Bladder snail bio load

[Laurus]

Hi, I have a rather small tank, I think it's about 4 gallons. It's already very tightly stocked with 6 ember tetras that seem to be doing very well. I also have two Egeria Najas in there.
Thing is I now have at least 12 bladder snails in the tank that came with the plants, and I'm wondering if I should just remove them or what. And if I did, what should I do with them? Thanks for your help!

I will add, they are doing a great job at keeping the tank clean, so that's something.

 

[libertybelle]

I wouldn’t leave them, personally. Though it may be hard to completely eradicate them.

They don’t have a huge bio load on their own but their population explodes very quickly and the die off can be just as quick if you cut back feeding or something. You don’t have enough water volume to support a boom and bust of snail population.

When I had a 29 gallon with some that came in with plants I used to just squish them against the glass and my fish would eat them and eventually I didn’t see anymore. but in such a small tank with such small fish that may not work. If you have any bigger tanks with bigger fish you could squish and feed them to that tank.

Or you could toss them in the freezer and/or throw them out.

Just don’t flush them down the drain alive. Never a good idea to put anything, especially something that can replicate quickly!) into the water system.