windymeadow

I have lots of little tiny snails in my new tank. I have no idea what to do with them. They must have come with the plants I bought. Also, I have a large Mystery snail. Is it going to lay eggs and cause more snail problems? Thank you so much for your help, I really don't know what I would do without this forum and all you great people.

sirdarksol

Mystery snails are not, to my knowledge, hermaphroditic. So the mystery snail shouldn't reproduce as long as it is the only mystery snail in the tank. As for the other snails, I have heard that they are huge pains to get rid of once they're in the tank. In some cases, they might be beneficial (rams horn snails, for example), and won't be too bad for your tank.

COBettaCouple

how big is your tank and what do you have in it? I hear that yoyo loaches are good at eating up those little snails, but then you have to know what to do with it & i'm not sure if you could leave the mystery snail in.. there's also liquids to kill snails, but not sure of the safety of that for other fish, plants & especially your mystery snail. Do you have another tank?

sirdarksol

I think copper will kill pretty much any mollusk. Copper barriers are used to stop snail infestations. Copper-based medicines tell you to pull your snails out before beginning treatment, and make sure all chemicals are filtered out before returning them to the tank. Therefore, it sounds like any copper-based medication would likely erradicate the menace. However, anything that would kill the little snails would likely also kill the mystery snail, so the big guy would have to be moved out while the tank was being "fumigated." Plus, just like medicating a human with antibiotics without reason, this could cause an imbalance in the fish's internal systems.
Loaches Online lists the yoyo loach as an "avid consumer of snails." Chances are that they would just flip the mystery snail over and eat it.

vin

I have the same problem, but all I do is vacuum them up...I also crush them on the panes of the glass to make tasty snacks for the fish! They love them!