Canister Filter became Snail Hotel? Any Advice?

[ParadoxOwl]

So, today I took apart my goldfishes canister filter to find two snails and a TON on eggs and teeny tiny babies.

I guess the first question would be, now that I have removed the eggs, cleaned and dried the filter (while keeping the media in a bucket of tank water), is it going to be ok if some baby snails remain in the filter? I read many articles and found yes they help and some say no they will hurt the filter. If not, would it still be advised to clean the filter out once a month or so?

Second question would be, short of taking all the tubes and everything from this filter apart, is there any safe way to remove them? Mind you, if they won't hurt the canister filter i guess this doesn't matter much.

Any advice would be so great. Thank you.

 

[Cactuspixie]

I like the fact that they congregate in the canisters for easy disposal. Loll they won't do any harm- just remove what you have easy access to, and it will keep the population under control. The other place I find large numbers of snails congregating is under old bogwood.

 

[ParadoxOwl]

So, this is a fairly normal occurrence? I removed the two biggest that I assume are the breeders, and cleaned the canister of all eggs and visible babies.

Now I am gonna pull up my driftwood and check there. They like wood too I am assuming?

 

[Cactuspixie]

Very common occurrence. They like to eat detritus so the filter and under bogwood are ideal snail hangouts.

 

[Fishfur]

Do you know what type they are ? Ramshorns and bladder snails, the two most common, breed at a very young age and small size, and don't need mates either. Hermaphrodites.
So you likely did not remove the 'breeders'.. just the oldest ones.

I think they are harmless unless they are so numerous they clog up a tube or something like that. I don't use canisters so I can't say if that's even possible but the ones I find in my HOBs sure don't seem to do any harm and if I see a few too many I just remove them as I see them.

They don't eat plants and do clean up junk and detritus.

 

[ParadoxOwl]

I know for sure they aren't Ramshorns. I'm trying to figure out what they are other than black XD

 

[Fishfur]

Chances are very, very high that they are bladder snails. They're most common 'pest' snail. Small, dark, move surprisingly fast for a snail compared to most other snails.

Often found in ponds but are not true 'pond' snails. Full grown they don't get much over 3/8 inch long. Can vary from near black to lighter brown in body colour, shells also vary from very dark to pale brown. They can start laying eggs when they're about 1/8 inch long, if not sooner. One of these days I'll get my pics loaded and do a little pic demo on common snails. I have pics of most of them.

 

[ParadoxOwl]

Took me a while but I snagged a picture of the biggest one i got out of my filter.

is it a bladder snail?

 

[Cactuspixie]

Took me a while but I snagged a picture of the biggest one i got out of my filter.

is it a bladder snail?

Not sure what it actually is, but that's the snail commonly referred to here as the dreaded pond snail. Prolific breeders and leave those ugly brown egg sacks attached to surfaces.

 

[Fishfur]

I'd say it's a bladder snail. Pond snails, though some have a similar shape shell, get bigger than that, usually a much paler colour too.

Bladder snails lay eggs in little blobs of gel, clear as glass, and once they begin to grow you'll see tiny specks in the gel, which are the baby snails.

Ramshorns also lay blobs of gel, though most appear to be crescent shape, not irregular, like bladder snails are.

The only snails I've seen so far that lay big ugly blobs of eggs are Giant Ramshorns and Asolene Spixis, whose eggs are very similar to each other. Big, loose, slimy sacks, quite disgusting, but nice snails come out of them anyway. Both of these latter species are related to the common Apple or Mystery snail, but the first 3 species mentioned are not.

I've not yet seen eggs from a pond snail or from a Japanese Trap door, so I don't know what they look like from personal experience.

 

[ParadoxOwl]

The eggs are clear blobs, and we had Ramshorn's so I know they aren't that. So, if i cull the bladder? snails once a month will my filter support them?

I have a Japanese Trap Door snail, 3 actually, and they are live bearing snails. Potty Tickle, our only female, gave birth and we have the teeny babies. Theres only 5 0r 6 per birth so I've been keeping up with giving them away to my friends with ponds. (all 3 trap doors are kept in separate tanks)

 

[Fishfur]

Culling the bladder snails is really the only way to keep the numbers down in a canister, I'd think. Mind you, I don't have this type of filter, so I've never had to deal with this particular problem.

But bladder snails can lay eggs when they are very small.. I toss the ones I find in a 2.5G I'm raising ostracods in, and I saw eggs when the biggest bladder snail was less than 1/8' inch long.

They are eating the detritus the filter takes out of the tank, so in that respect they're useful, but they also poop themselves, so I think it's probably six of one, half dozen of another so far as bio load goes.

Clearly the filter is able to support them, even at current numbers. If it could not support them, they'd be dead and polluting the water, which is clearly not happening.

Nice to know about the JTD snails. Since you keep them in separate tanks, I take it they are hermaphrodites too ? I've thought of getting one for a tank, just because I'm interested in snails, but they are so dark, they'd be invisible on my black substrate I think.

 

[ParadoxOwl]

JTDS have genders. I have a for certain female named Potty tickle (minecraft joke) and she had babies. I have been able to sex the other two because they don't like coming out at all when i hold them.

JTDS's are live mystery snails, they have genders. I done so much research on that just to ensure I'd buy snails that can't breed with out either a mate or brackish water. (i have a nerite too). I just can't seem to find a set answer for these new little snails. I am assuming they came in on a plant because they are only in the one canister filter.

 

[Fishfur]

See, I learn new stuff every day . So JTD's have sexes too. Good to know.

Bladder snails are hermaphrodites for sure. And typically they come on plants. Most common way to get one is on a plant, or eggs on a plant. Eggs hatch out such tiny babies, you might not notice them for some time.

I don't why they seem to like filters, but I suspect they simply crawl into the intakes and once inside, have trouble finding a way out. They don't care about light much, so they carry on inside the filter just fine. I get them in my HOB filters now & then, but they can easily get out of them so the numbers don't get high.

Fortunately they can't drown, unlike a mystery snail that has to have air and will most certainly drown if it can't get to air when it needs it. I had two of them drown when they caught their foot in the grate of the HOB intake before I put sponge covers on them.