Tropical fish and 50 unwanted guests!?

Question

I have a got tropical fish not marine, i have just noticed about 50 snails, i think they are snails. long, light brown cones with little brown spots, they range from 3mm to 1 cm in length. They are alive because they are moving and i can see there heads popping out. It looks like they are coming up from below my gravel. They have all appeared together or i have not noticed them before, i check my tank everyday and have never seen them before. Will they damage my fish, what are they, where did they come from, should i remove them?

Answer 1

They will probably not do any harm to your tank. However they will breed and become unsightly.

Different ways to remove them. Add copper - not a nice method in my opinion.

Introduce fish that eat them like the Clown Loach - nice fish too.

Crush the little blighters by hand and watch your fish go and eat the fleshy bits.

Use a trap - cucumber or lettuce in a jam jar - the snails will feast on the veg and all you have to do is remove the jam jar once a day and dispose of the invaders.

They probably came into the tank as eggs on a new plant - well that's my guess having had it happen to me when I once kept tropicals.

Best of luck - but I doubt if you will get rid of them all...

Answer 2

If you don't overfeed, the snails will likely die off. Clown loaches are ok, but they get 12" and prefer groups, don't just go out and get fish to do your work for you if you are already overstocked. Not one person asked you how large your tank was and how stocked it is, yet they recommend a huge fish for your problems. Not good. You need a 55 gallons tank for clown loaches. Methods such as copper treatment and using a snail trap are much better than getting a fish that could be incompatible with your tank just for the purpose of snail eradication.

Answer 3

Hello!
Sounds like a case of snails!!
There are some good products available for getting rid of those unwanted guests from your local aquarist, Snail Away and Snail Rid. They are cheap and inexpensive and harmless to your fish, and you will see them gone in 3 days!
You can also use the "food chain" technique by introducing some Clown Loaches or a Ghost Knife.
If you have plant life in your aquarium they will begin to eat that after the algae has disappeared from your tank if they haven't already started!
The Jar technique is good where you put some green veges in a jar in the aquarium and let them crawl in, but just remember that snails move slow and that food will still be sitting there in hours time!

Hope this helps!
Cheers & Goodluck!
Kaz

Answer 4

You don't mention if you have live plants of not. These is a very common source of snail eggs. Most likely they did all appear together. One batch of eggs that hatched about the same time. They came in with something, fish, plants, gravel from another tank something like that. Unless there is someone playing a trick on you. LOL

As said before, without live plants they won't hurt anything, but some people do consider them to be unsightly and if left alone they can over populate a tank rather quickly.

Several types of fish, like Clown loaches will eat the snails, but rarely get all of them and you usually end up with a few left here and there. To get rid of all of them, remove as many as possible then treat the tank with a snailicide that contains copper. They are easy to kill and copper is very effective. Copper is hard on plants however and some fish are sensitive to it, but at the levels you will use and at a typical pH you shouldn't have any problems with your fish.

Answer 5

In short yes you should ,the chances are they have got into your tank on some plants you have introduced,as a rule they dont harm fish but they do look unsightly and breed like wildfire. the only way to get rid is to pick them out by hand, there is chemicals but they only stun them so you still have to do it by hand. if you want to be thorough then you have to remove all the gravel and boil it but that is a big job,so yes remove your snails by hand but be aware they will keep coming

Answer 6

ive had this problem to in the past there are sevral ways to reduce them but you never get rid of them all.
1.a snail trap from any good aquatic store.
2.a treatment for you tank.
3.wen you switch your lights of at night wait a hour and then put the light on they climb up the glass and you can pic a lot of and remove them.
4. some species of fish will eat them i had a green puffer that use to eat them and a figure 8 puffer several speices of loach and catfish will eat them to.

they wont harm your fish they just get unsightley there is a pluss side to having some they eat algie n fish waste and help maitain your tank.

Answer 7

its a matter of personal choice.
these snails help to clean the gravel, they only appear at night but do breed very well.
if you get over run you have a choice of removal methods:
clown loach will dig them up and eat them.
a slice of carrot floating on the top overnight will attract loads and then just dispose of them.
or the chemical method, snail killer from any aquarium stockists or the range.

Answer 8

I think you're right. They sound like snails, and they can overpopulate a tank and become problematic. They probably hitched a ride on some of your plants from the pet store. In small quantities, they can be great for keeping the tank clean, but they will feed on ANYTHING, and may be harmful to live plants. I've seen them kill a fish, but I think the fish was sick anyway, otherwise fish move too quickly for snails to attach to. In large quantities, they can change the pH of your tank, so you would do well to reduce their numbers to something more manageable, and you will need to do it frequently as they reproduce very quickly. It's not the most humane thing, but we tossed cupfuls of them in the toilet just to keep them manageable.

Answer 9

It relies upon at this variety of tropical fish you're observing getting. My stated fundamentals may well be: a million. A spacious tank, oblong or bowfront, possibly sq.. do no longer flow below 12 US gallons / 10 united kingdom gallons. 2. A heater with adjustable temperature and thermometer, so it switches on while the temperature is going below your set temperature and rancid while the temperature is basically appropriate. 3. A clear out with adjustable pass or a series pass that is appropriate on your fish. 4. Gravel and adorns. assorted fish relish their hiding places and an empty tank is basically depressing to look at. 5. Water conditioner. i take advantage of Tetra's AquaSafe. 6. Water attempting out kit. maximum comprise surprisingly clean training and it saves you from going to the puppy save / breeders continuously whenever you're able to desire to do assessments. 7. Scourers and sponges, and a gravel siphon if a risk. until now you placed any fish on your tank, you're able to desire to cycle it for a pair of weeks on the least, then take a water pattern on your business enterprise to make sure that is risk-free to place your fish in. you need to attempt it your self, although that is ultimate to have somebody with adventure do it the 1st time, just to verify. :)

Answer 10

I would do something about them because it sounds like you have Malaysian trumpet snails. The problem occurs when they die, as they live under the gravel, you cannot see the dead ones and this might pollute a small tank.