Snail Infestation

[nerdycatlover516]

I bought a live plant for my tank and apparently didn't rinse it well enough. I now have a lot of snails in my tank. Probably too many. I'd like to remove them but I'd rather not kill them if I don't have to. I can't identify the species of snail and it looks to me like there are several species. I doubt it's a good idea to release them in the wild. I live in Green Bay, WI. Any advice is much appreciated. If I have to kill them, then I'd also like to know the most humane way to euthanize them.

 

[Aiken Drum]

If you have snails in your aquarium, they are essentially in there forever. They will be in your filtration, they will have laid eggs in your plants, so you will have new snails going forward. All you can really do is control numbers. Don't overfeed your fish to ensure there isn't an abundant food source to support excess numbers. Manually remove them as you see them, you can crush them against the glass, fashion traps with bait and remove them, you can put a lettuce leaf in, and remove it after it's attracted a number of snails. I'd personally kill them once removed. I wouldn't release them for fear that they are a non native species or that they are carrying some kind of disease or parasite that isn't naturally present.

There are fish that eat snails. Loaches for instance. Assassin snails will eat them too. But as they will already be in the workings of your system these aren't likely to completely eradicate.

There are chemical treatments that should kill them, but these treatments will kill all invertebrates, and you won't be able to get rid of the chemicals once they are in your aquarium as they will soak into filter media, driftwoodll, rock etc. So even if you don't have other inverts, you could never have them going forward either if you chemically kill them.

 

[Andy Sager]

For starters, not only is it a bad idea to release the snails into the wild but most likely it's also illegal to do so so please don't do that.
If you want to spare the snails by just removing them, cut a slice of zucchini or cucumber and place it on the floor of the aquarium. While the light is out on the aquarium, check the veggies with a flashlight and you should see the snails on the veggie slices. Scoop up the veggies in a net and then you can either euthanize them or give them back to the store or to someone with fish that eats snails. You will probably have to do this a few times to get rid of all the snails but every time you do it, you should see less and less snails on the veggies.
To euthanize the snails humanely, there are a couple of options: One is a 2 step process: Use clove oil or decarbonated beer to put the snails to sleep then freeze the snails for more than 48 hours so they die in their sleep. Another one is to make a strong salt solution to drop the snails in and they will die. The only fast solution is to crush them. For those who are squeamish, place the snails in between some paper towels or newspaper and use a hammer. If you are worried about pain, there is a lot of debate whether snails even feel pain or if they do, that it's not pain like humans feel pain. In my eyes, doing it quickly is the most humane.