I think I have baby snails in my fish tank!!?

Question

I have a 10 ga. tank with Molly's, Tetra's and a Plecastumus. I have never placed a snail in this tank, and now I have what I think are baby snails attached to the glass of my tank. Where would they have come from, and how do I get rid of them?

Answer 1

Do you have any plants in the tank? Or anything added recently? There's a good chance there may have been snail eggs on them when you put them in.

There may have been a few in a bag with fish as well, if the net used to catch the fish scraped any off the tank/gravel when your fish were caught and a few made their way into the bag. If you added any water from the bag to the tank, the eggs would have gone in as well.

As for getting rid of them, the most environmently-friendly way to do this is to bait them. Get an old plastic container (deli container, yogurt cup with lid) and make a hole in the side small enough the fish can't enter but the snails can. Put some tank gravel in the bottom so it floats, add a lettuce leaf, cap it, and put it in the tank overnight. The snails will crawl onto the leaf to feed, and you take the container out in the morning. you can do this as many times as necessary.

Another method is to use snail-eating fish. Your tank is going to be extremely overcrowded once the pleco grows, so I would hesitate to suggest adding any more fish, but a kuhli loach will stay relatively small (4 inches) and will eat snails.

You could tank them out by hand, or crush them against the glass, but this will require more time and effort on your part.

There are chemicals that can be used, but these generally contain copper and are hard on your fish as well as the snails. Tetras are particularly sensitive to copper, so you may want to set them up in a different tank if you must medicate.

Answer 2

Snail eggs can come in on plants, sometimes tank decorations if you got them directly from someone else's tank. There is snail kill chemicals available at most pet shops/fish stores. Puffers, loaches and some other fish will eat snails. Salt will kill freshwater snails (but it would have to be huge amounts of salt which would probably kill your fish, maybe the plants, and probably the beneficial bacteria). Bleach kills everything (including fish, plants, good bacteria). You can try to lure them to a piece of veggie (zuccini or cucumbers is good) tied with a string or in some form of open-topped container; when you see snails on it, pull it out of the water and kill the snails. You'll probably have to do this a bunch of times for a couple of months running so you get most of the big snails and any new snails hatching from any laid egg masses.

Answer 3

Like every other poster mentioned, live plants are probably how they got in your tank. I have the same problem in one of my tanks. I just scoop them out one by one as soon as I spot another one. This has been going on for weeks... I don't know if I'll ever get rid of them all. I've heard about people who had so many little snails in their tank, almost half the gravel was tiny snails. You DEFINITELY do not want a situation like that, as that many snails will disrupt your bio-system and cause all kinds of problems. Try crushing one or two against the glass and see if you have any fish that will eat them... that sounds easier than scooping them out one by one. I think I'll try that myself. I'm almost to the point of taking EVERYTHING out of the tank and boiling the whole shlabang. Hopefully it won't come to that. Good luck to us both.

Answer 4

They usually come from live plants.

There are several methods of getting rid of them.

1. Secure a piece of lettuce to the bottom of the floor. After a couple of hours, you'll start to see snails on the lettuce. Discard the lettuce and repeat if there's any other snails left.
2. Clown Loaches eat snails, but they can grow to be pretty large.
3. Here's a couple of websites:
http://www.aquariumfish.net/information/get_rid_of_small_snails.htm
http://www.justbajan.com/pets/fish/articles/rid_snails/index.htm
http://perso.infonie.be/pomacea/fight_uk.htm
http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/snails.html

~ZTM

Answer 5

either they hitched a ride in on a plant or you picked one of the many kinds of snails that don't need two to reproduce. I personally like mystery/apple snails for that very reason.

there are a few ways to get rid of them
*chemicals, but not a great choice. if it's killing snails do you really want to expose your fish to that?
*crushing them, the fish will eat them
*getting a fish that eats them
*removing them one by one

also, I feel I should point out plecos get WAY too big for a 10gallons (18"+). I'd find him a new home and leave the algae eating to something else, like your new snails.

Answer 6

The plant had snail eggs on it. The snails are good. They will help keep the tank clean just dont let them over populate or you will have more snails than anything else.

Answer 7

If you bought plants for the tank they frequently arrive with snail eggs attached.

Answer 8

You must of added a live plant and the have been on it, Rince them in water before you put them in, And the 'plecastumus' aka Plecostomus is far too big for that tank, the pleco will get about the size of that tank, you may off bought it small but it will grow and grow and grow, Please get rid of it,

Answer 9

pull them out as you see them. they can reproduce all by themselves. If you tank gets to many snails you may have to clean all out and microwave the rocks and let them cool on the counter and start all over again

Answer 10

have you bought any fish recently? this has happened to me when i buy new fish and look in the bag their are usualy 1-5 snails after i put a new fish in