3 small snails have appeared...?

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rebekahbirch

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Mar 20, 2011
Messages
81
Location
Isle of Wight
Hi there,
just wanted to know where these snails have come from? :eek: they're very tiny, not even a cm long, and they've just literally appeared out of now where? i do have snails, but they're zebra nerite snails, and are nearly impossile to breed, so i'm pretty sure it isn't a baby of theirs! and also the shell patterns are different, the zebras are stripey, the new ones are almost a leopard pattern! the tank has been running for about 1.5 months now, and i've never noticed them before! would they do any harm if i kept them? they do look sweet! :puppydogeyes:
thanks in advance,
Becky..XxX
 
snails hide in plants a lot, so when you buy new plants sometimes you get snails. have you added anything to the tank recently?
 
no, i only added plants a couple of days after buying the tank- that's why i'm so suprised that they never showed themselves before - they are small tho, they blend in with the gravel, and you only really see them when you're looking for them tho, i suppose.... should i get rid of them or are they ok?
 
if you don't want snails in your tank just pick them out as you see them and dispose of them, if you don't they will grow and breed and you could have a major infestation.

Pete
 
I got MTS snails from an Eco subtract I got from a LFS and I just love them. They are not fun to watch an most of the time I do not see them but they keep my subtract free from trapped gasses and the keep my aquarium clean. It is a little weird when I turn on the lights and there are about ten or so snails all over the glass hahaha.
 
They could have come in on plants as eggs.

if you don't want snails in your tank just pick them out as you see them and dispose of them, if you don't they will grow and breed and you could have a major infestation.

Pete

Snails only get out of control if allowed to through overfeeding or a lack of maintenance IME.
 
I agree with Pete. When I set up my tank in September 09, after a couple of months, I thought it would be nice to get real plants. Around November, I noticed the tiniest of snails on the glass. Well, this one snail turned into many, within a couple of months. Over the start of 2010, I posted ads on Kijiji, advertising free snails. On three separate occasions, people came with pails and each took +100 snails from my tank. By late summer 2010, I ended up changing everything in my tank; substrate, total water change, got rid of the plants, etc. This resulted in some fish deaths and to this day, I still have snails. I guess they were/are in the filter hoses. I've also learned that, likely, I was over-feeding my fish; snails benefit from that.

Now, when I do a media change, I remove all of the snails in the filter, as well as those I find in the tank.

Others have suggested it's good to have snails; My advice is to keep a good handle on them, otherwise, they'll over-run your tank.

Luanne
 
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