New Snails

[wipeout98a]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I just recently noticed, after being out of town for a week, about a dozen little snails on the bottom of my tank on the rocks. They are the sort with a longer, pointed shell, and I did not put them in there. 2 weeks ago I put a vacation feeder in my tank and two months ago I got a few new fish.

Has anyone else had this happen? Does anyone know if this is a problem or what I need to do?

Thanks in advance. I'm baffled.

 

[hsherman1986]

sounds like MTS (malaysian trumpet snails). They are nothing to worry about, in fact, i have heard they are very beneficial. They will aerate your sand/gravel, removing build up air pockets/toxins. They do multiply, loaches of sorts might eat the babies, but leave the adults alone if you want to control the population.

someone who knows more will chime in

 

[OceanMaiden]

They most likely hitchhiked on the fish. They sound to be the common pond (pest) snail, physa acuta. They are hermamphrodites and reproduce at will. Your best bet would be to put a weighted piece of zuchinni in the tank before you go to bed and take it out in the morning and dispose of it as it will be covered with these snails. You could also sit there for a few hours reaching in and pulling them out. I like the zuchinni method myself, less stressful and you dont get as wet! Also you need to watch on the glass of the tank and the plants for clumps of clear jelly with little tan dots in em. Those are the eggs, scrape em out and dipose of them or youll have hordes more in no time. HTH good luck wipeout98a

SIDENOTE: Are the shells pointed , or really long and pointed? If the latter they are probably MTS and you will have to ask others about that type of snail as I am still learning about them.

 

[wipeout98a]

They are pretty long and pointed. I just read somewhere that maybe I should get some clown loaches? Are those aggressive to other fish?

 

[hsherman1986]

clown loaches are really peaceful fish, i love mine. However, they are schooling fish (3+ for them to be comfortable), they get to be 12", and they require at least 100g.

There are much smaller loaches out there that will control snails if your tank isnt that large.

 

[bman]

I got a yoyo loach a couple of weeks ago to combat a growing ramshorn snail population. He is doing quite well at keeping them in check although I have never seen him eating snails, ever. This type of loach will not get bigger than 3".

 

[JRagg]

Long and pointed sounds like MTS, not pond snails imo.

These are the best friends of a planted aquarium. They aren't generally referred to as a pest since they don't eat live plant matter and usually don't become too numerous.

Still, the lettuce/zuchhini trick should work for them as well.

 

[Jarred Darque]

Dont become to numerous? I disagree on that. MTS populations can explode almost over night.

And they are not hermaphrodites, tehy reproduce asexually, i.e. it only takes 1 to tango. so one snail gets in there and then you hhave hundreds. But, yes they can be beneficial to any tnak, and very beneficial for a planted tank. If you have puffers GET RID of all the MTSs, most loaches suck snails out of the shell, so you dont have to worry about the thick shell on MTSs causing harm to loaches, but loaches will not be able to get rid of them. So far the only fish I have seen that can effectively take down a MTS population is a Pacu. yes, that fish that gets really big. Mine will take up a MTS shell and snap it in half, which is what a puffer would try and do, but they breaktheir jaws in the process

 

[Purrbox]

I believe that Dwarf Puffers would be the exception in this case. They actually eat the snails out of the shells as apposed to crunching them. They might still cruch the babies, but the larger snailes are just too big for their little mouths.

 

[wipeout98a]

I was just told that both clown loaches and puffers are too aggressive for your average tropical tank. Do you all agree? I'm also not sure where to find a yo yo loach.

 

[JRagg]

Loaches are not aggressive at all from what I've seen. They can hold their own when attacked, but I never saw one of my clowns go after anthing in my old tank. I had tetra, rasbora, silver dollars, etc.

**EDIT**

Dwarf puffers are too aggressive for a tropical tank.

They should only be kept in a species only tank from what I've read.

 

[bman]

Yoyo loach is a Botia lohachata. It has a distinctive black stripe pattern on the side that actually spells out " Y O Y O". Beautiful fish.

My lfs had them, but I had to ask, as I could not find them when looking at all the tanks.