Too Many Snails?

[MapleNeil]

I have a snail infestation in my 20g tank that came in on some plants. I don't mind since they will keep the tank clean, but today when I turned on the light there were probably 40 little snails on the glass, ranging in size from 1mm to 6mm, most of them smaller. Is this something I need to deal with?

[Caliban07]

Originally Posted by MapleNeil

I have a snail infestation in my 20g tank that came in on some plants. I don't mind since they will keep the tank clean, but today when I turned on the light there were probably 40 little snails on the glass, ranging in size from 1mm to 6mm, most of them smaller. Is this something I need to deal with?

It’s not a big deal though it could be a sign of overfeeding.

Depends if you like snails. They do no harm and help with algae etc.

If you want to cull them you can make a snail trap or try blanched veggies to entice them then pick it out.

I’ve ordered 80 snails in the last couple of months for my tank.

[Gallonmilk]

YES this isn’t the type of cleaning snail you want, these take over and reproduce very rapidly and can cause illness to your fish. they don’t do any good and will make the water dirty too. There are certain fish you can get to eat the snails and there are things you can buy. I wouldn’t recommend the dipping plants in bleach because of the risk that bleach might still be on there. A mystery snail is one of the less invasive snails that clean if you like the idea of snails.

[MapleNeil]

What kind of illness do they cause to fish? One of my fish died recently in that tank.

[Gallonmilk]

I don’t know many of them but I know it can get parasites and I’ve heard it can have schistosomiasis I’m pretty sure this can spread to humans. Did the fish have anything irregular about it like a hole in the body or swollen stomach or really anything? The best solutions to get rid of snails is to get fish that eat the and get them out manually a way to do this is by putting lettuce in the tank and wait till the next morning and take it out chances it will be covered in snails. Chemicals to get rid of snails can harm your fish

[fishwonder]

Yeah, what @Caliban07 said, overfeeding. Just need to feed less. A tropical fishes stomach is the size of one eyeball. Just feed that amount once a day and you are good. I have snails in my 10 gallon and they are great. I actually ordered colored ramshorn snails for more.

[libertybelle]

Yes I’m with Caliban. Some people don’t like snails and some species are more prone to breeding quickly if you over feed the tank but they are not inherently bad and certainly don’t make the water dirty in their own. It’s the overfeeding that does that and the population boom and die off of the tank isn’t well maintained.

Depending on the kind of snail they can have lots of benefits but even” pest” snails can do plenty of good cleaning algae and leftover food etc.

If you are having a population boom of snails and had a fish die recently I would be checking your water parameters first. It’s more likely overfeeding and resulting poor quality water that killed the fish then anything to do with the snails.

For the record I have had a pest snail come into my tanks on plants twice. The first time I just cut back on feeding a bit and squished the adults I saw and eventually I stoped seeing them. No chemicals or snail eating fish needed. (Though my tetras did enjoy the ‘treat’ of eating the snail once squished.). The second species of “pest snail” I think are still in my shrimp tank because there are no predators. A teeny species of mini ramshorns that never grows larger than 1mm. Once in a blue moon I will see one. Like literally once every few weeks. If snails are overpopulating your aquarium there’s too much in there for them to eat.