Unwanted Snail Breeding

[Fishy101]

I have these little pest snails that seem to find there was on some of the plants I get. I’m fine if there is a handful of small ones, but recently they have been reproducing and I can see their eggs on the walls and plants. I do frequent water changes and have a few shrimp and Cory’s so there’s never really any food left over.

I saw Cory’s video on having a controlled amount is good, but they tend to reproduce fairly fast at times (happens at random times)

is there a better way to prevent this from happening, or something to do when I get the plants, and a way to fix it now (the eggs and snails). 

thanks!

Edited January 16, 2022 by Fishy101

[Guppysnail]

Vacuuming substrate (and baby and adult snails out of it) more often Cory don’t get the particles that go deeper supplying food to snails and removing any damaged plant leaves helps curtail the population. Hope that helps

[tolstoy21]

On 1/16/2022 at 7:59 AM, Guppysnail said:

Vacuuming substrate (and baby and adult snails out of it) more often Cory don’t get the particles that go deeper supplying food to snails and removing any damaged plant leaves helps curtail the population. Hope that helps

Agreed on the above.

I have this problem with ramshorn snails (should have never intentionally introduced them!)

If you want to remove a good portion of the snails you currently have in an effort to lower the amount that can immediately reproduce, a good trick I found online is the following -- Put a slice of zucchini on a fork into your tank and leave it over night. In the morning it should have bunch of snails grazing on it.  Remove it carefully so as to not knock too many snails off and dispose of both the zucchini slice and the snails.  Keep repeating this until the number of snails are visibly reduced. Just don't leave the zucchini in too long or you're just feeding snails!

If you do that, and follow what Guppysnail mentioned, you should be in good shape after a little bit.

There are always going to be snails, and that's good, but if there are a ton, something out of balance and there is too much of something in your aquarium for them to eat and thrive on. 

 

[BETTA999]

i have the same problem but i am feeding more cleaner and the snail population is down so then i remove the extras manually

[Torrey]

An easier snail trap is a clear plastic water bottle (I use the Kirtland 16.9 fl oz water bottles) with zucchini in it. Plop it in at night, and in the morning you will have a lot of snails in the water bottle. Occasionally, I also have a few endlers in there and they are easy to return to the tank. 

Remember to follow proper protocols for disposal of potentially invasive species: they need to be treated and definitely dead before they are put in a ziplock bag in the trash unless you have a local pea puffer or turtle owner who will gladly take free food. 

[813aquatics]

Once the snails start it's a pretty hard thing to kick, because once you start seeing the eggs you know you have dozens/hundreds. I just learned to embrace the diversity and use them as a good tank barometer. Another thing you can add is assassin snails but I'm not sure if it's just me but my two assassins haven't made much of a dent in the small bladder snails I see in the tank. Could just be me missing their work though.

Edited January 19, 2022 by 813aquatics

[Flynn Naysmith]

I personally never think snails are bad but they will stop breeding if you don't feed as much.

[Torrey]

On 1/18/2022 at 10:26 PM, 813aquatics said:

Once the snails start it's a pretty hard thing to kick, because once you start seeing the eggs you know you have dozens/hundreds. I just learned to embrace the diversity and use them as a good tank barometer. Another thing you can add is assassin snails but I'm not sure if it's just me but my two assassins haven't made much of a dent in the small bladder snails I see in the tank. Could just be me missing their work though.

My single assassin snail gives me 20+ empty snail shells each week. 

My endlers eat the eggs, and if I underfeed [according to them], the endlers will attack the pond snails. They just can't seem to leave the 'bat wings' on the pond snails alone.