New plant noticed snails

[Sirex]

Should I grad the little snails out of the tank that were hitch hiking on a new plant I bought?

Thanks

[jonny5]

i too just noticed one in my tank, you most likely have malaysian trumpet snails. There seems to be mixed views on keeping them in the tank or iradicating them.

[KatzeSlaugen]

i introduce them into all of my tanks . they pretty much stay out of sight during the day, keep the gravel/sand stirred, and dont reproduce like crazy unless you consistently overfeed

[Cassandra]

What size is your tank and what other fish do you have in it? If you can, buy some clown loaches. They'll take care of your snail problem, if its a problem. They do get fairly big though, so they require quite a large sized tank, like 75 gallons. And they are happier kept in groups of at least 5. Oh and they have been known to eat and uproot plants, so the plants they are housed with should be fairly sturdy. I have never had a problem with this though, and I bought my clown loach alone and he swims around with my black skirt tetras, that is, when he's not protecting his cave. Awesome fish though. Very cool personality. Kind of reminds me of a dog for some reason, not sure why...

Keep in mind that snails eat the food that your fish leave behind, so they actually help keep your tank clean. If they seem like they are getting out of control, this is probably because you are overfeeding your fish anyways, so you can help "thin em out" by not feeding your fish so much, that way there is less food to go around to support a growing snail population. To remove the snails, use something in the tank to anchor down a piece of lettuce and then turn out the lights. This will draw them out to the lettuce and you can scoop the snail-covered lettuce out of the tank in the morning.

[Lab_Rat]

I'd get rid of them, but I can't stand pest snails. I also dip every plant for snails before it goes into my tank.

[Sirex]

Thanks everyone. I think I will try the lettuce trick just to do it.