Unwanted Snails

[My toddlers tank]

Some may disagree with me but I want to remove the snails that came home with the plants I purchased that in turn turned out to be house plants.
I tried to reply to a forum that was already started on this topic but it was too old.

So in turn I have a 50% water change scheduled for wed the water is sitting in the buckets now, I am going to remove the last of the house plants from the aquarium at this time. I have consistently read that I should place a piece of lettuce in the tank after lights out and remove it after a couple of hours and repeat until the snails are gone. Simple enough but I have questions :s

1 does it matter what kind of lettuce leaf?
2 will the eggs survive elsewhere like my driftwood, in the gravel etc?
3 if so will wiping down my driftwood in the bucket and vacuuming the gravel help?
4 if I were to take pity on 1 snail as I haven't had success with plecos to date. Will it reproduce itself without a mate?

I really don't want mass amount of snails especially since mine are leaving the aquarium and crawling on the outside of my filter. ( all 2 I have spotted so far)

Thanks

 

[callisto9]

Those egg sacs can be pretty hard to remove. I just spotted three of them in my tank tonight and I couldn't scrape them off with tweezers.

1) I don't think it matters, but iceberg would probably suffice.
2) Eggs on driftwood? I think so. Gravel, I don't think so (someone correct me if I'm wrong)
3) You might try baking your driftwood, or boiling it. Wiping doesn't seem to be as effective.
4) Some snails are asexual and can reproduce alone. I believe ramshorns are. So, if that's the snail you have, then yes, there will be more.

I just saw this in another thread:
Aquarium Snail Trap: Sera Snail Collect

You could try that.

Good luck. For now, I'm living with mine.

 

[Laser]

It depends on what kind of snails they are but they are probably pond snails. The best thing you can do now is eliminate the ones that you see. Once you have a pond snail there's not much you can do to stop them other than using harsh chemicals or getting another kind of snail that eats pond snails called an assassin snail. You can keep the population down by avoiding overfeeding. They lay their eggs in jelly like masses that are not so easy to spot if you aren't looking for them. They can lay these masses wherever they want. Vacuuming the gravel may remove some of the eggs, but again you are fighting a battle you can't ever fully win.

 

[callisto9]

I had a pond snail, too. THAT ONE, I did not want. I separated him and removed all the egg sacs I could find. They have all been thrown away.

 

[My toddlers tank]

Thank You

I will boil both pieces of driftwood on Wed and the decoration hiding spot.

I will look very careful in my filter as well I guess.

Your snail is very attractive, my fingers are crossed that I get rid if them from my aquarium, I have removed both as soon as I spotted the little dots, I did not leave them long enough to determine what they may be.

There has been at least a week between spotting the first and second snail fingers crossed that it isn't that out of control yet .

 

[My toddlers tank]

Will egg sacs look like bubble underneath the plant leaf?

 

[callisto9]

They look like little dots in a gel sac.

Like this:

 

[My toddlers tank]

Nice picture
Mine were air bubbles just tapped the top of the leaves and they popped. Lol

I am getting a new camera for Christmas, I am hoping that I will be able to get some good shots of the aquarium, right now I am using my iPad and iPhone they are not they best quality but get the point across.

 

[callisto9]

LOL! Air bubbles are much easier to deal with.

Depending on your iPhone, they take decent pics. Anything iPhone4 and up should take good-quality pics. Focusing is key.

 

[My toddlers tank]

Awe my phone is a three, and hubby bought me the new iPad for Mother's Day very happy with it but it isn't my broke canon camera

I will keep a careful eye on my potential snails... Again thank you very much for your help.

Curious do you have a full picture of your tank? Your plants look healthy. I am hoping this time around I will get healthy plants. I have a bad habit of impulse buying especially with the children in tow because I have a hard time saying no when they are asking for fish and not candy.

 

[callisto9]

I have actually thrown out several very very very tiny snails - just to keep the population in check. I'd estimate I've tossed about 20 - 25. I don't feel as bad when they're super small.

My tank thread is here: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/my-20g-planted-tank-227109.html

But here's a quick pic:

I've bought plants from everywhere - PetSmart, the LFS, members here, members on The Planted Tank forum. I have a little bit of everything. When I set up this 20G, they didn't do so well initially, but they are doing fine now!

Suuuuuuuuuure, blame the kids! LOL

 

[My toddlers tank]

The aquarium is very very nice. Your driftwood is awesome. I like the rocks to my son is going to get some at the river with me one of these days.

Yep the kids are to blame you can't say no to them when the behave, unless the two year old is screaming.

Spent the night tossing and turning dreaming about ph balances, my filter and snails lol I might have spent too much time reading forums yesterday lol

 

[callisto9]

The aquarium is very very nice. Your driftwood is awesome. I like the rocks to my son is going to get some at the river with me one of these days.

Yep the kids are to blame you can't say no to them when the behave, unless the two year old is screaming.

Spent the night tossing and turning dreaming about ph balances, my filter and snails lol I might have spent too much time reading forums yesterday lol

Thank you! The wood is manzanita

I've spent nights over-thinking my aquarium, too.

 

[Coel]

I actually have some pond snails... And a ton of ramshorn snails but they are food for my assassin snails. They get a feast every day

 

[My toddlers tank]

Thanks
Collisto9 I found a thread from your aquarium set up and found it amazing thanks for sharing, my betta is two months old today. ( this is since I brought him home) I added him two weeks after I finished setting up my aquarium again. I chose him because he is hardy and beautiful. I have been slowly adding things since, although hubby would disagree and say that I am doing things way too fast. I added 5 glow light tetras in the past week or so.

I agree with your thread about wanting to keep the tank covered to keep jumpers in, we purchased a rainbow shark on Friday and he jumped Sunday.

I have been looking at the loaches some more , hopefully I will find one that will like our water conditions and will eat baby snails have not seen any today.

Coel, thanks although snail are really interesting and callisto9's are really beautiful, they are not my thing at all.
Test kit this pay to check all my levels before I add anything else. My LFS will order anything in their book for me even if they don't keep it there so I am going to get some plants this time.

I kinda wish I had known about this site before I put the aquarium back together in Aug. I truly believed I needed to have fish creating waste in order for the plants to grow, I would have added them all first had I realized. I guess I know for next time.

 

[chrismiller21]

I actually have some pond snails... And a ton of ramshorn snails but they are food for my assassin snails. They get a feast every day

I got 8 Assassin's at a auction. A bit overkill but within a week, they have just about wiped my 10 gallon of all the pond snails. I am going to get a steady flow of ramshorn to keep feeding the assassin's. They did a great job for me, I'd hate to see them die off after they get rid of them lol.

 

[Laser]

Plants do require some form of nitrogen, so it's not entirely inaccurate that plants need fish waste.

I know this is off topic, but that's a nice looking tank calisto. Whenever I have too many snails I throw them in my 55 with my assassin snails. They just bred so there must be 50-75 small assassins in there now. I feed them shrimp pellets too.

 

[My toddlers tank]

Thanks Laser I am going to try again with some low light plants that were recommended here so fingers crossed. I have started reducing the hours my lights are actually on in the aquarium and the algee growth is in check.

Chris I can emphasize with your attachment and felt awful removing the snails, but I would not really want them, so hopefully I can take control before they do

I appreciate everyone's ideas and stories. It makes a difference having new perspectives on the care of our underwater life my parents had aquariums but I don't recall them being as elaborate as I have seen here. It is really quite amazing to see everyone's ideas put into life.