Bladder snails in cycling tank...what to do?

i have a 55 gallon tank thats in the home stretch of its cycle. id assume i have around a week left (7 weeks in RN). Well i added some plants several weeks back and noticed a cute little what i believe is a bladder snail. well now i have 20-30+ little babies crawling around or still on the glass. my question is what to do? can i go get some assassin snails? i dont want 30 turning into 300 and so on. how long do i have until they reach sexual maturity and start reproducing? i did take the big boy out and put him into my Ramshorn snail jar. help me y'all..

 

Honestly if you're seeing them they are likely already laying eggs all around the tank. They reproduce on their own, they don't need a mate. Their eggs are transparent and you likely won't even see them at all in the water. When they hatch they're about the size of the end of a needle. They take about a week to hatch. The 30 or so you're seeing are just the biggest ones.

That being said they really aren't as big of an issue as most people make them out to be. As long as you don't overfeed the tank they shouldn't take over the tank. They'll help keep some of the algae down and help keep a cycle going between stock. Additionally they generally aren't going to eat live plants and tend to stick to dying or dead ones.

If you want you can get a few assassin snails but know that they likely aren't going to completely get rid of them, and if they do you will need to reintroduce the bladder snails or some other 'pest' snail to feed them. Assassin snails aren't know to populate as quickly as bladders or ramshorns or mts but they do still reproduce and can get out of hand.

 

They will reproduce in your tank like crazy if you are not careful, even from only one individual. Another thing to note that I have experienced is that in cycling tanks I have a population explosion of pest snails and once I introduce the main aquarium inhabitants the population stabilizes provided you are not overfeeding. I think this is due to the fact that the snails have little to no competition with food sources while doing fishless cycling. However, I have personally had bladder snails in my tanks for over a year (with no overpopulation issues) and I have found ways to control their populations if you cannot get rid of them all. I call them my four tips for successful pest snail keeping

1. Do not overfeed. Overfeeding fish food or any organic matter will result in a population explosion in snails as they will utilize the extra nutrients to expand their colony.
2. Control their populations by picking up natural predators if your tank size and stock permits. Various Loaches and Assassin snails make great inhabitants if your bladder snail population gets out of hand.
3. Manual removal by placing a blanched veggie in the tank at night and taking it out the next morning. Bladder snails are opportunistic and will eat most anything they can find. You will be able to remove good chunks of their population by doing this.
4. Regular fish tank maintenance. This is the biggest factor, regularly cleaning the tank and performing water changes will remove some of the waste and detritus that builds up (a food source for Bladder snails).

Ultimately, I agree with Salem completely. Bladder snails IMO are not as bad as many point them out to be. They are great detritovores and algae eaters and with a little fine tuning on your end they can actually provide great benefits to your tank overall.

 

Honestly if you're seeing them they are likely already laying eggs all around the tank. They reproduce on their own, they don't need a mate. Their eggs are transparent and you likely won't even see them at all in the water. When they hatch they're about the size of the end of a needle. They take about a week to hatch. The 30 or so you're seeing are just the biggest ones.

That being said they really aren't as big of an issue as most people make them out to be. As long as you don't overfeed the tank they shouldn't take over the tank. They'll help keep some of the algae down and help keep a cycle going between stock. Additionally they generally aren't going to eat live plants and tend to stick to dying or dead ones.

If you want you can get a few assassin snails but know that they likely aren't going to completely get rid of them, and if they do you will need to reintroduce the bladder snails or some other 'pest' snail to feed them. Assassin snails aren't know to populate as quickly as bladders or ramshorns or mts but they do still reproduce and can get out of hand.

thanks for the knowledge. but, i dont want them. its weird how they're thriving in a cycling tank with high nitrites and nitrates. can i introduce assassins' to the cycling tank? i plan on having a large stock for this tank and would only want nerite snails for 2 reasons; they wont reproduce and to clean the algae off the glass.

 

You could put a piece of lettuce or spinach into the tank. Once so many gather onto the leaf, take it out and move them to your jar, repeat the process as you pick out the ones you find on the glass. As Salem said, assassin snails are also an option, and don't over feed. There are also snail traps out there, but I've never used them. I always used the lettuce and pick'em out by hand/turkey baster when I seem them, methods.

If the snails have laid eggs on the glass you may be able to see them. They're clear jelly like pouches, like clear boogers someone sneezed onto the glass.

They're hardy boogers, as the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates don't bother them. They can breath actual air, as they have an air bladder/lung, so the quality of water barely phases them unless its far too bad.

 

They will reproduce in your tank like crazy if you are not careful, even from only one individual. Another thing to note that I have experienced is that in cycling tanks I have a population explosion of pest snails and once I introduce the main aquarium inhabitants the population stabilizes provided you are not overfeeding. I think this is due to the fact that the snails have little to no competition with food sources while doing fishless cycling. However, I have personally had bladder snails in my tanks for over a year (with no overpopulation issues) and I have found ways to control their populations if you cannot get rid of them all. I call them my four tips for successful pest snail keeping

1. Do not overfeed. Overfeeding fish food or any organic matter will result in a population explosion in snails as they will utilize the extra nutrients to expand their colony.
2. Control their populations by picking up natural predators if your tank size and stock permits. Various Loaches and Assassin snails make great inhabitants if your bladder snail population gets out of hand.
3. Manual removal by placing a blanched veggie in the tank at night and taking it out the next morning. Bladder snails are opportunistic and will eat most anything they can find. You will be able to remove good chunks of their population by doing this.
4. Regular fish tank maintenance. This is the biggest factor, regularly cleaning the tank and performing water changes will remove some of the waste and detritus that builds up (a food source for Bladder snails).

Ultimately, I agree with Salem completely. Bladder snails IMO are not as bad as many point them out to be. They are great detritovores and algae eaters and with a little fine tuning on your end they can actually provide great benefits to your tank overall.

wow! greatly appreciate the knowledge my friend! i will be stocking the tank with EBAs, hatchetfish, bleeding heart tetras, and corydoras. im just afraid of a full out explosion of reproduction. i dont really have the heart to kill them personally...i would hire an assassin though hahah. what would you do? im fairly new into the hobby (5 tanks running in my house) but last thing i want is to be stressed out over them. thank you for the insights its really appreciated

 

wow! greatly appreciate the knowledge my friend! i will be stocking the tank with EBAs, hatchetfish, bleeding heart tetras, and corydoras. im just afraid of a full out explosion of reproduction. i dont really have the heart to kill them personally...i would hire an assassin though hahah. what would you do? im fairly new into the hobby (5 tanks running in my house) but last thing i want is to be stressed out over them. thank you for the insights its really appreciated

I think having a group of sort of smaller loach in your aquarium may be the best idea for almost eliminating their populations, especially if you use sand substrate. Salem also pointed out that Assassin snails may also become a overpopulation concern down the road and if you have a bladder infestation it may take months to see a noticeable change with their population. Again, the loaches may not completely get rid of the bladder snails but they will be much more effective and deliver faster results than any assassin snail and your 55 gallon can accommodate the smaller species for sure. I don't know how that would work with your current stocking plans so I would not take this advice 100%.

I also don't like killing Bladder snails so I know the struggle myself, friend.

 

I think having a group of sort of smaller loach in your aquarium may be the best idea for almost eliminating their populations, especially if you use sand substrate. Salem also pointed out that Assassin snails may also become a overpopulation concern down the road and if you have a bladder infestation it may take months to see a noticeable change with their population. Again, the loaches may not completely get rid of the bladder snails but they will be much more effective and deliver faster results than any assassin snail and your 55 gallon can accommodate the smaller species for sure. I don't know how that would work with your current stocking plans so I would not take this advice 100%.

I also don't like killing Bladder snails so I know the struggle myself, friend.

okay sweet! ill definitely look into loaches, maybe zebra loaches ? i have never researched them before so ill take some time and do some recon. thanks so much. oh and im assuming they thrive better with multiple of their own kind?