What in the world do I do with all these snails?

[Hobbit]

After a summer of heavily feeding my platy tubs, I have approximately 1 million ramshorn snails. 🤪

Other than getting a puffer fish, which I honestly think my husband would enjoy—if I didn’t already have five tanks in the house—what do I do with them??

My LFS doesn’t want them. Only one of my chickens will eat them and she’s only interested in maybe four small snails per evening. I see people selling them online, but does that really make sense? It seems like a lot of work, particularly if I would actually follow the rules about shipping live invertebrates.

Any ideas? Or should I just euthanize them?

[Stacy Z]

Lower your amount of food in the tank and some will die off! Also I totally over fed mine to produce babies for my Pea Puffer so I’m all for the buy another tank and make snails babies for your hubby’s new Puffers!! You can also sell them on aquabid as feeders. 

Edited October 1, 2021 by Stacy Z

[Brandon p]

Sell them by the 100 on aqua-bid or eBay. If you have a a puffer or clown loaches owner near by they may give you a few buck  or trade you something. I sell mine on eBay, and trade with LFS that sells them to puffer oweners. Most LFS won’t take them unless they have a buyer any they can’t grown the in the back. Craigslist and Facebook market place are also other places. Check out loaches there are. Small to large types that are snail eaters. I have a 75 gal that is almost snail free that’s fine to the clown loaches..

3. Yoyo Loach

2.Clown Loaches

1. Dwarf Chain Loach

I would not get a assassin snails. 
you  Can  place a vegetables and remove them once there are lots of remove it and destroy or feed to the birds so they go back to food cycle.

[Fonske]

I don't know about ramshorns, but other snails are great food for turtles. Maybe there are turtle fans near you?

[Jennifer V]

Do you belong to any local clubs or online groups? I'm always on the hunt for more snails for my puffers so I'm sure you'll find a few local folks looking for snails near you. 

[CalmedByFish]

Gruesome but potentially helpful thoughts:

I think the most merciful way to euthanize is to crush quickly. 

I don't like the idea of snails starving to death. Can't be fun. But it is also true that once dead (or maybe if crushed inside a tank?), the other animals will eat it as fresh meat. (I saw that for the first time today. Bleck!)

Ya know, I wonder if the hatching of more can be limited by scraping the egg clumps off the surface they're stuck onto. I did that a couple times to keep the clump in the water, and it was easy to do with my thumbnail. 

[Guppysnail]

On 10/1/2021 at 3:26 AM, CalmedByFish said:

limited by scraping the egg clumps off the surface they're stuck onto

I use a flashlight to see these for my bladder snail eggs to control the population to what I think it should be rather than what they think it should be.  It works reasonably because they hide them so well. 

[ARMYVET]

Put in 3-4 assassins snails.  They feed on the the snails and reproduce very slowly.  You LFS will absolutely take the Assassins snails because lots of people want them.

I personally love them and I have a tanks set up to breed assassins and a pea puffer tank.  Between feeding both of those I never have too many. 

[Atitagain]

On 10/1/2021 at 12:15 AM, Hobbit said:

if I didn’t already have five tanks in the house

The MTS in me says 5-6 what’s really the difference?

Or.. in my professional (amateur) opinion you should go with the puffer tank.

[Guppysnail]

From bearded dragon experience…snails removed from the shell (I purchased did not remove myself I think they were land snails) were eaten as a treat. They are high protein calcium iron and vitamin A. Very low fat.  If you have the patients to do this perhaps dry (avoid excess ammonia maybe) and crush and mix in repashy. The snails won’t like it but at least it becomes part of the food chain. Maybe crush or freeze first

Edited October 1, 2021 by Guppysnail

[ARMYVET]

On 10/1/2021 at 8:43 AM, Guppysnail said:

From bearded dragon experience…snails removed from the shell (I purchased did not remove myself I think they were land snails) were eaten as a treat. They are high protein calcium iron and vitamin A. Very low fat.  If you have the patients to do this perhaps dry (avoid excess ammonia maybe) and crush and mix in repashy. The snails won’t like it but at least it becomes part of the food chain. Maybe crush or freeze first

Snail Murderer😱

[Guppysnail]

On 10/1/2021 at 9:13 AM, ARMYVET said:

Snail Murderer😱

😭. Everything has to eat 😁

[Patrick_G]

On 10/1/2021 at 12:20 AM, Jennifer V said:

Do you belong to any local clubs or online groups? I'm always on the hunt for more snails for my puffers so I'm sure you'll find a few local folks looking for snails near you. 

Yeah, our local club’s Facebook has a trading page. Folks give away snails on a regular basis. 

[ARMYVET]

On 10/1/2021 at 11:44 AM, Guppysnail said:

😭. Everything has to eat 😁

That is true but I dont kill them myself....I put everything in live and give them a chance to run...🤣 

Doesn't work but hey my conscious is clear....LOL

[Hobbit]

Thanks for the thoughts everyone!

I do have a tank with two yoyo loaches and assassin snails, but they’re all working on the Malaysian trumpet snail explosion of 2021. My loaches would totally prefer rams horns if they had the choice, but right now I’m not giving them a choice. 😆

I’m on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, so I don’t have a local club, but I might be able to swing over to the Potomac Valley club over by DC… I’ll check out their page and see if there are any facebook groups of Eastern Shore fish keepers.

I’m too much of a softie to crush them myself 🥲 but I have discovered that clove oil will euthanize snails the same way it does fish. So I do have a humane (I think) way of dispatching them if I need to. The downside is then I can’t feed them to anything.

Has anyone ever mailed snails before? What box/container do you use?

[Guppysnail]

On 10/1/2021 at 1:28 PM, Hobbit said:

Thanks for the thoughts everyone!

I do have a tank with two yoyo loaches and assassin snails, but they’re all working on the Malaysian trumpet snail explosion of 2021. My loaches would totally prefer rams horns if they had the choice, but right now I’m not giving them a choice. 😆

I’m on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, so I don’t have a local club, but I might be able to swing over to the Potomac Valley club over by DC… I’ll check out their page and see if there are any facebook groups of Eastern Shore fish keepers.

I’m too much of a softie to crush them myself 🥲 but I have discovered that clove oil will euthanize snails the same way it does fish. So I do have a humane (I think) way of dispatching them if I need to. The downside is then I can’t feed them to anything.

Has anyone ever mailed snails before? What box/container do you use?

No but I have received them both healthy and poorly shipped. Best results method…  Styrofoam to go cup for insulation. Wet tank water paper towels folded over the not soaking or submerged. Holes in lid tape down. Extreme weather extra styrofoam in the box with heat/ice 60-85 no need probably more temps but those were the temps listed for shipping 

[eatyourpeas]

I have bought snails before and they were shipped in a sealed bag, with wet paper towels inside. The packaging had insulation as padding and because of the time of year, there was a heat pack. They arrived well. They were shipped Fed-Ex Standard Overnight from OH to WA.

[Brandon p]

I don’t like this channel but it fits the topic

I’ll include the clown loaches but they get big. I have 4 5 inch ones and they are smaller

My personal opinion is the dwarf chain loach. They stay smaller and super active feeding almost all the time. 

Edited October 2, 2021 by Brandon p
Small change

[Torrey]

On 10/1/2021 at 11:28 AM, Hobbit said:

Thanks for the thoughts everyone!

I do have a tank with two yoyo loaches and assassin snails, but they’re all working on the Malaysian trumpet snail explosion of 2021. My loaches would totally prefer rams horns if they had the choice, but right now I’m not giving them a choice. 😆

I’m on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, so I don’t have a local club, but I might be able to swing over to the Potomac Valley club over by DC… I’ll check out their page and see if there are any facebook groups of Eastern Shore fish keepers.

I’m too much of a softie to crush them myself 🥲 but I have discovered that clove oil will euthanize snails the same way it does fish. So I do have a humane (I think) way of dispatching them if I need to. The downside is then I can’t feed them to anything.

Has anyone ever mailed snails before? What box/container do you use?

A lost shipment (like 2 weeks lost) packed in the breathable bags, with wet paper towel and what looked like was probably watersprite, finally was located and delivered **with all snails alive** Be sure to ship the breathable bags wrapped in paper, or they don't breathe. They only breathe from where the water is in contact with the bag, which is a selectively permeable membrane, as long as paper is on the other side.

The fish also survived, so I am getting ready to purchase the breathable bags instead of more square bottom bags.