New species in my tank

[Goonermatt]

Hi
This morning I noticed some new little guys have appeared in my aquarium. They look like some sort of snail but I have absolutely no idea. I can only assume they hitched a ride on the new live plants I added about a week ago.
Not sure if these are going to affect my tank in any way so I thought I would ask for some advice here if anyone knows.
I have attached a picture but as they are so small it is hard to get a clear one. Biggest one is about 4-5mm

 

[Aquatic_Adam]

Looks like you got yourself a pond snail...soon to have about 93737494 pond snails...haha

 

[twubs]

Pluck out as many as you can. I had the same issue where they came in on one of the plants I added. I just keep plucking them once or twice a week.

Also heard about putting a piece of lettuce in the tank each night. They will climb on board to eat teh decaying plant. Each night put in a new piece.

 

[Morgie]

I had the same issue as well when I bought some plants a while ago. Pond snails, they breed like crazy. My strategies for limiting the population are squishing them whenever you can reach them when they're on the tank walls (your fish will eat them up and love you for it) and setting "traps" for them. I would just put a piece of blanched cucumber or zucchini in the tank, leave it over night an in the morning it would have snails on it.
Don't go for any chemicals or anything like that. If your tank is large enough you could get a snail eating fish.
You won't eliminate all of the snails in your tank, but a few snails are not a bad thing. They clean up waste and are generally helpful, they just become pests when you've got about 100 of them haha.
Good luck!

 

[Aquatic_Adam]

Yeah pond snails like their veggies. They will munch on your plants. You can kind of bait them with a peice of lettuce and just remove it the next morning. Good luck with it...

 

[Goonermatt]

Thanks all for the info, gonna try plucking them out as there only seems to be a few...so far!

 

[Jnam]

i have always liked pond snails they do a great job keeping everything clean, very few will eat the plants in your tank. As stated before you just have to keep the population in check with the methods they described. I always used the zuchini method my self.

 

[fort384]

Agreed with Jnam. They can be a valuable addition to a planted tank if the population kept in check. The key is not overfeeding...

On a separate note, what kind of plants are those in the pic?

 

[Goonermatt]

To be honest I have no idea what sort they are, why?

 

[fort384]

Because at least 1 of the leaves in the photo do not look like true aquatic plants...

 

[Goonermatt]

Quite possible based on previous advice I have had this week about pet store products! Lol

 

[fort384]

Pet stores selling non-aquatic plants as "aquatic" is extremely common in the hobby. Some full pictures of the plants will help id what you have. It is generally not a good idea to put just any plant in a tank... plants like fish have different care requirements... and most stock tanks cannot grow much except low light undemanding plants. LFSs do more harm than good here... they sell plants that are either not aquatic or not suitable for a low tech setup, the plants don't do well, and it turns people off from keeping FW plants.

 

[Joyler]

I'm gonna sound like a broken record, an I'm not saying populating the tank is the only way to go...but if the veggies don't work, an assassin snail, or clown loach will do the trick! Just what I've heard from others

 

[Dylan5359]

quick question, but since pond snails breed like crazy, are they okay to feed to dwarf puffers? I don't have any just thinking about getting a few.

-Dylan