Got a hitchhiker snail on plants

Hi all! I don't really have a question per say, but wanted to know if any of ya'll have had this happen to ya'll before.

So I ordered a bundle of plants off of amazon and put them in my betta's tank to let them grow out a bit as I prepare them for my new 20 gal. These plants came in almost 2 months ago. I looked over each and every plant for snails. Even if I did find them, I wouldn't mind, I wouldn't have the heart to kill them anyway (they're just too cute!). I observed them for all of this time, still waiting for these hitchhikers, and the plants grew fine (and my betta LOVED them so I'm splitting the plants between the two tanks) and I saw no sign of snails. Well, I'm doing some late-night alterations to my tank that's cycling right now, and I look over and there's a tiny snail on the glass! I couldn't believe my eyes, it's just sliding all along the glass!! I've been thinking about snails, and once again I love them so I couldn't kill them, but it surprised me! It's an itty bitty one too, so cute <3

I just wanted to know if it has taken anyone else's hitchhikers 2 months to make an appearance, and whether or not you think there's a thousand more in there (oh gosh, that might be an issue). Also, I don't have my phone on me to take a pic, but what type of snail are normally the hitchhikers?

Edit: After researching a bit, I'm thinking it's not actually a baby but a bladder snail, which I heard are beneficial, right?

 

They are nice to have around, just don't overfeed because they will breed rapidly and overpopulate your tank. They don't even need a partner to reproduce you shouldn't have any trouble in a betta tank, they'll probably just help to keep things clean

 

They are nice to have around, just don't overfeed because they will breed rapidly and overpopulate your tank. They don't even need a partner to reproduce you shouldn't have any trouble in a betta tank, they'll probably just help to keep things clean

Thank you! I've been frantically researching them a bit because after I saw that one I saw 2 more, I am glad that I do have a betta (he's very curious too). It just surprised me is all, thank you for the advice!

 

I’ve had them appear 3 months later. I think the eggs go dormant or something like that then hatch when they are ready

 

I have limited experience with snails, but I had a 'pest' acute bladder snail with golden specks on the shell. It helped a bit on the green algae, ate dying and decaying plant material, and ate leftover fish flakes. It can reproduce very quickly, 'like rabbits' when I overfed the fish flakes excessively. It can be very tedious to eliminate the bladder snail population if you want to hand-pick them all out of the aquarium, but its not impossible. Mine didn't take too long to show up initially though, perhaps a week or two.
So for a surprise plant hitchhiker, it happened to be the perfect addition to my guppy aquarium that time. It was beneficial for me once I learned to quit overfeeding my aquarium.

 

Hmmm, that's really interesting. I'm wondering (and I still haven't decided) if in the future I want to get rid of them completely, what would be the best way to do that? Has anyone had a 100% successful snail-killing for an overpopulation? But this might also be a good way for me to have a really decisive feeding time too lol, keep me on my toes. I'm not sure whether to love or hate my new 'friends'...

 

probably eggs on the plants, takes 2-3 weeks to hatch.

 

I also don't feel like I'll mind them as much, maybe I'll do like these veggie traps I've been reading about every week to keep the population down (and watch the feeding too), but I'm just wondering if they'll directly affect any of my fish negatively. My betta is what I'm worried about too, or will he just view them as a snack and nothing more? I'm also a bit concerned about my new tank (which right now is planned to be stocked with definitely kuhli loaches, honey gouramis, and I was thinking a couple of invited snails, not rude hitchhikers). Will any of my fish be life-threatening affected by a population burst of these guys?

 

Hmmm, that's really interesting. I'm wondering (and I still haven't decided) if in the future I want to get rid of them completely, what would be the best way to do that? Has anyone had a 100% successful snail-killing for an overpopulation? But this might also be a good way for me to have a really decisive feeding time too lol, keep me on my toes. I'm not sure whether to love or hate my new 'friends'...

I introduced just one assassin snail to my 20 gallon and a few months later I only really see one or two bladder snails now. For awhile I didn't see any for weeks, I believe the were completely gone and then got reintroduced through some plants

 

One of my aquariums had a mad infestation of hitchikers a couple years ago. Infuriating was not the word. Live plants, kept in a tub away from the aquarium for almost a month, checked each plant.....within 48 hours of the plants going into the aquarium, it was wall to wall peskies...inside and outside the aquarium....nightmare. Used snail traps, snail treatments to no avail.

In the end I shifted the fish out to a temporary aquarium, ditched the plants, substrate everything and sterilised the aquarium and started again from scratch.

Never going for live plants ever again.....not had that issue before this occasion and frankly am not going to chance it again.

They breed faster than rabbits and are seriously irritating

 

Hmmm, that's really interesting. I'm wondering (and I still haven't decided) if in the future I want to get rid of them completely, what would be the best way to do that? Has anyone had a 100% successful snail-killing for an overpopulation? But this might also be a good way for me to have a really decisive feeding time too lol, keep me on my toes. I'm not sure whether to love or hate my new 'friends'...

100 % success with Assassin snails in wiping out a really big snail plague years ago. Then the Assassin snails had a population explosion! I ended up selling a bunch and giving away others. I didn't mind the Assassins because they are attractive. Eventually, they stopped reproducing like crazy and a small number of them remained (I still have a few). They probably eat fish waste and algae, etc. because I have ZERO other snails. I like them.

 

I introduced just one assassin snail to my 20 gallon and a few months later I only really see one or two bladder snails now. For awhile I didn't see any for weeks, I believe the were completely gone and then got reintroduced through some plants

Assassin snails are really looking nice now! Live plants definitely seem like a mixed bag

One of my aquariums had a mad infestation of hitchikers a couple years ago. Infuriating was not the word. Live plants, kept in a tub away from the aquarium for almost a month, checked each plant.....within 48 hours of the plants going into the aquarium, it was wall to wall peskies...inside and outside the aquarium....nightmare. Used snail traps, snail treatments to no avail.

In the end I shifted the fish out to a temporary aquarium, ditched the plants, substrate everything and sterilised the aquarium and started again from scratch.

Never going for live plants ever again.....not had that issue before this occasion and frankly am not going to chance it again.

They breed faster than rabbits and are seriously irritating

That does sound frustrating . I'm going to try some methods (fingers crossed they work), but thank you for the warning and sorry about your tank

100 % success with Assassin snails in wiping out a really big snail plague years ago. Then the Assassin snails had a population explosion! I ended up selling a bunch and giving away others. I didn't mind the Assassins because they are attractive. Eventually, they stopped reproducing like crazy and a small number of them remained (I still have a few). They probably eat fish waste and algae, etc. because I have ZERO other snails. I like them.

That sounds nice! I would definitely love some snails, I was wanting some nerites because of their 'only breed in salt water' thing, but assains will do (and the pics of them are so pretty!). I wouldn't think they would bother any of my fish in the tanks, right? Especially if they're quick-moving and such?

 

assassins will not harm fish or shrimp. only snails they also graze on leftover food, biofilm, algae, etc. like other snails do

 

Thank you all for your responses, they've all been very helpful! I think I'm going to get a couple of assassin snails (from LFS's or mail-order) and try the veggie traps. I don't think I want to risk a snail infestation, I'm going to try my best to eliminate all of them. Just one last question (and sorry for all of the questions, I've never had to deal with this before lol), but I have two tanks I think are infested, a 20 gallon long and a 10 gallon. How many snails would I need for each of the tanks to properly get rid of the pests?

 

Thank you all for your responses, they've all been very helpful! I think I'm going to get a couple of assassin snails (from LFS's or mail-order) and try the veggie traps. I don't think I want to risk a snail infestation, I'm going to try my best to eliminate all of them. Just one last question (and sorry for all of the questions, I've never had to deal with this before lol), but I have two tanks I think are infested, a 20 gallon long and a 10 gallon. How many snails would I need for each of the tanks to properly get rid of the pests?

I used to recommend the 1 snail per gallon as stated everywhere but honestly just adding 1 assassin snail to my 20g tank got rid of them all so I have no clue anymore. Experience says you don't need many at all, websites say you need lots. If they were my tanks I would probably just buy a few

 

I used to recommend the 1 snail per gallon as stated everywhere but honestly just adding 1 assassin snail to my 20g tank got rid of them all so I have no clue anymore. Experience says you don't need many at all, websites say you need lots. If they were my tanks I would probably just buy a few

Ok, thank you! I think I'll get three snails to be safe, two for the more-over run 10 and one for the 20

 

I should also mention that mine didn't eat for a couple weeks. then it was snack time

 

I've always been told that one Assassin eats three snails daily.