Unbelievable!

[Lady Hobbs]

I dumped bleach in my tank the other night and watched the snails fall like flies. The tank has been dark since then and I've paid no attention to it. I just turned the light on and to my amazement, I have baby snails. LOL Adults are dead but who would think these babies would hatch after a bleach bath?

[Dave66]

I dumped bleach in my tank the other night and watched the snails fall like flies. The tank has been dark since then and I've paid no attention to it. I just turned the light on and to my amazement, I have baby snails. LOL Adults are dead but who would think these babies would hatch after a bleach bath?

Embrace the snails, Hobbsy, embrace the snails. Get a sextet of Botia striata, and the snail population will be reduced to very few. Snails are good cleaners; algae, biofilm, every surface of the tank. I have burrowing snails similar to Malaysian trumpets, but from a spring in Arkansas, in my tanks. They've been in my gravels for decades. In the tanks with Botia in them, they are reduced, but since I feed sparingly several times a day, the other tanks don't have enough of them to bother. I like them, as they plow under the gravel looking for tidbits during the day, freshening it, and prowl the tank at night cleaning up. I very rarely have to clean the inside of the glass with them in it.
I do have a few pond snails that came in on plants, but the population never really gets going, between my light feedings and the faux trumpet snails already so well established that there isn't much for the Physa snails to eat.

Dave

[Halelorf]

I just did some snail cleaning on one of my 10 gallons. Had globs of eggs hidden all over. Squished little snails for probably half an hour and trying some lettuce in a jar to trap some that I missed. It is amazing how fast they can reproduce.

[karbomb]

i am really not a big fan of the endless murdering of snails. they aren't doing anything really bad, so i don't understand why all these guys have to die. it makes me sad when i read a post that promotes the killing of them. especially when everyone promotes fish-less cycling, i mean what's the difference in killing a snail or a guppy?

[cocoa_pleco]

snails can be a pain by eating live plants. however guppies are a bit more pricey than snails, here fancy guppies are $2 each and snails are 2c each

personally i dont mind them, i have no snails in any of my tanks right now but i would be thrilled to get a few hundred for my 90g as a cleanup crew.

[Ty]

i am really not a big fan of the endless murdering of snails. they aren't doing anything really bad, so i don't understand why all these guys have to die. it makes me sad when i read a post that promotes the killing of them. especially when everyone promotes fish-less cycling, i mean what's the difference in killing a snail or a guppy?

about 9 bucks....

I do see what you are saying, as you dont squish fry when you find them in your tank.

[karbomb]

about 9 bucks....

I do see what you are saying, as you dont squish fry when you find them in your tank.

hahaha, 9 bucks is a lot! fancy guppies round here are only 5.

but yeah i don't mean to be a downer but it does bother me.

and cocoa this is what i mean, wouldn't it be better if the people with the snails that didn't want them gave them to the people who did?

[Lady Hobbs]

Embrace the snails, Hobbsy, embrace the snails. Get a sextet of Botia striata, and the snail population will be reduced to very few. Snails are good cleaners; algae, biofilm, every surface of the tank. I have burrowing snails similar to Malaysian trumpets, but from a spring in Arkansas, in my tanks. They've been in my gravels for decades. In the tanks with Botia in them, they are reduced, but since I feed sparingly several times a day, the other tanks don't have enough of them to bother. I like them, as they plow under the gravel looking for tidbits during the day, freshening it, and prowl the tank at night cleaning up. I very rarely have to clean the inside of the glass with them in it.
I do have a few pond snails that came in on plants, but the population never really gets going, between my light feedings and the faux trumpet snails already so well established that there isn't much for the Physa snails to eat.

Dave

I like nice snails like the apples and trumpets. These things that come in on plants are just a nuisance snail and before long, they are covering the glass. I just don't like them. I had 3 corys in that tank and they got a couple algae pellets each night. That's all that went in that tank.

I did want to get some kuli loaches but can't get to the next town (an hours drive) in this weather lately. Too darned much ice and snow for a trip.

[Lady Hobbs]

i am really not a big fan of the endless murdering of snails. they aren't doing anything really bad, so i don't understand why all these guys have to die. it makes me sad when i read a post that promotes the killing of them. especially when everyone promotes fish-less cycling, i mean what's the difference in killing a snail or a guppy?

Worms crawling all over a tank aren't hurting anything either but I don't want those either. I do not want to look at my plants and see 200 snails on them. Our spawns are constantly eaten by other fish in our tanks. Many of us plan on the population to be kept down that way. A few snail I would not have minded. A tank loaded with them I did.

You buy guppies because you want them. A snail is a hitchhiker you did not ask for. Big difference.

[shalafi04]

i definately have to agree with you lady hobbs. hitch hikers are not okay!

[karbomb]

i can see where your coming from hobbs.
i don't mean to sound like i am condemning you or anything. i just think that this is an issue no one really cares about. and i think it should have more attention drawn to it.

[Lady Hobbs]

Ah, you got me there. If it's an issue no one cares about, why would we want to draw more attention to it. LOL

Sorry the killing of snails bothers you. To me they are just something I don't want and in the same bracket as flies, mosquitos and knats. I kill them too.
I just don't think of them as I would a basket of kitties or a litter of puppies.

[karbomb]

Ah, you got me there. If it's an issue no one cares about, why would we want to draw more attention to it. LOL

Sorry the killing of snails bothers you. To me they are just something I don't want and in the same bracket as flies, mosquitos and knats. I kill them too.
I just don't think of them as I would a basket of kitties or a litter of puppies.

hahaha i don't compare them to puppies or kittens either and i have killed some snails, mostly by accident though.
i just think that the popular view is that snails are pests. only a few varieties really are though. sounds like you have pond snails and they definitely aren't pleasant.

[Futureboy]

umm? forgive me if ive missed something here but wouldnt the bleach kill everything else?

how will you get it out of your tank?

[Lady Hobbs]

I removed the plants and corys. I had nothing left in the tank. The bleach goes away overnight pretty much but dechlorinator takes care of what doesn't. Obviously it will need to be cycled again.

[jbeining75]

bleach didn't work holy cow they are super snails

[DragonGoby]

Against snails in our 10g we have found, a little by accident, a way to be ridden (spelling?) of them.
We have our little bumblebee catfish, and we think she's taking his lunch with the little snails (since she's sooooooooo fat, and since we just nourrish her little piece of hikari...). But that's not enough because she can't eat the bigger one and the make eggs like crazy... But we have platies in there too!!
And it seems that platies like snails eggs very much...
it's more like a natural regulation than anything else... because we have still snails in the 10g but in a tolerable level...thumbs2:

[toddnbecka]

Once every couple months I round up the ramshorns in the 30 long, and ship them out to someone for puffer food. Even after spending a couple hours picking out every one I can find, they keep coming back. The spixi's have actually been helpful in keeping their numbers somewhat limited though.
They are tough survivors, there's a few in a planted glass vase that that never get fed. They don't eat the live plants, so they must survive on the algae growth. Obviously, there's no population problem in that environment.

[Sinnbox]

I have a monster ammount of Snails that came in with some minnows the first week i got my Piranha and didn't know where to get goldfish. at one point i cleaned put the Piranha in another tank, and cleaned his tank and gravel with scalding water, about 2 weeks later the snails showed back up. Scalding water couldnt kill them!!!

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

I don't mind snails...until they die. I have snails in my 55 gallon tank and whenever they die they fall to the bottom of my tank and their shells turn white (on my black sand substrate). They're little eyesores after they die so sometimes I kill them before they die, and let my fish eat them. Then their crushed shells sink to the bottom and turn white! I would net them out, but my stupid little guppies always swim to and even into my nets as though they were food, but they run like hell when I try to catch them to move them.

[jbeining75]

net em and forget um or ship them to my house my Oscars would probably munch on um......

[Tigerbarb]

I do not see a problem with letting a few eggs hatch. My snails that came with my plants are like maids and clean my aquarium almost non-stop.

[richberstler]

Cheers to my snails, the cleaning cockroaches of my aquatic kingdoms!!

[Futureboy]

I removed the plants and corys. I had nothing left in the tank. The bleach goes away overnight pretty much but dechlorinator takes care of what doesn't. Obviously it will need to be cycled again.

oh ok...well there you go learn something new every day so really when i was soaking stuff in bleach the other week it was really only working for a few days?

[karbomb]

yay for snail supporters.

[robnepper]

Hey guys. I have just noticed my first ever hitchhiking snails. I do have a Zebra snail that just laid eggs, but I also just bought a load of horn wort for my upcoming guppy fry. I am leaning towards hitchers though. i know nothing about them by experience but if they are beneficial at all, i would like to use them to my advantage. What fish eat them? Or what eats them in general? I don't want an explosion, but I love to observe that natural progression of things. That's why I keep fish.

[Lady Hobbs]

Better futureboy to rinse it off well and soak whatever it is in dechlorinated water or let it air dry to remove the smell.

[Adrian]

I love snails. Just not the common pond snails. I have a planted tank, and I have snails. My snails do not eat the plants, but only eat algae. Ah, the best of both worlds. What snails do I have? They are the gold mystery snails. Not apple snails, and I do not have a problem with them breeding like rabbits. See, gold mystery snails need to lay their eggs about an inch to two inches above the water line. I don't let my tank fall that low, so no eggs, no population bloom. They are a great addition to the freshwater aquarium.

To rid snails, I have used coppersafe with great success. If you have a planted tank, forget it, it will kill your plants too, as well as be harmful to scaleless fish, like some loaches. Yoyo loaches are very effective against snails too, as long as they are small snails, like newly hatched etc. Just end up with a bunch of empty shells. Just net them out and it should be alright. Eventually, the population will drop.

I have been looking for those Trumpet snails that burrow in the gravel. If anyone knows where I can get some, it would be greatly appreciated. I just need to know if they multiply like guppies? My subtrate has a tendency to compact, so these snails would be perfect to aerate it.