Baby snails in tank without snails???

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Lotsofbabies

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Mar 16, 2012
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Location
Western Cape, South Africa
:confused: I cleaned my 25l tank a few weeks ago. With clean I mean all water out, tank scrubbed, ornaments scrubbed and gravel scrubbed and soaked in boiling water. I did the same with the breeding net. This was to make sure that all the snail eggs are destroyed.

After all that, I noticed yesterday that my 1 guppy fry in the breeding net had guests... Yip, you guessed it, about 20 baby snails!!!!

How is this possible when this tank has Bruce (rainbow shark) and only the 1 fry?????? NO snails and as mentioned above CLEANED tank 100%!

Any ideas?

PS: I will be giving the snails away via Gumtree or something similar...
 
Did you scrub out the filter housing & replace your filter media as well? If you didnt, this is where the snails/eggs came from. They live quite happily in the filter media & lay eggs on it/the filter housing.
 
Did you scrub out the filter housing & replace your filter media as well? If you didnt, this is where the snails/eggs came from. They live quite happily in the filter media & lay eggs on it/the filter housing.

I did scrub the filter and the filter media... I even scrubbed the heater... :confused:
 
Snails can actually survive quite a bit of tolerance. I looked it up to get rid of mine and found it was going to be a long hard job. They can survive bleach-water too for quite some time. They have good tolerance for temperature as well. I hate snails with a passion! I'm a firm believer that once you have snails, they will always come back. You might be able to "control" them but they will always be there. Maybe buy new gravel or something. I feel for you cuz I'm sure your really frustrated; I would be too.
 
They say if you can see 1 snail, you probably have 20. I'm sure you didn't get them all. That said, overfeeding is really the only way they can overpopulate your tank.
 
Snails can survive a heck of alot. If you truly want to get rid of them (and dont have any inverts or fry), treat your tank with a product called Life Bearer. This site sells it- look under 'medications' 'parasite control' in their products catalog.

Aquatic Creations Ltd - Marine / Freshwater Supplies & Pond Products Catalog

They say if you can see 1 snail, you probably have 20. I'm sure you didn't get them all. That said, overfeeding is really the only way they can overpopulate your tank.

I wouldn't be able to kill them. I'll donate them to a local pet shop that agreed to take them all.... I'll keep 3 I think... The males!

Last count, 62 baby snails!!!

Overfeeding might have been a problem, but now I feed MUCH less, and the two female snails gave me 2 egg clusters over the weekend (they in different tank than the babies) and another cluster this morning... ****, these guys are worse than rabbits!

Seriously considering giving them all to the local pet shop...
 
Seriously considering giving them all to the local pet shop...

I'm guessing you're joking lol, pet shops won't accept these snails as they're 'pests'. They come in on anything, mostly plants.

The best solution I've found to keeping them under control is to have assassin snails in your tank, they move very slowly but are thorough. They'll eat up the little pests in no time. You'll just be left with a lot of empty shells, which can give a nice natural look to your tank anyway.

Also, assassin snails don't eat plants, so they're awesome all round!
 
I'm guessing you're joking lol, pet shops won't accept these snails as they're 'pests'. They come in on anything, mostly plants.

The best solution I've found to keeping them under control is to have assassin snails in your tank, they move very slowly but are thorough. They'll eat up the little pests in no time. You'll just be left with a lot of empty shells, which can give a nice natural look to your tank anyway.

Also, assassin snails don't eat plants, so they're awesome all round!

I found a local pet shop that will take the babies. So I'll be giving them to them... :)
 
Madness haha, I tried doing the same and they outright refused to accept them :-/, oh well, more food for the assassins!
 
Some snails such as Asscain snail and apple golden snails and nitrate snails are very nice.

Its only the small colourless snails which are the pain.

You cant sit and watch them as they do nothing and just take over the tank!
 
Some snails such as Asscain snail and apple golden snails and nitrate snails are very nice.

Its only the small colourless snails which are the pain.

You cant sit and watch them as they do nothing and just take over the tank!

Not sure which colourless small snails you are refering to.

Yes, most snails are nice, BUT they breed like rabbits :banghead:

Assassin snails aren't available to me, so I will be donating most of my Apple Snails to a local pet shop that will take them... (y)
 
I have the same problem with apple snails. I pull out the egg sacs but I get babies anyway. I wish I could rehome all but one. Doesn't your shark like escargot?
 
I have the same problem with apple snails. I pull out the egg sacs but I get babies anyway. I wish I could rehome all but one. Doesn't your shark like escargot?

Yes, he does like escargot, but I'm too soft hearted to feed the babies to him... the eggs I feed him regularly and he enjoys them so much!

Rehoming almost all my snails this weekend... :( I feel sad after nurturing the babies, but I just can't accomodate them all... My main goal was to breed guppies not snails...

Three pregnant guppies!! So will see babies soon! :)
 
I wont be getting a pair of Apple Golden Snails then

Thanks for this thread

Just saved me . :D
 
I wont be getting a pair of Apple Golden Snails then

Thanks for this thread

Just saved me . :D

They breed constantly and they poop up a storm.

Pleasure Fishy Aston! lol, they are beautiful to watch though. Just get one! ;)

dbockrath, they do breed constantly, but the poop is not a problem... they eat that too.... :)
 
dbockrath said:
They breed constantly and they poop up a storm.

Sounds like humans to me........

When my apple snails had babies only one clutch hatched out of three. My lfs gave me their value at which they sell them at so I had 14 snails at 4.50 at which I got in credit so I acquired my platys and a few others in return. Now my lfs guy is asking where more snails are :smack: haven't had any clutches laid in months. Doesn't bother me at all I have platy fry to tend to.

It's too bad that your lfs won't give you some credit for them as they'll obviously turn a profit from them. If they are apple snails try postage an add in our classified area. Maybe a dollar a piece. You never know.
 
Sounds like humans to me........

When my apple snails had babies only one clutch hatched out of three. My lfs gave me their value at which they sell them at so I had 14 snails at 4.50 at which I got in credit so I acquired my platys and a few others in return. Now my lfs guy is asking where more snails are :smack: haven't had any clutches laid in months. Doesn't bother me at all I have platy fry to tend to.

It's too bad that your lfs won't give you some credit for them as they'll obviously turn a profit from them. If they are apple snails try postage an add in our classified area. Maybe a dollar a piece. You never know.

Yes, it is too bad that they won't pay for them, but they explained that they are wary of diseases and never know if the snails are healthy, so they do not buy them, because of this risk. I'm just glad they will take them!!! :)

On the pregnant guppy note: 25 fry!! I'm so impressed. We are greatgrandparents now! :lol:
 
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