View Full Version : snail infestation? help!
emilyekk
08-05-2009, 07:14 PM
So a few weeks ago I ordered some plants from a seller on another forum.
Well, I noticed there was one snail on one of the plants - I told the seller and he said it was either a MTS or a pond snail.
I decided to keep the one snail to see what it turned out to be.
Well, now this morning I am looking at my tank and I see FOUR baby snails... aaaagh. Are they going to eat my plants? I don't know a lot about snails... so any help is appreciated!!
If they won't eat the plants - should I keep them? What would you do?
I also just added my adult zebra nerite snail that was originally in my 5 gallon... should I move him?
I am so worried I'm going to have a snail problem for the rest of my tanks life now... :(
start picking them out now, add cucumber and remove it with a lot of snails on it.
Your netrite snail is fine.
If they are MTS, your plants are fine. Pond snails I am not sure.
Nautilus29
08-05-2009, 07:28 PM
Have fun those things are a pain to remove. Make sure you kill them before you dispose of them, if they are carrying a bacteria or parasite it can really do the local environment harm.
emilyekk
08-05-2009, 07:33 PM
How do I kill them? I'm not big on smashing things... is there another way? Freezer?
sandypants
08-05-2009, 07:35 PM
FYI for prevention in the future, you can make a bleach/water mix (I think I did 1:4 last time) and swish the plant around for about 10-15 SECONDS, make sure all of the plant gets dipped, roots and all. Rinse off really well then leave in a container of water for at least 24 hours before adding to tank. This will kill off possible snails and other unwanted things but make sure to leave it in clean water for 24 hours afterwards before adding to tank.
put them in a dry bucket outside.
Nautilus29
08-05-2009, 07:44 PM
Ya you can freeze them leave them in long enough that it will kill them for sure. When I was a kid I set up a bug collection for 4-h and I froze them to kill them, well after I pinned a grasshopper to my board it slowly came back to life and jumped off. LOL that scared me.
emilyekk
08-05-2009, 07:49 PM
Okay, so I can get the four I see... but what if theres tons more? Or what if there are eggs that I can't see? Will I ever be totally rid of them? Can they breed as babies?
Just keep getting rid of them everytime you see them. Also use the cucumber method.
emilyekk
08-05-2009, 07:55 PM
Just keep getting rid of them everytime you see them. Also use the cucumber method.
Do I just put like a slice in the water and wait for them to accumulate?
It would rot the water or hurt any of my fish right?
I know those questions may sound dumb but I really don't know, lol.
Nope, your fish will eat it too. Just dont leave it in over two days. Put it in there before you go to bed, and take it out in the morning if it has snails in it.
jaysee
08-05-2009, 07:57 PM
Someone on the site equated to snails to herpes...once you've got'em you've got'em. The only way I know to get rid of them (without chems) is to completely replace the substrate and start over. Or get some loaches to control the population.
Someone on the site equated to snails to herpes...once you've got'em you've got'em. The only way I know to get rid of them (without chems) is to completely replace the substrate and start over. Or get some loaches to control the population.
Yes, that is helping when you have a tank full of loaches like me.:hmm3grin2orange:
jaysee
08-05-2009, 08:06 PM
Yes, that is helping when you have a tank full of loaches like me.:hmm3grin2orange:
Do all loaches eat snails?
No, bigger loaches like clowns, striata, yo-yo do.
Smaller ones like kuhlis and horseface dont.
emilyekk
08-05-2009, 08:08 PM
Great. My tank has herpes.
If you stop early, you can get rid of them IMO.
tomchartjr
08-05-2009, 09:22 PM
If they are brand new you may be able to stop them early by manually removing them in some of the ways already described. You may want to consider using a chemical treatment. Most folks on here like to avoid adding "unecessary chemicals" but it does work and the world keeps turning just the same.
I have seen other members point out that depending on what kind of snails you have they may pretty much just be a moot point as they don't really harm anything. If they are not destroying the plants and there are not so many of them that the tank looks hideous they don't really have a negative affect to my knowledge and can help clean algae.
emilyekk
08-05-2009, 09:50 PM
Well I cleaned and did a WC... I think I took out about 15 of them... ugh.
One of them was pretty big, I took a picture but I don't know if you'll be able to tell what it was... pretty spotty camera work.
It almost reminded me of my zebra nerites colors, but instead of stripes, it was squares.
One more question - when I add the cucumber, so I just put it in raw? Or am I supposed to do something else to it to attract the little buggers?
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bigbad-ratman
08-05-2009, 09:55 PM
Great. My tank has herpes.
i am sorry, but this made me laugh out loud!!! :hmm3grin2orange:
sorry i dont have anything constructive toreport. good luck though.
emilyekk
08-05-2009, 10:03 PM
i am sorry, but this made me laugh out loud!!! :hmm3grin2orange:
sorry i dont have anything constructive toreport. good luck though.
haha, glad to make ya laugh. :hmm3grin2orange:
Sarkazmo
08-05-2009, 10:56 PM
Nerites, Malaysian Trumpet Snails (MTS), Mystery (mostly Apple snails,) and Rams Horn snails are perfectly fine in a planted tank environment. They'll eat dying vegetation, some algae, and clean up all left over fish food that's lost from the fish. Rams will munch delicate plants first if they're not getting enough to eat. But generally they're not an issue.
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These are the guys you wanna avoid.
Sark
rookie
08-05-2009, 11:24 PM
dont take my word for it i just heard it somewere but i thought i would share my two cents. i heard if you add calcuim to the tank it will kill all snails but i have never tryed it and dont know the pros and cons of using calcuim. but mabe someone else can give you more info on it. good luck
ps sark is that like a 6000 mp camera lol nice pic
emilyekk
08-06-2009, 12:08 AM
Nerites, Malaysian Trumpet Snails (MTS), Mystery (mostly Apple snails,) and Rams Horn snails are perfectly fine in a planted tank environment. They'll eat dying vegetation, some algae, and clean up all left over fish food that's lost from the fish. Rams will munch delicate plants first if they're not getting enough to eat. But generally they're not an issue.
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These are the guys you wanna avoid.
Sark
THOSE are EXACTLY what I had. What the heck are they!? Now I'm worried... :/
I'm sure I didn't get all of them. I put a cucumber in, but it sunk promptly, I'm hoping they'll still get on it.
Wild Turkey
08-06-2009, 12:17 AM
dont take my word for it i just heard it somewere but i thought i would share my two cents. i heard if you add calcuim to the tank it will kill all snails but i have never tryed it and dont know the pros and cons of using calcuim. but mabe someone else can give you more info on it. good luck
All the snails actually need calcium for healthy shell growth. Most people end up adding calcium in some form or another, or end up with shell damage on their mystery snails or nerites. Thats probably where you've heard it before
Most of the "pest" snails will not eat plants that are not dead or dying and can be quite beneficial. If you have a planted tank you will probably end up with them anyway. For this reason I introduce mts first, since they are my favorite.
The ones in sarks photo are pond snails, they are no more harmful than the others imo, and the most common
I like MTS too, so do my loaches :)
Wild Turkey
08-06-2009, 12:22 AM
I like MTS too, so do my loaches :)
Jokes aside I actually hear fish (and assassin snails) prefer pond snails over the others, since pond snails do not have a trapdoor to hide behind like the others. I dunno though. My gf just ate a buffet of mts, rams and ps this week, he didnt seem too picky
emilyekk
08-06-2009, 01:02 AM
So, now that I'm reading about loaches... I want one, ahah. They are so creepy looking and I love it.
What can you tell me about loaches? Do they eat ALL snails? Do they eat fish? Do they all get really big? I've read 4" is common...
rookie
08-06-2009, 01:18 AM
thanks for clearing that up WT
Sarkazmo
08-06-2009, 02:27 AM
ps sark is that like a 6000 mp camera lol nice pic
Not my pic. I wish I had a decent camera...
Sark
Sarkazmo
08-06-2009, 02:33 AM
My gf just ate a buffet of mts, rams and ps this week, he didnt seem too picky
It took me a moment to realize that you were NOT talking about your girl friend!!!!
Big pond snail did some damage to my plants. My Nymph. lilly took several hits, as did the lower leaves of the hygro sunset.
Sark
bushwhacker
08-06-2009, 02:39 AM
take an empty soda bottle, cut it off about 3 inches below the top. wash it out really good. drop in a piece of cucumber and flip the top over and stuff it into the bottom part sink that into your tank. instant snail trap.
Wild Turkey
08-06-2009, 04:02 AM
It took me a moment to realize that you were NOT talking about your girl friend!!!!
LOL yea GOLDFISH :hmm3grin2orange:
balski911
08-06-2009, 07:21 AM
Hehe the GF comment made me laught.
On topic, if you are sure that you got the pond snail, get the tank dry and clean everything. They are almost impossible to remove or control. I used to have them in my previos setups and trust me they eat anything that is green. They can completly destroy all the plants in your tank in matter of days.
The snails you really want in your tank are the Trumpet Snails. They ravage across the substrate and eat all the debris and excess food. They also eat algae, but rarely the plants. This is how they look like:
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Next in the list are the Apple snails. They are all eating type of snails. Literally they eat everything. The good thing about apple snails is that they are not hermaphrodites, in other words they have separate sexes, so you CAN controll them, but be adviced that females can store sperm for up to 10 months. Another interesting thing is that with proper care they can grow up to 6 inches. Also they are considered as human food in some parts of the world. Here is how they look like:
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The other snail you may potentially want is the Ramshorn snail. They also eat debris, excess food even dead fishes, but would also make ocassional feast out of your finest plants from time to time. They come in different color variations from brown, red and up to black. Even transparent. Here is how they look like:
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Wild Turkey
08-06-2009, 06:37 PM
To rookie: The last picture in the previous post in what shell damage looks like
emilyekk
08-06-2009, 07:30 PM
I really don't have the time to get my tank emptied and dried and cleaned out... so I guess I'll just have to deal with plucking them out everytime I see one. =(
I had 3 cucumber slices in the tank... no snails though... the fish didn't even seem to want it... did I do the cucumber wrong? I just sliced it off the edge, like you would if you were going to put cucumber sliced on your eyes....
any other snail ridding tips?
Wild Turkey
08-06-2009, 07:47 PM
Try boiling the cucumber a little
As long as you dont overfeed, the snails should never really become a "problem" So the most important thing is to feed consciously
Sharon
08-06-2009, 07:59 PM
Great. My tank has herpes.
I've just spit red wine all over my monitor!:hmm3grin2orange:
reticulata
01-28-2010, 02:46 AM
I take a small clay saucer (from the garden store), wrap a rubber band across it, place two slices of cucumber or zuchini under the rubber band and place the saucer in the front corner of your aquarium, I actually put two, one in each corner. I actually think iceberg lettuce works best. You can also use string beans. In the morning remove the saucer and flush the snails down the toilet. Do this everyday even after you don't see anymore snails for several more days. I just got rid of a tankful of pond snails in a 55 with my zebra plecos. It is tough to do. Smashing them provides a good nutritious meal for your fish. Another method is to get a couple of assassination snails and they will eventually eat the pond snails and their eggs. End of pond snails. I have used a product called "Had A Snail" but it is adding chemicals to your tank and some fish don't tolerate it well. Don't panic over them, almost everyone eventually gets them. They get passed around mainly in aquarium plants.
Dacotah7
02-20-2010, 09:18 PM
A local aquarium store owner told me I could add some chemical that was high in copper to kill the snails. I wish I had paid more attention, but when he suggested cehmical additives, my mind shut down. I forget what the chemical was and what the down side was; it was going to kill something else in my 125 gallon tropical community, planted tank. They have gotten so bad I am considering starting over. Using cucumbers, lettuce, 3 loaches, picking and smashing them I can not seem to reduce the unsightly mess. Every morning there are hundreds at the water line. Grrr.
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