Mysterious Snails ?!?

Question

Has anyone else had this problem ??
I have a freshwater fish tank and it doesnt have alot of fish its pretty small like average size not huge but its probably 50 gallons ? something like that idk i got it for my b-day like 10 years ago
but anyways recently i got more fish and 3 weeks later hundreds of snails were found on the walls of the tank and all over the rocks and other things in the fish tank ! is this normal or is it something that could have come in with the new fish? not sure how it could have transfered over though becuase im pretty sure there werent any snails in the bag with the fish.
Their really small like a centimeter.. i saw one that might have been a half an inch but it disappeared.. the fish seem to be eating them and sometimes they go away then i see there are like 500 more!! how do i get rid of these? we havent changed the type of food so im not sure what it is or how to get rid of them? their not harming anything their just really odd

Answer 1

Those are pond snails and they came in with the fish you recently bought. With so many this would be the best way to get rid of them:

First start off by placing a piece of lettuce in the tank at the time you turn out the lights. You will probably need to weight it down to keep it on the bottom. The next morning it will probably be covered in snails. Remove the lettuce and as many snails as possible with it. Do this for several days running and also remove as many snails as you can by simply netting or picking them out.

Once you have the numbers thinned out treat the tank with a snail killing treatment available at the pet store.

You do need to thin them out before treating the tank so that all of those snails dying at once doesn't pollute the tank.

MM

Answer 2

I would say they came in with plants (they like to hide in the axils of the leaves where you don't see them. It's possible some small ones came in with the fish, or they may have been in your tank for a while in hiding. There are three possible types of snails I can think of that you might have. I'll give you links to photos so you'll know which they are and what you can do about them.

Pond snail - http://www.bettatude.com/Snails/pond-snail1.jpg
Conical shell, these reproduce like crazy and eat plants!

Ramshorn snail - http://www.rps.psu.edu/dec94/images/snail.jpg - Round but flattened on the sides, reproduce quickly, but not as fast as pond snails, will eat plants!

Malaysian trumpet snails - http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_Melanoides_tuberculata.php - Long and tapered shell, can reproduce quickly, burrow into the gravel during the day and come out at night, will not eat plants!

If what you have is one of the first two, you definately want to get rid of them. Hand pick as many as you can to prevent reproduction. Loaches are good for this as a natural predator. Chemically, you can add copper sulfate, but plants and scaleless and sensitive fish should be removed first.


If you have the Malaysians, you may want to keep them - people actually buy these! They clean the gravel and eat detritus (gunk in the gravel). You hardly ever see these unless you look at night or there's an abundant population. They're tropical, so you can control these easily enough by reducing the temperature a bit to slow down the reproduction - as long as you change the temperature slowly and you don't have fish that are sensitive to low temps.

Answer 3

Instead of going thru all the work of cleaning your tank, removing your fish, or tampering with snail killers, all you have to do is this:
Get yourself about 3 to 6 clown loaches. They will eat the pond snails. I had this problem when I bought some live plants. I got the clown loaches (4 of them) and within a month my snail problem was gone. All I had to do is every time I changed my filter, there were some pond snails on the filter and inside the filter. I'd rinse it with very hot water (no soap!) and then put it back together and insert a fresh filter. Now, every once in awhile I'll find maybe a snail or two on the glass but they disappear real quick.
Clown Loaches are wonderful fish. They are colorful and very fun to watch to it's a win-win situation!

Answer 4

I have the same "problem" right now! I don't even pour the water in out of the bag when I get new fish, so I was stumped as to HOW they got in my tank. THEN, I remembered that I had bought some live plants a few months before, and the only thing I can figure out is that they (or eggs) came in on them...despite me washing the plants before putting them in the tank. I've just been picking mine out..but too tender hearted to kill them..so put them in their own bowl!lLOL Feed them dried shrimp. I've read up on it, and I heard that different varieties of Loach fish eat them. I believe it was the Clown Loach. I have an assortment of different types of fish in my tank (55 gallon) but apparently nothing I have in there thinks they are a delicacy.haha It doesn't seem like they are hurting anything, but there are a ton of them, whenever I vacuum the gravel you can really see how many are in there, because they come up in the syphon tube~off the bottom of the tank, way down in the gravel~but it doesn't suck them out. Some are as tiny as a pencil point.
Good Luck!

Answer 5

The eggs probably came in on some plant materials that were in with the fish. Or perhaps just a cluster of eggs was netted up with the fish.

If they're not harming anything, just let em be. Some fish WILL eat the little ones.

Answer 6

They're pond snails. They breed and fill up fish tanks, it's what they do. They'll eat everything they can and then start to die off. It's not really a big deal, they're just annoying. You can get snail killer at a pet shop though if you want to get rid of all of them right now.

Answer 7

all it takes is one, tiny...( and I DO mean TINY ) snail....

some snails are hermaphrodites, they can reproduce by themselves, they don't need another snail.

you could have introduced it in the water with the new fish, or...more commonly, they are introduced into tanks on plants bought in the store.


you will have to put your fish in another temporary tank, while you clean out the old one. snails are HARD to get rid of, and you must clean and dry the tank out thoroughly. wipe it down with paper towels when you think you are done...and then, rinse it and dry it again.


good luck.

Answer 8

not stupid, it happened to me at one ingredient from stay vegetation. be careful or they are going to over run your tank. and that they are nasty little critters. and don't think that express ones won't proliferate. all of them do. i attempted many straightforward techniques to get rid of them and all appeared to fail. i know it may sound heartless, yet get some snail away. that's what finally cleared my tank up. And it does not injury your fish.

Answer 9

if yoe want to get rid of them just buy a small freshwater puffer the love to eat snails and they also look cool

Answer 10

Snails are a-sexual which means they can produce by themselves. Each snail =1000 snails