OMG Snails

[courtnee]

Okay.... I am use to having a apple snail that does not make babies with out another snail. I never worried about babies. Until now.

When our apple snail Gary died I let my daughter get another golden apple snail and a small black snail. I was assuming the black snail (not sure what kind its small) would multiply.

The last week or so we have not seen Elvira the black snail. Yesterday I had a glass tetra die and I got it out (not sure what happened was a fluke) and I saw what I thought was a small snail. I noticed my brown algae is getting cleaned up, thought it was the pleco!

Today I notice TONS of baby snails!!! omg. I am freaking out. Elvira even though she isnt seen she was BUSY!

I found one egg clutch today and got rid of it.

My question is this...

I adore snails but I dont want so many I cant deal with it or my tank is over ran by them. Since I like them I dont want to just murder them.

What can I do?

Will there be a balance or will they just keep going until there is way to much and I will have to resort to murder. ugh.

My tank is a 55gl that is NOT planted.

 

[neilanh]

YoYo loaches love baby snails

 

[monlov]

i had the same thing happen to me. apple snails can be very proliffic, laying an egg sac once a week...... but they usually wont and they will only lay eggs if the conditions are perfect. a couple things you can do to stop more eggs is to lower the temp in the tank(if possible) and cut back feeding. also inspect the tank for new egg sacs every couple of days. they take about a week to hatch. as for the babies you can try to find new homes for them (applesnail.net has people who will want them) but dont flush them or let them go as they are known for being detrimental invasive species espcialy in florida.

for a while we thought my girlfriends tank was the "honeymoon suit" after three egg sacs we did a little research and havent had an egg sac in over a year. i have 10 to 15 in my tank and she has around 20. read up on applesnail.net theres alot of good info

 

[courtnee]

that is the issue, they are not apple snails. It would be easier if they were lol There is only 1 apple snail so it is not laying eggs. Its a regular hitch hicker pond snail that is going to town on its own and now the new ones own.

YoYo loaches.... a new fish would be nice. It would be the food chain and okay with me if they ate them questions though before I dive into that.

1. Would my apple snail be ok? he is about quarter size
2. How big do yoyo's get?
3. Do I need to keep them in groups?

Here is what I got

2 four line pictus cats - 5-6" they are the hogs of the tank
2 spotted pictus - 2-3"
3 bleeding heart tetra
8 serpae tetra
8 white skirt tetra
3 glass tetra
1 common pleco that is still only 2 inches
1 apple snail
and many baby pond snails

I am getting a 125gl this summer for the pleco and four lines..

I do 50% pwc once a week and gravel vac

How many yoyos can I fit?

 

[toddnbecka]

Stocking is more a question of compatability, filtration, and tank maintenance than inches/gallons. Provided your filtration is turning over the tank volume 4-5 times/hour, you shouldn't have any problems adding some yoyo loaches. They do best in odd-numbered groups, 5 would be better than 3 as far as that goes. They don't grow very large or quickly, but I'm not sure whether the apple snail would be safe.
Incidentally, I'd swap the common pleco for a BN. They don't grow over 4-5", and are the best algae and diatom cleaners to be found.