unwelcome visitors

[shayfish]

SNAILS!

I planted my currently cycling 55 gal a little over a week ago and I arrived home to find about 7 or 8 little teeny snails cruising my tank.

How do I get rid of them? I'm totally choked.

 

[mr funktastic]

pick them out with your fingers or just crush them in the tank. there are more than u can see trust me. once the tank is cycled buy a loach.

 

[Peyton]

Why no love for the snails ? Honestly they are not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[zacusmaximus]

I'd leave them.

If you must get rid of them, remove any that you see manually. You can also use the lettuce trick. Place a piece of lettuce that has been microwaved for about 10 seconds in the tank before lights out, remove it the next day and you'll probably take most of your snail population with it. There are also chemical products available, although I'd never use them.

 

[sarah5775]

the problem is not a few snails. The problem is a few thousand snails....they breed like rabbits on speed and soon overrun the tank. I have seen it happen.

 

[Mosaic]

Aww, snails are not necessarily a problem. If they're ramshorns or MTS, keep em, they're pretty cool. I'm not as sympathetic to pond snails, but still. A few aren't bad, as they eat up leftover food. Just don't feed too much, or you really will have a problem on your hands.

If you don't want them, you can just pick out the babies now and head off an infestation. You probably just had an egg clutch or two on the plants that have hatched. So if you act fast you can get them out before they reproduce. Some people recommend throwing in a bit of veggie and taking it out in the morning with all the snails still munching on it and tossing the whole thing.

Edit - aww, I got beat to the answer! I disagree that they will overrun your tank. I have snails in all 6 of my tanks, and the only one with a lot of them is the tank I use for actually breeding snails. Just watch how much food you throw in the tank. And honestly I think fish do help to control the population, at least for certain species. I have several little ramshorns in my community tank, and have never seen a baby one in there, to my dismay.

 

[shayfish]

Well that's exactly what I'm worried about. I don't even have fish in this tank yet and already I have problems with stuff I don't want.

I'm a little disappointed because when I'm cycled I wanted to have ONE mystery snail, so I don't really want to get a loach to wipe them out since I didn't really have loaches in mind for this tank.

Would it be okay to use chemical products since there's no fish yet? Would it affect my cycle?

 

[mr funktastic]

i dont think it would affect the cycle but it may affect the plants. and the massive snail death will casue a raise in ammonia.

 

[Mosaic]

Don't use the copper snail killer if you ever want to have any kind of snail (or shrimp) in there again. It works very well, but almost too well. It's hard to know how much of the copper stays in the tank afterwards. The plants will take up some of that copper, and if they die and release the copper or the snail eats them, then your mystery snail will die too.
I bet you one large mystery snail can compete with the unwanted snails and eat up a lot of their food, thereby limiting their population. It happens with mine.

And relax, shayfish! It's not a crisis yet!

 

[shayfish]

And relax, shayfish! It's not a crisis yet!

I know.... its just that this tank was supposed to be... perfect *sniffle*

 

[CaptnIgnit]

lettuce trick, just do it for a week or two and you should be able to get of a ton of them. And if you are lucky you will be able to get all of them removed.

I wouldn't really recommend chemicals, only as a last resort.

 

[Jchillin]

I know.... its just that this tank was supposed to be... perfect *sniffle*

Two things come to mind:

1. Where did they come from?
2. What kind are they?

As was already mentioned, depending on the species, they are great.

 

[shayfish]

They rode along on the plants I put in there. Now that I think back I know there were snails in the tank at the lfs. I have no idea what kind they are. When I see some more I will take a picture and post it. But for now I have purchased some lettuce...

 

[Jchillin]

If you describe the shell, it can be identified pretty easily. Lots of snail people here.

 

[JohnPaul]

If your tank isn't super heavily planted, removing them manually & with the lettuce ought to do the trick. If there were no adult snails on the plants (only eggs), then you might be able to remove them manually before they reach sexual maturity & begin to breed.

If you are really heavily planted, then likely the only option you have is a loach of some sort. With my 29g, I had tons of MTS snails; if the lights were out & I came in the dark and turned on the lights, I could easily count 50+ at any given time.

I put in ONE dwarf chain loach (lil guy, not more than 2" long), and within a couple weeks my snail population was essentially zero. They are so good at what they do, you can't "reduce" a snail population with them...only eradicate them.

 

[QTOFFER]

If you're not squeamish about smushing them against the glass with your finger:
Smushed snails are a much appreciated snack for all fish - especially cichlids, but even tetras. Best of all, they're nutritious and free.

 

[onah]

u can always buy a loach and return it to the store when he is done, u might not get credit pending on where u go, but if u go to walmart u can buy one there, and u have 90days with a reciept to return him and get your money back or another fish; or u can just find some one that does want him.

 

[jbarr]

This is interesting. I recntly recieved a used 15-gal, not set up. It came with a lot, including the old substrate, in which i found hundreds of tiny snail shells. A few dozen moderately sized ones as well (~1 cm). Previous owner mustve gotten fed up.

 

[toddnbecka]

If you really want to eliminate them, do it before you stock anything else. I used Had-a-Snail, a copper sulfate solution, to clean out a hydra infestation in my cherry shrimp tank. I moved out all the shrimp, left the plants in, and used double the recommended dose. In 24 hours, the htdra and remaining snails were dead. I siphoned out all the water, and rinsed the tank with fresh (dechlorinated) water several times. Then it was refilled, and the shrimp and snails moved back in. I didn't lose any in the process, and they have been fine ever since.

 

[shayfish]

If you describe the shell, it can be identified pretty easily. Lots of snail people here.

I don't know how to describe them other than small dark, sort of grey-black and a roundish shape.

This morning the lettuce was empty but there was one microscopic sized one making its way along the wall of the tank. I, um, removed all the visible ones last night. I don't want to use chemicals so I will just be picking them out. I wish the water was ready for a fish to go in and eat them up.

Edit:
There's one of them now! (kind of a bad shot)