a few snail questions

I had 1 ramshorn (spelling?) snail... tiny little guy... well I noticed a few days ago... 5 teeny tiny more little guys on the glass. The original one has been in the tank for probably 2 months without any other snails. Do they not need a partner to have baby snails with?

Also, ALL of the petstores in my area do not keep the larger snails Something about disease and people getting sick so they refuse to stock them anymore. Has anyone ever heard of this?

 

never heard of the desiese but rams horn snails are prolific asexual breeers. they don't need a mate to have babys and if you have plantws in your tank you should get rid of them asap. they will demolish the plants and when the numbers get out of control you wil be dealing with a nitrate problem. I say you get rid of them

 

Yes they are a-sexual breeders and will breed often and fast! I personally never had problems with them eating any kind of my plants, just ate them after they were already dead. But they will run up your nitrate and take over with uncountable numbers in no more time than a month.

 

I just have fake plants. How to you (humanely) get rid of them?

 

you reach in and grab em

 

well I don't know if its humane, but they make a product called had-a-snail. I literally have hundreds in my tank, so I moved all my fish temporarily into another tank, then I gave the recommended dosage. These things are actually quite resistant to the product, so I learned to deal with the snails, since they are quite harmless anyway and seem to not harm my plants at all. If you want though, give it a try, otherwise just vacuum as much as you can out.

 

Is there any harm in just leaving them and seeing what happens?

 

that should be fiine jsut watch your nitrate and squish any eggs you see

 

that should be fiine jsut watch your nitrate and squish any eggs you see

Will the fish eat the eggs?

 

some do some dont

 

try putting some lettace on a clip, put it in your tank, and the next day or so you should have snails on it in no time, then just "remove them"

 

wow that's a great idea. I never thought of that to try.

 

But I feel bad "removing" them. I don't want to kill them.

I guess I'll just wait and see if it becomes a problem or not. I rarely see the ones that are in there, so maybe I'll just wait until it becomes a problem, then I'll decide if I need to "remove" them or not.

 

just put them in a jar, and release them into the wild

 

just put them in a jar, and release them into the wild

Isn't it bad to introduce something into the local ecosystem that isn't normally there? (I know that in the MississippI River they are having problems with a certain nonnative mussel killing off native mussels and they are having a huge problem getting rid of it)

 

sorry sorry my mistake, I got two topics mixed up. I was reading a topic about common pond snails ect... but you should probably do the lettace thing, then just put them in a container then sell or give them to a lfs XD


ps. don't wait until its to late, an overpopulation of snails can destroy an aquarium fast.

 

Loaches

hi...i'm brand new to this site, but have been keeping fish on and off for about the last 20 years.....about snail issues...clown loaches eat snails. I would do research on them before you get one. I don't know how big your tank is either. I got a snail and when it starts reproducing i'm getting a clown loach...hope this helps a bit.

 

one more thing...loaches eat smaller snails, not big ones...I also had a puffer fish a while ago. they eat snails also(they have little teeth)

 

I would LOVE to have a clown loach, but unfortunately there isn't room in the tank. It's only a 20 gallon.
And you guys are totally right! Those pesky little "cute" snails have REALLY multiplied fast. I am replacing my 20 gallon tank tomorrow, so my hopes are to not transfer any of the snails as I transfer everything. Then I was thinking about following up with a dose of "had a snail" Has anyone had experience with this?
As for the snails in the tank, I found someone in town who is looking for some for her dwarf puffers. What a huge mistake (thinking they were cute and not wanting to get rid of the 1 that I had!) that I hope to never have to deal with again!