Snails????

[slingham64]

I wake up this morning, turn on my tank light.... Take a gander inside.... SNAILS??? On the back wall of my tank and on the log of my tank, there's about a dozen tiny snails that look like little grains of sand. I've never had snails in my tank, I haven't added anything new to the tank in a few months, anyone know where these came from and how??

[sergo]

they tend to come in on plants and really start showing up when you overfeed. the reproduce like crazy so you can either scoop them out or get a yoyo loach to eat them.

[MacAnthony]

Aren't loaches community fish?

I got infested with pond snails from a plant and I've just been controlling the population with vaccuuming. Not ideal, but works alright. I've also read other tricks like putting lettuce in a film cannister with holes and hanging it in the tank. It should attract the snails and you can pull them out with the cannister.

[sergo]

yes i have heard that the lettuce trick works. i used it as an excuse to buy more fish :c1:
my loaches are just happy as hell in my 55

[gm72]

I've got 4 clown loaches in my 55 gallon gourami tank. Very happy, very cool fish.

[slingham64]

Problem.... As I stated in my post, I haven't added anything to my tank, including plants. There isn't even any live plants in the tank. Just fakes. So where'd they come from? An I've got 4 Platy's, 1 Molly, 2 Cory's, is there room for a loach??

[sergo]

10g? depending on the filtration you have but shouldn't be a huge problem as long the mollies and platties and start procreating like mad. i would get a small yoyo.

[gm72]

Agreed that you need a small loach.

The snails had to have come from somewhere. Don't know where, but somewhere. Did you add any gravel from an established tank?

[Nick_Pavlovski]

Kuhli loaches stay small (4 inches or so) and they are good at Snail Patrol.
But they don't like being by themselves...

[slingham64]

Agreed that you need a small loach.

The snails had to have come from somewhere. Don't know where, but somewhere. Did you add any gravel from an established tank?

I'm as puzzled as you. I added nothing, I changed nothing. Everything has basically been consistent for two months straight now. Weekly 20% water changes an daily light feeding. No deaths from any fish, some fry from the platy's, but I don't think they carry snails with them lol. But yeah, totally amazed that this happened.

So what's gonna be my best bet as far as the perfect loach?

[gm72]

Given your stocking I would actually just recommend you vacuum to control the population. I have those snails in some of my 10s and vacuuming keeps them to a minimum.

[freshwaterfishlover]

I am not sure what they are called, but the Spirral ones. when I buy Gravel they are always in the bag. The pond Snails in my tank always come from my plants.

[tmmycat]

I have a snail explosion too ... I woke up this morning and my 4 cute snails that came with my plants have suddenly become about 50, seemingly overnight. and I see more snail eggs in there.

mine is a 7-gallon tank with one guppy in it; is this too small to get a snail eating fish? And also ... is the snail population harmful to my fish? and will the snails stop reproducing if I feed less?

[RobbieG]

Given your stocking I would actually just recommend you vacuum to control the population. I have those snails in some of my 10s and vacuuming keeps them to a minimum.

This would probably be your best bet - even if you had room for a loach you would still have to vacuum up the snail shells anyways.

[gm72]

tmmy, a 7 gallon with one guppy is understocked, so you could add more fish gradually, but I still think vacuuming is your best population control method.