Advice for how to set up a snail only tank

[ShadyBrig]

Hi, I have a snail outbreak. They were supposed to be mystery snails but they look like ramhorns. They multiply like crazy!
They clean plants amazingly well and I'm not comfortable with the idea of killing them. I actually like the snails so I was thinking of giving them their own tank.
I have an empty 29 gallon however it doesn't have a filter. Do I still need one for a snail only tank?
Any advice would be great!
Thanks

 

[1998golfer]

Hi, I have a snail outbreak. They were supposed to be mystery snails but they look like ramhorns. They multiply like crazy!
They clean plants amazingly well and I'm not comfortable with the idea of killing them. I actually like the snails so I was thinking of giving them their own tank.
I have an empty 29 gallon however it doesn't have a filter. Do I still need one for a snail only tank?
Any advice would be great!
Thanks

Any small tank with a filter and live plants would be good. Lots of people use a 5 or 10 gallon tank for it.

 

[ShadyBrig]

Any small tank with a filter and live plants would be good. Lots of people use a 5 or 10 gallon tank for it.

So I still need a filter... shoot! I don't have one right now and I was hoping to set it up tonight. I don't have a 5 or 10 g but my 29 is not being used so that's why I want to use that one.

 

[Scottyhorse]

Well, for a snail tank, I would stuff it full of plants and add a bubbler. Nothing fancy. They don't need a filter. A 29g heavily planted tank with snails and other inverts would be cool.

 

[1998golfer]

Well snails still produce ammonia..

 

[Mebbid]

Well snails still produce ammonia..

Yeah but its a miniscule amount. You could get away with using just a bubbler.

 

[Scottyhorse]

Yeah but its a miniscule amount. You could get away with using just a bubbler.

Right on point.

I can tell you from personal experience than I had a gazillion pond snails in a .5 or .25g tank, unheated, no bubbler, in a closet. Tossed a piece of lettuce in there every once in a while and they were breeding like mad. Never changed water. So, I can tell you that a heavily planted 29g tank, with a bubbler, will be the Taj Mahal (sp) for those little snails.

 

[Fishfur]

I would not try to keep any number of snails without a filter. They can be pretty dirty, which means ammonia buildup. Less than you get with fish, but still, they are pretty sensitive to poor water conditions, as most inverts are. I have some in a 2.5 with a sponge filter, along with scuds, ostracods and a few other small invert species, and that tank gets pretty high nitrates quite quickly. Has a sponge filter, because the ostracods and copepods are too small to risk with any other type of filter.

Any chance you were sold Giant ramshorns instead of mystery snails ? They are related, but the Giant ramshorn does not come in the array of colours the regular mystery snail does. Mainly wild stripes on the shells, dark brown or light brown foot, or dull gold shells. Much like the giant apple snail in colours, but they don't get nearly so big as the giant apple snail. Giant rams are impressive snails but they lay messy, slimy egg clutches under water, where mystery snails lay above water, in a dry clutch.