What to do about snails that keep making eggs?

We have a 10 gallon tank with 5 GloFish Tetra and 2 mystery snails. Recently the snails starting having snail sex. Now every couple days the female is laying eggs. I'm getting tired of scrapping eggs off the tank, and I'm worried that I might miss some and end up with a snail infestation. What is the right thing to do here? Everything I've read online says to euthanize one of the snails, but I don't know if I can bring myself to do that, especially because my kids are very attached to them.

 

Even after removing the male, the female will still produce fertile eggs for some time. I would find out which snail is the female and take it back to the pet store. Either that or separate the 2 and continue removing eggs until the female stops laying them. There is no reason to kill off a pet simply because it is doing what nature intended, reproducing.

Better to do the researching before buying aquatic friends next time so you know what you may be getting into. Mystery snails are pretty prolific, as are most other snails. It's not the least bit surprising they would be making babies is the home aquarium.

 

Do you have a different tank ? Can you give one away to a friend ? Don’t euthanise the little guy ( or gal ). Why don’t you want babies ? Snails are awesome and your population won’t explode to the point there’s more snails than water

 

Even after removing the male, the female will still produce fertile eggs for some time. I would find out which snail is the female and take it back to the pet store. Either that or separate the 2 and continue removing eggs until the female stops laying them. There is no reason to kill off a pet simply because it is doing what nature intended, reproducing.

Better to do the researching before buying aquatic friends next time so you know what you may be getting into. Mystery snails are pretty prolific, as are most other snails. It's not the least bit surprising they would be making babies is the home aquarium.

Do you think the pet store will really take it back? It's been a few months since we got her

Do you have a different tank ? Can you give one away to a friend ? Don’t euthanise the little guy ( or gal ). Why don’t you want babies ? Snails are awesome and your population won’t explode to the point there’s more snails than water

Well we only have the one 10 gallon tank. And I'm worried that it might get really crowed if there's a bunch of snails in it. My understanding was that you would want to keep a maximum of 2 snails in a 10 gallon tank. Or is that wrong?

 

I’ve actually never kept mystery’s but I do have multiple snails. One of which is the Malaysian trumpet snail , which is prolific. I did have a bit of a boom at first but it settled down to what the tank can support population wise. If you over feed you’ll have more snails.
You could always sell your surplus snails to earn a bit of money back if you are willing to ship.

If someone else can confirm my take on this then it’s up to you to make that decision. You could always just sell the two you have or give them away for free if you don’t want to deal with eggs. Get nerite snails if you so choose to get another snail in the future. They won’t reproduce as the eggs need brackish water. They will lay small white eggs randomly if you get a female but they are easy to remove.

 

I’ve actually never kept mystery’s but I do have multiple snails. One of which is the Malaysian trumpet snail , which is prolific. I did have a bit of a boom at first but it settled down to what the tank can support population wise. If you over feed you’ll have more snails.
You could always sell your surplus snails to earn a bit of money back if you are willing to ship.

If someone else can confirm my take on this then it’s up to you to make that decision. You could always just sell the two you have or give them away for free if you don’t want to deal with eggs. Get nerite snails if you so choose to get another snail in the future. They won’t reproduce as the eggs need brackish water. They will lay small white eggs randomly if you get a female but they are easy to remove.

Mystery snails have a much a much higher bio load than most I wouldn't let them hatch unless in a 10 gallon

 

Try to reach out with a local ad...I am sure somebody will take the snail.

 

I had same issue. 1m and 3f in a 30. Bought a 20 just to move the m out and give the gals a break. Then got a 65 and all are now back together. Other tanks are now plant terrariums Get a few a week and did let one go to find a good 50+ to deal with. Now I have about a dozen of all sizes. One f was in the 20 with the m and she would literally do somersaults in the substrate to get him off. I removed her and left the m alone. Now that there are more f it balances. You can take the clutches out to dry then and add them to Snello or crush to feed fish and inverts. Just be sure they are dried or you get ooyie gooey everywhere. Perhaps Snello would be fun to do with the kids? Make small batches as it can make a lot that lasts for months.