fionah

I have seen some apple snails in the LFS. Should they be quarantined for a short period before allowing in my main tank?

Also, my quarantine tank is currently infested with Hydra. I was planning on raising the temperature to 45C for a short period (no fish in here at moment), but might the apple snail actually eat all the hydra for me instead?

CWO4GUNNER

Greetings. While I have one large apple snail I have had experiences where they can multiply rapidly if not controlled. So unless you like having very few I recommend, now would be the time to remove most if not all of them. As far as the Hydra I believe I had a bout with this slimy substance on my glass during cycling and no matter how often I cleaned it off it continued to return at an alarming rate. After researching the subject of these type of problems including free floating algae and bacteria blooms, I decided to purchase big guns and bought a UV Sterilizer which stopped the problem in 48 hours and ever since. I believe I paid $49 US for an all in one unit called the "Green Killing Machine", sort of a misnomer because it absolutely will not harm plants or surface bacteria only free floating pathogens and their ability to reproduce, hence stopping the source. While there are less expensive ways to deal and re-deal and re-deal with these type problems, this solution has been the most trouble free I have ever experienced from the days when such devices did not exist..

haedra

I've been reading that mystery snails will eat hydra.

But if your quarantine tank is empty, then the hydra should starve out after a bit without a food source. Seems like planaria, they tend to thrive in tanks that are overfed.

As far as quarantining a snail, I'm leaving that one to someone else.. I know little about snails.

Lucy

I just asked rainmain about Q'ing my new Ramshorn snail. He suggested to be on the safe to leave it in the Q tank for a month. I don't know if this applies to Apple snails, as my question was about flukes that wild caught Ramshorn's can carry.
I'm pretty sure snails will find hydra very tasty.
If rainman see this, I'm sure he'll be able to advise you.

Good luck.