Cherrry123

Ok, got two mollies, two live plants, and 1 decoration at petsmart, now I have about six snails and I don't know where they came from. I went back to get another load of fish the following Saturday. I got two shrimp(Dont know what kind) another decoration, 2 platys(both died) and lastly 2 balloon belly mollies(1 died), and a few nights after I got those fish, I noticed one snail in the tank. A few days went by and it kept coming out more, and more. Soon about a week after there were 4, and now there are 6 snails. Does anyone know how they got in there? And don't say on the plants, because they kept the plants in a different tank, and the snails were in there own tank, not one type of fish was kept with the snails so how did they get in my tank!

Drea

I know what you mean. I have just noticed 4 tiny MTS in my 30 gal. I have never had real plants, tanks been running 3 yrs, never purchased snails ever, and the last fish bought were black skirt tetras. Guess snails can ride in on fish? Just because the plants and fish were separate doesn't mean that they didn't come with fish, maybe the eggs ride in the water your brought the fish home in ? it's mysterious for sure

Cherrry123

Yes there seems to be 1 more everyday.

Cody

snails breed like crazy. alot of times they will have the snials on there when they come from the suppliers. or the eggs . if you do not want them in there i would remove them now beucuase they multiply quick

Drea

There is a section under the fish forum, freshwater invertibrates. there is a folder for snails. there is alot of good info there, read some you might know what you want to do, after reading.

sirdarksol

The snails came with the plants. I will be willing to bet you any amount of money you would like. They came with the plants.
They are not the types of snails that are sold at Petsmart, they are common pond snails, and some people consider them pests. I just consider them an indicator of how healthy my tank is. As long as I'm taking care of the tank, there shouldn't be enough algae for them to grow too overpopulated.
Every Petsmart plant tank I've ever seen has carried these things. For that matter, so has every other plant tank I've ever seen.

Cherrry123

Ok thanks, I think I might ask if I can sell the snails back to the fish store, or I will give one to someone who is taking one of my platys, and go from there on, I will keep either one or two though.

Cherrry123

Thanks, I'll just have to stop buying the plants from there then because,there cute, but at feeding time my mollies will dart at them, and like "kiss" their shells, but they won't eat them, they are growing fast!

sirdarksol

No reason not to buy plants from that place. They're already in your tank. And, as I said, they are in nearly every plant tank in every LFS. Aside from that, there is a way to get them off of the plants that you buy (though some plants can't survive this). Mix a very mild bleach solution and dip the plants in it. Leave them in there for a few seconds, then pull them out. The snails will die. If you go to plantgeek.net, you can probably find a better description of the process, and you can check which plants you can do this with.
When putting the plants in the tank, just add a bit of extra dechlorinator to deal with the bleach.

Cherrry123

Oh, ok thanks. Do you know what product I should buy for my fry? My fish had babies, and then died, and I'm going to get some fry food tomorrow, but I don' know what product, can anyone help me?

sirdarksol

From what I've heard, brine shrimp are your best bet. You can get little brine shrimp hatcheries from Petsmart for pretty cheap. Once you have the hatchery, you can just buy eggs to refill it as needed.

Cherrry123

Ok thanks! Later when I get them setteled in, I'll try to post pics, should I go with a breeder net, or breeder box? It would be just for fry, after the fish has babies.

sirdarksol

I can't remember. A few people around here expressed a very particular opinion for one and against the other, but I don't recall which. Hopefully one of them will see this and give us an answer and explanation.
rubs the magic Fishlore genie lamp

COBettaCouple

It was the plants. The eggs were hitchhikers. It's very common to find them on plants from the pet stores and even 'snail-free' plants can have some tiny hitchhikers.

Breeder nets are better than boxes, but a seperate tank is best to allow them to grow and feeding is problematic with those - cleaning up especially.

Cherrry123

Ok, thanks. Right now though we only have one tank, also, I noticed another baby in my tank, its one of the platys, but I don't think I'm going to take it out because it's hiding in a decoration, and if we tried to et it out it would start swimming and the other fish would notice it and eat it, the decoration has an enterence to small for the mollies, so I think there safe until the breeder net.

sirdarksol

See? Rub the magic Fishlore genie lamp and someone who knows what they are talking about will show up.

COBettaCouple

The best way to get livebearer fry out is to move the adults to a container filled with tank water and cover it enough that they can't jump out. Then you can remove the decorations carefully and find the fry. They're pretty clever and will hide in the substrata, so we'd usually remove that too (to a container filled with treated tap water). Everything has to be done careful so you don't smoosh fry, and they hide so well, you may have others that you've not seen.

Cherrry123

Ok, thanks I did manage to get the one in the tank out safely, but it took almost over an hour, and I noticed that it kept hiding in the gravel, so what if there are more in there only hiding? Also noticed that there are more snails