when i was looking at my fish tank this morning i noticed something on one of my plants, on a closer inspection i noticed it was a snail!!! how did it get in my tank? its only a tiny snail, but i havent bought any snails so how did it get in there? do i need to remove it?
thanks
2007-03-29 02:13:12 · 6 answers · asked by *mommy to 3 boys* 4 in Pets ➔ Fish
It probably came in with plants, that's a very common occurance. If it's been a while since you bought a plant for your tank it may have been eggs instead of snails that made their way to you. If you don't want snails, you will need to remove all that you can and try to keep the numbers down. A piece of lettuce in a plastic container will work wonders. Poke holes in the container that the snails can get in but the fish can't. Then add the lettuce and a handfull of gravel from the tank and leave that in the tank overnight. The next day many snails will have found it and you can easily remove them. Just do this as needed to keep them under control.
MM
2007-03-29 02:19:04 · answer #1 · answered by magicman116 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋
They come as eggs on the plants you buy. Many of the chain stores that have open plant tanks have them on all the plants. PetSmart is especially bad for snails. Its best to dunk the new plants in some anti-snail crap before putting them into your tank & starting a problem.
The snails are harmless to your tank. They can be a nusiance though, since they reproduce by the hundreds and can leave snail corpses all over your tank stand & tank lid.
You can use anti-snail remedies sold in stores to kill them, but if you have any scaleless fish like loaches, most of those medicines can harm them or make them ill. Many of these remedies also kill plants.
Some fish eat snails. If you have the stocking capacity, you can add one. Many of the loach species love to eat live snails and can control the population.
2007-03-29 10:03:40 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
snails are sometimes kept in plant aquriums at the store to keep things clean but if you taker home a plant like that it could be haboring snail eggs that take a while to hatch. Also snails are benifitial to fish tanks but if you want them gone buy a snail killer formula.
DD
2007-03-29 09:50:22 · answer #3 · answered by Dr. dope 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Copper compounds can kill your snails, but be careful,if there are more snails than you can see easily, a massive die-off can dramatically increase the tank bio-load.Also if using Copper be sure to remove any charcoal in the filter system,or it won't work. Some snails are harmless too plants, and help with algae removal.Of course that means you need to ID the little buggers. Good luck.-----PeeTee
2007-03-29 09:38:39 · answer #4 · answered by PeeTee 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Have you bought new plants lately for the aquarium? This happened to me once and I found out later the hitch hike in on the plants. I bought mine at pet smart. If it's the same type of snail I got, within 6 months there were hundreds of them - it was weird. Clown loaches eat them and pennies are supposed to kill them- copper (I didn't have much luck with pennies) But the clown loaches love them! Good luck
2007-03-29 09:21:11 · answer #5 · answered by Samantha 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i would whip that out of your tank, and expect to find a couple more.
they can come in as eggs on plants and hatch. where you've seen one, there may be 10 more in hiding.
i suspect this will be a plague snail, either a ramshorn or a pond/bladder snail. remove him and dispose of him, if he's still tiny you can even squish him and the fish will have a yummy treat!
2007-03-29 09:17:29 · answer #6 · answered by catx 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋