Snails!

[Howkie10]

Look at all these snails! All of those little black dotts in the picture are snails of all different sizes. The numbers have been steadily increasing since I've had the fish. 2 questions: Where do they come from? Are they going to take over my aquarium?

 

[Nils]

Probably came in the bag or something, maybe you got an egg sac somehow. Snails will always get in aquariums, no matter what you do so just let it haaapppeeenn.
Snails aren't necessarily bad. Some people love them, others hate them. In planted tanks they're helpful.
I feel like you're overfeeding. In tanks that are overfed, snail populations will go upupupupupupup and then you have a ton. The less you need, the less snails you have so watch your feeding.

 

[eco23]

I'll let someone else ID them, but if you have live plants 99% they hitchhiked a ride into your tank on them.

A population explosion like that is a sure sign that the fish are being WAY over fed.

Some people like having snails, most kinds are harmless and just eat leftover food and decaying plant matter, but there are options such as Assassin Snails and Loaches (assuming your tank allows) which will decimate the population.

A lot of people who have snail eating fish like puffers will even buy them from you....always a thought

Either way, I'd definitely do some research on feeding and cut back as needed.

 

[flchamp89]

I see ponds. Maybe? Some rams on substrate. Picture blury when I enlarge it.

 

[omni024]

My loaches would have a heyday lol

 

[russianaquarium]

That looks like the Ramshorn snail, they can come from anywhere fresh driftwood, live plants you bought, its hard to get rid of them, how I got rid of mine is continuously take them out when you see them, and they lay eggs on glass and driftwood, and the more you scrape off the more the population will go down. I find 1 or 2 every so often but used to have well over 50 in my 30 gallon. I got them by adding fresh driftwood from a river. Now moved all my stuff to a 60 gallon and still find one or 2 they are a pain because I have mystery snails and these look super ugly. And YES they will take over, get rid of them till its too late, and get some good snails like apple or mystery, I personally like mystery because you can control their reproduction they lay eggs out of water and they are large, so if you don't want no more just take em off and chuck em.

 

[GuppyGuy333]

yeah it seems like you have a snail population explosion (i feel like they are probably ramshorn). they can enter your tank in a number of ways, i think the most common is hitching a ride onto plants. they can lay clutches of eggs on leaves and then hatch when you put them in another tank.

They will take over your aquarium. Though they're population should level out over time. they tend to populate based on food availability. It looks like you might be overfeeding.

I hate them. many people say they won't eat you plants. I find this not to be the case. They are known to eat dead plant matter however if you don't have dead plant matter what is the next logical step?.....live plant matter. Though i think they would prefer detritus (such as left over food) and algae over possible live plants. Though I don't have that much dead plant matter or algae in my tank so instead they leave holes in my anubias or munch on some leaves of my other plants.


I'd say kill as many as you can. odds are you won't be able to kill them all anyway.
Do not release them into the wild. They are invasive.