrate that has been routinuely cleaned, fish that have not been overfed, and light algae, they will be actually helpful as they serve an excellent role in low-level cleanup duties.

I'm actually currently trying to increase my MTS numbers in my 20gallon planted tank by burying algae wafers in the substrate to create a larger food source.

I think its a common misconception that snails are breeding machines that regardless of tank conditions magically grow at exponential levels. It's just not possible.

 

[Codefox]

Yeah, I have a fair number of snails in my 55g but I don't see their numbers increasing much really. They're getting bigger though...I think that probably adds to it. They get bigger and take up more room

 

[dehinrichs]

I had a big snail problem in my 90 gallon. I got three zebra loaches - they don't get as big as the clown loaches - and they took care of the problem in about 2 weeks. Plus the zebra loaches are fun to watch as they go after the snails.

 

[Swimmer32]

I got rid of the thing last night.

It won't be the last I see of them though, as I can see three of those blobs that I saw before, and I know thiese will grow into snails.

I might leave these be and see how things go...

 

[flip_lx]

sounds like my tank, go a bunch of hitchhikers with my java fern it looks like. got MTS from petstore for free thought they were just some babies then they grew up and look hideous. my MTS dont seem to be reproducing but these guys are(i know MTS dig but my gravel is too heavy i think cause they are always above ground 24/7)

 

[hc8719]

people really do exaggerate on how bad snails are, i actually kinda like them

 

[Ferret_Friend]

I can never get the few snails I come across to produce offspring or live very long. I don't have any loaches or anything, but I guess my ropefish gets hungry for them. He is a bit carnivorous. He ate two of my neons before I removed him from the tank. Shame the rest of the neons died anyhow. Rather fragile fish if you ask me. Mind you, I'm not the best at keeping my parameters under control.

 

[EdgarMedina1010]

Yeah I like 'em too...well most of them......

 

[joannde]

Since I have mystery snails in the tank I want any food to be for them, rather than for the hitchhiker pond snails. When I see the pond snails I just pick them out manually. No big population explosion but I'll be its because the (larger) mystery snails keep the available food levels under control, as 7enigma suggested.