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This is a shout-out to A Gamer's Wife and her recent Youtube video on snail control and the relative effectiveness of various compounds frequently recommended for killing aquatic snails. I wish i had come across her video before my own experience, which I describe below: In preparation for a new incoming batch of Discus, I decided now was the time to try and eradicate the snail population that I inadvertently introduced by failing to sterilize the first batch of plants I bought. The single most recommended method of doing this (besides buying snail eating fish, or snail eating snails) is disinfecting with potassium permanganate (PP). I drained most of the water out of the tank and removed plants, driftwood, a few Tetras, and some Catfish. I vacuumed all the gravel thoroughly while doing this to remove excess detritus. I dosed the tank with PP according to the most often recommended concentration (4g/100L). I then scrubbed down all the glass and the filter intake/output tubes with the solution. I also repeatedly washed the large rocks in the tank by splashing the solution over them. I could not see any snails, but I was concerned they might have left eggs behind. After waiting two hours (twice the recommended minimum time) to let the PP do its work, I refilled the tank. Shortly after doing so, I spotted one baby snail near the waterline. It was alive. I couldn't believe it. I decided to dose the entire aquarium a second time without removing any of the water to be sure all surfaces were completely submerged in the solution. I also tripled the recommended dosage. I again waited two hours before draining and refilling the aquarium. The one common statement that every single online source that I came across (a dozen or so) was that PP was deadly to snails (and parasites), less so to bacteria. Supposedly, it was possible to safely use PP without disrupting your bio-filtration system. The caveat was that it was a good idea to stop filtration if dosing with PP for more than one hour. Since I tripled the dose of PP the second time around, I stopped my filters after 15 minutes. While all this was going on, I was also disinfecting the driftwood and the plants that I previously removed. The reason for this is that although PP is generally safe for plants, you don't want to leave them in treatment for very long. The recommendation is to dip them in the PP solution for 10 minutes then remove and rinse. I knew the plants I had were of a very hardy variety, so I doubled the recommended dose of PP and dipped them for 15 minutes instead to be absolutely sure the snails and any remaining eggs would be destroyed. I then rinsed the plants and driftwood to remove any remaining PP. As I did this, I noticed a few snails washing off. I assumed they were dead, but decided to test that expectation by keeping them in a bucket of water and seeing if any of them moved. Since these aquatic plants cannot be kept out of water for very long without damaging their leaves. I returned everything to the aquarium as before, confident I had rid myself of snails. You can probably guess by now that wasn't the case. A few hours later I checked on the snails I put in the bucket. All of them were still alive. Sure enough, a brief inspection of the aquarium and a few snails were spotted on the glass. I spent an entire day meticulously disinfecting everything according to the most widely distributed "expert" opinions, not once but twice, using a much stronger dosing regime the second, and it had no effect on the snails whatsoever. To make things even worse, the very brief, supposedly "safe", exposure to the PP solution that I subjected my filters too completely wiped out all the beneficial bacteria, meaning I had to recycle. It will take anywhere from 2-4 weeks to restore the filters to working condition and another 4-6 weeks to return to optimal efficiency, which is where they were at when I began treatment. I have, through previous hard experience, understood how misinformation is widely distributed on the Internet. Nevertheless, given the in depth research I did on this topic, including documentation from authors claiming years of hands-on experience, and never coming across even one contrary opinion, I was not prepared for this. To top it all off, not only did the PP not kill the snails, it actually seems to have made them reproduce at a higher rate. I'd+ never before seen more than 10-12 snails on any given day, usually much less. Whenever I saw them, I removed them. This morning, 36 hours after "disinfecting" my aquarium, I can see double that number. They are everywhere, plants, driftwood, climbing the glass. I simply cannot believe it. Supposedly, snails are only a problem when overfeeding. Apparently, bladder snails feed on PP. I am now going to try treatment with copper sulfate, which will require two treatments a week apart, since CS apparently does not destroy eggs, and may damage my plants. Copper sulfate is old school disinfectant, more complicated and less forgiving, but highly effective (National Warmwater Aquaculture Center). Afterwards, assuming my plants survive treatment, it will take me at least another month to restart the nitrogen cycle. I then expect to have to fight the brown algae battle all over again, which will mean another 2-3 months before my aquarium will be returned to the state it was in two weeks ago, albeit snail-free (hopefully).

I think snails are and have been inspiration for cartoons....I mean what other animals can do this....

If I humanely killed the snails by Freezing them could I grind them up in a coffee grinder with vegetables to make a homemade food? If so would it be nutritious?

Caramel would like to show off for you nice folks. He is an eight month old. I’m average size female with average size hands. Thumb is for size reference. Mystery snails fed an appropriate diet in ideal snaily environment can reach 3 inches...... feed your snails 🙂

So Im preparring for a 75G Brackish water aquarium for a Green spotted Puffer. My plan is to start a 20 Breeder to hopefully supply me with some of the food intake. My question is How hard is it to hatch a snail Clutch if ai was to order 1 online?

I received 9 new plants 3 days ago and got them planted. So far I have found 16 hitchhiker from them and I have them hard at work on part of the tank I cant reach, more bang for my buck 🙂

I came home from vacation and found this on the lid of my 5G. I’m sure it’s Mystery snail eggs but the question I have is must I have a male and a female to hatch? I only have one mystery snail in this tank along with two nerite snails and 3 cherry shrimp. TIA.

This thread is to document the setup, care and lifetime of my newly created 20 gallon long Walstad deep sandbed tank! I've been planning this project for a while now, and after assuring that the cabinet the tank was destined to sit on was sturdy enough, I took advantage of the latest Petco sale. My husband was a total enabler on this one, which was fun! I've been fascinated by Walstad tanks (and other dirted tanks that use plant-only filtration) since I restarted in this hobby a few years ago, and though all of my other tanks are dirted, none of them have that deep substrate or the no water changes / no filter rule. So this will be a new experience. The planned live stock will be a colony of bloody mary neocaridinas, a vampire shrimp, and perhaps some rabbit snails (among my usual hitchhikers). Edit: It's come to my attention that what I'm doing is slightly different than Diana Walstad's method, but the idea is still the same. After spray painting the back black, I was sure to center the tank and the runner it sits on as best I could. I might have to move that hyena picture above it... it looks off center now! This is the brand of dirt I chose to use. I've never used it before, but I couldn't find the cheapo stuff I used before. I didn't bother sifting the dirt, I just pulled out bigger pieces of wood if I found them. I spread an inch deep layer and pressed it down, and then sprinkled some crushed coral over it, as my water has pretty low Kh. I then sprayed the dirt down with a spray bottle to get it wet, before capping it with two inches of Black Diamond blasting sand - my go to substrate, I like the black color and how cheap it is. I didn't bother washing it, because I'm convinced it doesn't matter. I used a wooden skewer with an inch and three inches both marked off, so I could ensure I had the proper layer depths. Now to fill 'er up! I put a ziplock bag on the sand to soften the water flow. Worked like a charm. As it began to fill, I sorted out the air pump and bubblers. I used Aquarium Co-Op's black airline tubing that they sent me in my care package, and I gotta say it hooks up like butter. Very nice. The bubblers are these fancy ones that came with my Eheim pumps. I wanted lots of flow for the vampire shrimp, so I added two bubblers. Time for hardscape. I'm keeping it simple, and just used some slate pieces I had sitting around. And then it was time for more filling. This time I used a bowl to disperse the water flow. I filled it almost all the way, and then decided it was planting time. I grabbed out a bunch of Val from my 29 gallon. Here's how it looks with the plants in. I do intend to get some moss or maybe Susswassertang. If my new pink flamingo crypt settles in the 75 well I might put some in here too. But for now, I'll let the val fill in The first inhabitant - a pink ramshorn hitchhiker. I'm sure there's eggs on the plants, too. It's getting too warm to safely order livestock here in AL, so this has all summer to get grown in and seasoned. I'll post updates on plant growth and whenever I add a new plant for now.

Happy Wednesday! I'm thinking of getting a couple Endlers for my 5g but it's also a snail breeding tank and has a few shrimp in it. Would that be a problem? Is there a better choice of super hardy, colorful little fish to add?

Do goldfish eat snails? Particularly rams horns? I’m trying to breed them in all my tanks for my pea puffers and wasn’t sure if my goldfish will eat them.

Hi folks 👋🏻 I'm Julia, nice to join your CARE community! This will be a journal of my fish-keeping journey in Canada. Having a weak memory I need a place to keep track of my mistakes (and hopefully successes in future) and forum seems to be a nicer, safer place than Facebook group. Will start documenting my first *stressful* month into the hobby tomorrow and share my story 🐟

My tap water is soft. 30 TDS. 1st photo Tap that sat overnight. 2nd My regular tanks that have Driftwood and/or catappa leaves 3rd My Shrimp tank after adding Baking soda to raise Kh back up. Wood and catappa I was given 2 nerite snails. I'd like to add a few snails and leaf litter to a couple tanks. In my shrimp tank I also use Aqueon Shrimp Essentials for minerals and have success w/molt and babies . I'm concerned that about Ph craziness and how I can at least maintain a Ph of 6.8. Is Seachem Equilibrium something I should consider or other additives ? I know its not good to chase parameters but these are rather low. It's been great for breeding my cory metae and bristlenose but w/wood and leaves I worry it will get too low.

A customer dropped off a garden tractor for repairs. When I went to check the mower out I fond this guy crawling across the top of the seat. Before I could find a container, the snail was nowhere to be found. I don't now if this was the greatest looking garden snail I will ever see, or a lost opportunity for a free aquarium snail. What do you think?

Day before yesterday I was peering into my 10 gallon with my habrosus colony (have had some sadness there recently so have been following closely…that’s another story), and I noticed that my Corys had spawned!!! On a ramshorn snail!😂😂😂. I just let it alone…I’m trying not to mess with the tank too much, just good maintenance these days…and lo and behold today, that lovely ramshorn made an appearance at the front of the tank, with that delightfully cute Cory egg still hanging on! I am not going to fetch the egg out. Planning on my 10 gallon box of nature to take its course, but this little duo made me smile today. Hope it does for you too! Take care all!

I cooked a frozen green bean until it was tender yet still firm. After 4.5 hours in the tank, no takers. Is it supposed to be mushy or do I just have picky snails?

Frogs, Shrimp and Snails African Dwarf Frog Amano Shrimp Cherry Shrimp Orange Shrimp Red Rili Shrimp Yellow Shrimp Blue Velvet Shrimp Blue Wood Shrimp Nerite Snails (Zebra and Red Spot) Mystery Snail (Ivory) Goldfish Black Ranchu Assorted Fantails Bettas Veiltail Crowntail Show Halfmoon Koi Nemo Koi Gouramis Powder Blue Dwarf Female Gourami Cichlids Zebra Lace Angelfish Adult Philippine Blue Angelfish (From Dean) Red Koi Angels (Dean Bred) Apistogramma Cacatuoides "Super Red" Bolivian Ram Red Head Tapajo (Locally Bred) Corydoras and other Catfish Albino Cory Orange Laser Cory Salt and Pepper Cory Pygmy Cory (Wild) False Julii Cory Swallowtail Glass Catfish (Diurnal schooling catfish!) Plecos Super Red Bristlenose Albino Bristlenose Plecos (Dean Bred) Common Otocinclus Colombian Whiptail Catfish Red Lizard Catfish Loaches Kuhli Loach Reticulated Hillstream Loach Dojo Loach Tetras Cardinal Tetra (Wild Brazil) Ember Tetra Glowlight Tetra Green Neon Tetra (Wild Colombia) Neon Tetra Rummy Nose Tetra Silver Tip Tetra Rasboras Chili Rasbora Danios Long Fin Zebra Danio Barbs and other Cyprinids Odessa Barb Siamese Algae Eater Livebearers Assorted Fancy Female Guppy Assorted Fancy Male Guppy (Leopard Tail, Blue Variegated, Cobra Blue, Cobra Gold, Cobra Green, Cobra Red, and Flamingo) Hawaii Variatus Platy Blue Mountain Calico Platy Ricefish Platinum White Medaka Ricefish (Dean Bred) Oddballs Zig Zag Eel Rope Fish Transparent Knifefish Fish listed from top to bottom: Blue Mountain Calico Platy, Show Halfmoon Betta, Dojo Loach, Assorted Fantail Goldfish, Red Head Tapajo, Black Lace Angelfish, Rope Fish, and Transparent Knifefish.

Hi all not sure how but I appear to have snails in my aquarium which I haven’t introduced intentionally they are at present very small I think are rams horn I cleaned out some sponges from filter to find 5 or 6 of them and occasionally some appear on glass which I’m removing any suggestions welcome

So my 20G long has been running almost 10 months now. I went away for 2 months recently and realized I have no more snails. When I first started the tank, I had Bladder snails hitchhike on plants (at least I'm 90% sure they were Bladder snails). They had a population explosion around the 2 month mark while the tank stabilized (plants and Endler's). Then I added 3 Hillstream Loaches and I noticed the snail population started to decline. I was also changing water less and less frequently. I thought nothing at the time; the tank was balancing out! Great stuff! The last thing I did was add 20 Emerald Eye Rasboras about 4 months ago, so the tank is almost at that seasoned state. When I left 2 months ago, there were just MAYBE 5 snails left. I came back, and no fish died, but all snails were gone. Quite a bit of algae growth, but also the plants were healthy! My water parameters are: Extremely hard water, 60 KH, 6.8 pH, no nitrites and usually 50-100 nitrate. I do not know my calcium levels. Things I think happened: Maybe I had decreasing calcium levels as I tapered off water changes? I did notice the snails' shells were becoming whiter as they aged. My lone Amano shrimp in the tank has molted at least once, however. The shrimp seems healthy enough. Hopefully the calcium is at a good level. Maybe the hillstream loaches? Perhaps they and the Amano shrimp ate all the food the snails were after? Or maybe the hillstream loaches ate the snails? Doubt it though. Maybe I got better at feeding? I know you only have as much snails as you have excess waste, but I would've thought a few snails would still be around. Any theories on why my snails are gone? I don't miss them by any means, but it was cool to have a few of them around for waste management breakdown. Thanks for reading my post!

Hi Everyone! I'm attempting to create a 5g snail tank to feed my puffers. It's been set up since March and has bladder and ramshorn snails in it. They cleaned the tank pretty quickly and I started to see die off awhile ago so I started feeding them algae wafers to try to get the population to increase again. I'm battling ammonia now even though the remaining snails make quick work of the wafers. I'm still seeing die off for some reason. I just can't get the population up! I feel silly because I thought this would be a breeze. What am I doing wrong? How do you successfully raise a large supply of snails? What's causing the Ammonia? The algae wafers? Tank parameters: Ph: 7.2 Temp: 78 Ammonia: .25 consistently even with water changes Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 10 Ammonia from the tap: .5

Found my mystery snail, Lucky, laying eggs this morning. This is slightly exciting. I do not have anything set up to rear them, so I am just going to leave them alone and see what happens. This is the first breeding that has taken place in my tank, and I am excited! How long does it usually take for the clutch to hatch? P.S. She got the name lucky because someone had put her and another snail (Houdini) in the assassin snail tank. My husband and I rescued them. Now it looks like they are having their first babies!

I have a small outdoor garden pond. I have some pest snails in there currently, but I wanted to get more. I want them to be able to survive the winter. I was thinking Japanese trap door snails or ramshorn. Opinions?

Hi- I got some hornwort hoping it might naturally help with reducing my staghorn algae (not really privy to trying a bunch of chemicals, etc to get rid of it). These things shed a ton of needles though - I’m wondering if snails will go after the fallen leaves? I won’t worry to keep up too quickly with the cleanup if they or other critters would munch on it.

I have been fasting this tank for a day and a half. I did a water change today. What in the world is going on with these ramshorn snails??!

Hi all. Recently I've noticed my blue ramshorn snails have been dying off over the last week or so - all that's left is empty white shells as shown in the pictures below. I also have a few nerites, pond snails and MTS snails in the tank as well that seem to be doing fine. I feed 2 algae wafers every 3 days because i'm already dealing with slight overpopulation with the pond snails. No fish or other species besides those snails in the tank. Tank has been established for roughly 4 months and has grown quite a bit of algae on the glass and on the plants. Any idea what could be causing this? Water parameters below: PH: 7.5 Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0.25 Nitrate: 0 Hardness: 100ppm KH: 80ppm Water temp: 81 (maybe a little too high?)

Watched my snail remove the wafer and leave the bowl with it then hunker down over it and ate it so no one else could