Snails ?????

[Dale O Shea]

i looked in my tank nd i saw 4 or 5 little things that look like snails. They have shells nd are moving very slowley around the tank. I have no idea how they got there, does anybody know wat they are and how to get ride of them and are they dangerous to the fish

 

[James_in_MN]

They're not dangerous to the fish.

My guess is that they're pond snails. They probably hitchhiked into your tank from any live plants you recently introduced.

There are a few fish that will eat them, but are usually not compatible with most tanks. The clown loach is one, but needs a tank 75g or larger. Dwarf puffer fish will also, but those are a very aggressive fish.

The only other thing that will eat pond snails is an assassin snail. Those aren't easy to find at the different LFS in my area, so they could be difficult to get.

Something you can do instead of trying to get an animal that eats them is the lettuce trick. Place a piece of lettuce on the bottom of your tank overnight. In the morning, before the lights are on, take out the lettuce and any snails that are on it. Repeat as necessary until they're all gone.

 

[Aspencer]

Will an assasin snail attack a 3/4 nerite snail or just smaller pond snails?

 

[James_in_MN]

I think that assassin snails may have difficulty eating a nerite snail because they have stronger trap doors, but I wouldn't risk it. It looks like you should try the lettuce method for a few days.

 

[AquaOne]

They have to go ! Get the lettuce. I have tried cucumber, but my pleco is all over it in seconds, the snails didn't stand a chance !!

 

[samt1]

I have found snails!!! Got rid of a few that were on an ornament but fear I have more, think I will put some lettuce in the tank overnight tonight and try to ged rid of the little suckers!

 

[AquaOne]

Lettuce-trick is better than the snail-control chem, but you dont necessarily clear up unless they haven't been busy laying eggs. Then again the chemical solution doesn't get the eggs either. It's worth checking underside of any stones/rocks or ornamentals (where the light doesn't get to) for eggs. The more you clear in one go, the less you need to clear the next time.

 

[anthony96]

They r not bad and they would of got in there from sea weed they clean stuff out of your tank so u might want to leave them there...

 

[AquaOne]

Snails become the problem before they fix it imo. There are better options for cleaning algae and ****. Depends on your tank size, but maybe a BN pleco or pitbull pleco. I don't think a pleco is going to hoover up ****, but then again not sure snails do either (and they add to bio-load by at least the same amount they take in). The real issue is if you didn't have snails before but you have now, they probably need to be going before the 3 or 4 become 30 or 40 and so on...

 

[rich311k]

i rather like pond snails. they are fun to watch, clean up left overs and decaying vegetation. They are great way to know if you are overfeeding or not. Do not overfeed and they do not get out of control.

 

[samt1]

I tried the lettuce trick last night to get rid of some of my snails but I didn't have a single one on there this morning!
Any tips to make it work better?

 

[AquaOne]

Perhaps your snails are carnivores !! TiC

 

[samt1]

Perhaps your snails are carnivores !! TiC

I did think that! lol
Maybe I need to add some ketchup or mustard to the lettuce to make it more interesting

 

[jimenezlee]

I found snails too and ppl told me my crayfish would eat them so last night I got two more cf. I dropped one snail in front of one of the cf and he immediately grabbed it and started eating it!

I'll report back whether they help control them as expected.

 

[AquaOne]

Ketchup is a big 'no-no' It makes a **** of a mess !!
No... I have not tried it in my fishtank, but it's not good in a swimming pool !
Brown sauce is probably worse I imagine.
Crayfish sounds like a good idea, but they eat anything they can grab hold of don't they ?

 

[phatpaul]

Err yeah I had a cray fish once until he got hold of my chinease algae eater and decided to eat his brains so I gave him away lol

 

[phatpaul]

I think a yo yo loach would do the trick thou. Iv got one and he keeps my snail problem down

 

[jimenezlee]

Really, ate the algae eater? Well, I got 2 large and 3 small algae eaters in the same tank as the 3 crayfish now. Let the games begin! JK, I really do hope they do not kill my algae eaters. I have had the 2 large ones and one crayfish in there for a few months now with no issues. I hope the newcomers behave as well.

 

[phatpaul]

Mine where fine for quite some time and then one day I came home from work and there was the crayfish bold as brass holding the algae eater in one claw wilst casually plucking out his brains threw the poor little sods eye ball socket. I wasn't impressed I had my golden algae eater for three years and he was becoming quite a nice specimen

 

[James_in_MN]

Err yeah I had a cray fish once until he got hold of my chinease algae eater and decided to eat his brains so I gave him away lol

Zombie crayfish?