Joe G

I have tank with allot of snails in it they must of hitched a ride on one of the plants i purchased , they are spreading like crazy. Their is about 10 to 15 in one tank, so far they are just on glass eating algae. I have allot of fresh water plants. will they start to eat my real plants.

Gunnie

They could. When you see them on the glass, smash the shell. Your fish will love the treat.

hopesmom

:P oooh, yuk !

Gunnie

I know, it's hard to do that, but it's kind of a 2 for one thing.

hopesmom

hee hee!

cyber99fish

One thing to remember. If you kill a lot of them. the nitrate levels can rise quite high.. as can the smell of the water. I do a 40% water change after killing a dozen or so. (i have to do this every 3-4 days or they take over)

Any thoughts on killing them all off ?? I have this problem in a 10gal with a betta and an Otto in it.

I was thinking about buying a 2.5 and putting the 2 fish in there for a few weeks . then chemical treating the 10gal till they are all gone.

thoughts on treatments?? or other ideas?

Eskielvr

You'll just have to get rid of them as often as you can (or as often as you can find them). I had those types of snails in my aquarium one time that had a plastic plant in it, and they eventually ate through the plastic plant. They can and more than likely will eat your live plants eventually.

There's also a product called "Had a Snail" that Drs Foster and Smith sells that's supposed to kill them. I've never tried it though.

The next time you buy plants, make sure you rinse them off real good in cold water and let them soak for a few minutes and really checking them good before adding them to your tank. I just bought some new plants today and did the above and found 3 snails that would have gotten over looked.

Joe G

funny thing over a period of 2 moths , snails have all disappeared.

gmann21193

1 word. Loaches. 2 can take out at least 100 of them in one day.

woodworm18

Well i have an Oscar would he eat there off, i want one but i don't want them to take over my tank I think that would work

MrWaxhead

Its not just nitrate that can rise buy manually killing snails, pH and kh will rise too as snail shells are primarily calcium carbonate. That process will be faster in a low ph/kh tank. I personally like the little critters cruising the glass in my tank.

armadillo

OK, Mr Waxhead, please get yourself ready for my VERY silly question (don't laugh): wouldn't snail's shells increase the pH anyway? Whether they're dead or alive?

OK, now you can shoot me down, LOL.

Seriously, I do wonder how about the shell's calcium carbonate increases the pH. I presume it's not contact only, but the slow erosion of the shell once the snail is dead. But if that was the case, it would take ages. Could it be just on contact with the water? In which case you'd need A LOT of snails to influence your pH, right?

MrWaxhead

To be honest I am not really sure, how much they alter or how fast ph is altered by them, I do know snail shells tend to get ratty ie somewhat erode in tanks with lower ph even while they are alive. I am pretty sure they would make a small difference even alive as their shells are basically proteins and calcium carbinate, so they should have a minor effect even alive. But I do know as calcium carbinate erodes it does start to work harder on changes. That can be a problem in peoples tanks that run ph sensors on their c02 units. As the c02 lower the acidiity and starts to force the calcium carbinate to erode, with in tern raises ph, so the sensor lets more c02 dump in causes a very bad cycle as its fighting to try and hold a specific ph.

I have never actually tested for that, but now that you have got me thinking about it I am going to. I think what I will do, is I know the ph of my tap water so I am am going to take a couple containers, and put a different amount of live snails in them. Something like one in container and 5 in another, and then two more buckets with the same amount of dead snails. I will then test daily to see how much they alter the ph and if any at that quantity.

I will probably also do the same test a few weeks later with DIY c02 diffused into the buckets to lower the ph and see how much of difference the lower ph/more acidic water has an effect on them.

And there are no silly questions, I will ask the oddest things from time to time if I am not sure of things myself

armadillo

Oh yeah, that would be a good experiment. I'd do it to only I am totally grossed out by them. We have lots and lots as my husband had this snail farm project for his puffers.