# Found A Snail...



## TheSpaz13 (Apr 9, 2010)

So I was cleaning the Sanchezi tank just now and found a snail crawling along the side of the tank. I never bought snails before so he must have been a hitch hiker. Should I take him out or let him stay? Its a planted tank so I'd like to avoid an assault by a full population but I don't think 1 or 2 of them are a problem...Thoughts?


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## Guest (May 21, 2011)

Where there is one there are plenty. Kill it now and pray to the aquarium gods that it was travelling solo!


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## Ba20 (Jan 29, 2003)

Leave it, unless you have plants or anything it can eat on he wont last long, had some in my spilo tank they ate the algae that grew on the glass but once it was gone they all died


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## Guest (May 21, 2011)

If its a pond snail, they will multiply. They can live off of the smallest food left overs for long periods of time. The majority of other snails need brackish waters to populate, but not pond snails.

Better off to kill it and not take any chances


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

plus, snails dont need a partner to multiply. They do it by themselves (asexual). You find one, then next week you'll find a bunch more.


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## motoracer110 (May 13, 2010)

from experience do whatever you can to get rid of it







I found 5 in my old tank and in about a month there was a explosion. I tried everything to get rid of them and nothing worked. i eventually had to tear down the tank and start over because of them. not only are they ugly they also crap A LOT!!!!! it will get to the point where they will affect the water chemistry with the bioload and doing water changes 2 times a week will not be enough. THEY ARE HORRIBLE


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## Hogdog (Feb 1, 2010)

Depends what type of snail it is, I have a population of small (2-3mm) snails in my tanks, they keep the algae down and don't bother me at all.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

With a clean tank the population will stay under control. I would remove it but try to find its type so that you know if it is a species that will eat your plants or not.



ksls said:


> Where there is one there are plenty. Kill it now and pray to the aquarium gods that it was travelling solo!


I bought some assasin snails a while back and have a some babies if you want I could send you some at no cost. They are predatory snails (do not a eat plants) that have a nice black and yellow bumble bee shell. They don't multiply as fast as common snails and cost a couple bucks in stores so it shouldn't be hard to sell excess. The babies are small now but I could send you some when they get abit bigger. They love eating pond snails and other snails (you don't want any other snails with them as they may be food).


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## Guest (May 22, 2011)

I would love some CLUSTER. Just let me know cost of shipping, I would never ask you to pay that


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## TheSpaz13 (Apr 9, 2010)

I just took out two of them and haven't seen any since So I'm going to give it a couple of days and see if there's going to be an issue or not. Thanks for the offer anyway though, if it turns out to be a problem I might take you up on it man.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

TheSpaz13 said:


> I just took out two of them and haven't seen any since So I'm going to give it a couple of days and see if there's going to be an issue or not. Thanks for the offer anyway though, if it turns out to be a problem I might take you up on it man.


 With a clean tank especially one that isn't planted you shouldn't have much of a problem keeping them under control.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

One of the quickest ways to kill them is to just crush them. It sounds abit brutal but it is very quick to eliminate a ton of small snails quickly so if you crush on site more or less you should easily be able to keep their numbers low and any excess ones probably won't be harming anything (depending on type) anyways.



ksls said:


> I would love some CLUSTER. Just let me know cost of shipping, I would never ask you to pay that


KSLS,

I shall let you know when they get some more size. Right now they are getting their stripes so once they get abit bigger they will be good to go. Im not exactly sure at what age/size people feel the snails are ready to ship/sell but Im thinking once they look like minature adults they are good to go. They are breeding faster then I have heard they do (I started with only 3 in a 125g) and now have a bunch of babies though they are farily nice looking snails so they are nice to have and people want them so it isn't like pond snails where you just kill them to get rid of them. Im not sure how easily you can get rid of these from your tank as im not sure the size at which they start breeding. Adults are easy to remove though babies are scattered. Adults will also go into short periods buried so you may see them one day and they be nowhere in sight the next.

I will probably ship them in an envelope in a small platic containor so I don't think shipping will be very much and I think it is the least I can do since your snails were most probably from my plants.


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## caribemob (Jan 14, 2008)

Like most said on this thread I would get rid of the little bugger, before you have a huge problem


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## TheSpaz13 (Apr 9, 2010)

I grabbed all of the ones I saw and its not really a big deal, havent seen any in over a day. The problem is the plants though, IDK if they are hiding anywhere


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## Guest (May 23, 2011)

I found some today as well







Started noticing little holes on my hygro's a while ago and then today I found a snail crawling along the substrate. Removed about 5 large ones and 3 tiny ones so far, I'm redoing the tank this week hopefully (rescape and substrate switch) so I'll be hunting them down trying to get them all.


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## TheSpaz13 (Apr 9, 2010)

Welp, it happened...snails...I stopped counting at 30. They're really small but definitely there...I hope they don't kill of all of my plants before I can get rid of them.

The whole thing is a bummer, they're in my new rhoms tank...


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## Piranha-Freak101 (Dec 8, 2010)

can these things just appear in your tak or what?


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## Nzac (Oct 13, 2010)

they usually come in as hitchikers on plants.


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## Guest (May 26, 2011)

Thats right. Dirty, nasty hitchhikers!!! There is very little you can do about it. I refused to use any chemicals to kill them for obvious reasons. My 72G bowfront has them and all I do is squish them everytime I spot one. They do a great job of keeping my plants clean though. If you see them in your tank you can bet your filter will be full of them!!


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## Nzac (Oct 13, 2010)

I have assasin snails in my piranha tanks as my rhoms don't seem to kill the snails. They haven't completely rid the tanks of the snails, but keeps them from overtaking everything. Of course I only have 1 in each tank atm as I have 4 in my cherry shrimp tank eating the pond snails in there, once eradicated there they will move to p's tanks.

be careful squishing them, if you get cut from the squishing it can seriously harm you.


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## TheSpaz13 (Apr 9, 2010)

I'm still trying to figure out how they got into the tank to begin with. I haven't added any plants to the thing in over a month-month and a half and all of a sudden BAM they're here. Either way, Nzac, where did you get your assassin snails from? sponsors?


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## Nzac (Oct 13, 2010)

probably came in with the plants as egges. got mine from a couple different lfs. from my experience you will never find them at the big chain stores.

I also have another tank that i used to breed snails in for puffer fish, I now have a pair of loaches in there eating snails, when I feel ambitious I catch however many I can and toss em in the loach tank, its almost amazing how many empty shells loaches make =)


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## Ibanez247 (Nov 9, 2006)

Snails are probably more beneficial to your tank than harmful. They will eat any dead or dieing plant debris. As long as you are not over feeding you should get a huge explosion. I have trumpet snails in my 75 and just take some out every water change and it keeps the population in check. Have any pics of the sanils so we can tell what they are?


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## sadboy (Jan 6, 2005)

Were you able to get rid of your problem? Any more in your tank.


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## TheSpaz13 (Apr 9, 2010)

Ibanez247 said:


> Were you able to get rid of your problem? Any more in your tank.


Yea...apparently they laid eggs, so there's a lot right now and like I said, found some in my other tank too


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## tsk26 (May 31, 2011)

TheSpaz13 said:


> So I was cleaning the Sanchezi tank just now and found a snail crawling along the side of the tank. I never bought snails before so he must have been a hitch hiker. Should I take him out or let him stay? Its a planted tank so I'd like to avoid an assault by a full population but I don't think 1 or 2 of them are a problem...Thoughts?


i would take them out. this happened to me now i have 1,000 snails


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