my tropical fish tanks is starting to get snails can you tell me why this is please?

Answer 1

Snails eggs came in on something like a plant. These 'pest' snails are hermaphrodidic, and they reproduce like crazy. Now that you have them, it will nearly impossible to get rid of them. Your best shot is to control their numbers using one or more of the following suggestions:
- You can just squish the snails you see on the glass. Your fish will love to eat the squished snails, too.

- You can get a snail-eating fish. Loaches are well known for eating snails. However, they are not small fish and they like to be in groups, so only go this route if your tank is over 40 gallons. You could get 4-5 zebra loaches, burmese loaches, kuhli loaches.

- You can lure them out. Put a stainless steel spoon through a piece of zucchini and let it sink in the tank. The next day, it will have many snails on it, and you can remove them.

- Restrict your feeding. Snails eat left over fish food, so if you are careful about not overfeeding, you can reduce the number of snails you have.

Avoid using snail-killing chemicals. They are not good for your fish or your biological chemicals.

Answer 2

They must have hitchiked in somehow--on live plants, in water from the pet store when you bought a new fish, etc. Really, you shouldn't worry about it too much. Snails will NOT overrun a healthy, clean tank. In fact, if they start to multiply too much, that tells you that you have too much uneaten food in your tank and you need to clean it more often.

You can even tell if your water quality is poor by watching the snails--if they are hanging out at the top of the tank near the water line, you have a problem--either too much ammonia or nitrates in your tank--and you need to do a water change ASAP!

In any event, if you keep up with your 50% water changes every week, vacuuming the gravel each time, and don't overfeed your fish, they shouldn't cause a problem at all.

Answer 3

Snail infestation? Whew. Hard to cure.

First of all, let's look at snails. They're really quite fascinating - with both female and male organs - although you need 2 snails - they fertilize each other. Very prolific breeders, too. A pair of snails will completey cover a 10 gal aquarium in just a few months.

I believe they lay eggs on plantlife in a cluster - and then their tiny-tiny larvae are released into the water.

So, what's happened is that you somehow carried snails in with either fish or plantlife from the store - or even the water especially if you got fresh water from a local pond. Their eggs/larvae are incredibly small, so it's an understandable situation. Just that they will breed and breed and breed.

OK so what now? Well, there are commercially available products that can be effective - ask your local pet store that specializes in fish. Or, you can swap out your fish into a new, sterile aquarium and then clean the other one thoroughly (Hint: use food grade rock salt - like the stuff you use in an ice cream freeze - as a scrubbing agent instead of soap - no scratches - and no residue problem so your fish won't get poisoned) Throw out all live plantlife, boil everything - the gravel, plastic plants, decorations, the filters - in heavily salted water for several minutes to kill any eggs/larvae hiding in them. Let everything air-dry in full-sunlight for several days. This will further kill any critters/bacteria etc. Then reassemble the aquarium and be careful where you buy your fish/plants.

Remember, plants gathered from the wild will most likely carry snails. So, if you gather stuff, say, if your child wants to watch tadpoles turn into frogs - you'll be well-advised to use an isolation tank and be prepared for snails.

Answer 4

if you have a snail in your tank it could have reprodiced by itself, SOME (that means NOT all) can reproduce on their own.

however, if you had none they got a free ride into your tank, most likely on a live plant or used decoration.

chances are they'll keep reproducing. you'll need to kill them:
with something you can buy at the pet store like "had a snail"
get a fish that eat them
capture them and crush them

however these are all things I could never ever do. so I would personally contact local pet stores and ask if you can donate snails for them to sell. after you've gotten rid of all the visible ones you'll need to put your fish in something else, trash your filter, they're probably in there, trash basically everything except the tank itself. I know there's a page that will tell you exactly how to clean everything so you don't have to trash most things, I'll try to find it.

Answer 5

did you recently purchase any live plants?

or to start the tank up did you use someone else's gravel? that had snails in that tank?

those would be 2 possible answers

Answer 6

go to your pet store they have a type of snail killer thats safe for fish you put in ther tank..

Answer 7

Did you buy live plants and put them in your tank? That is usually where snail eggs are hiding and they will hatch and inhabit your tank.

Answer 8

you got snail eggs. They are almost impossible to get rid of. one snail will lay thousands of eggs.

Answer 9

you haven't cleaned it fo one and fo 2 it mostlikly smeels