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Snails Oh My!😱


BAT
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Hi Nerm friends,

A few months ago I added a Nerite and two mystery snails to my bettas 10g planted tank to help with the algae. The tank is sparkling! However last week I noticed a baby snail. And this week I just saw 4 more smaller babies!

help! I am thinking I should move one of the Mystery snails to another tank. I have been looking online for how to get rid of the baby snails humanely. Thoughts?

 

thanks

beth 

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On 1/22/2022 at 10:47 PM, BAT said:

Hi Nerm friends,

A few months ago I added a Nerite and two mystery snails to my bettas 10g planted tank to help with the algae. The tank is sparkling! However last week I noticed a baby snail. And this week I just saw 4 more smaller babies!

help! I am thinking I should move one of the Mystery snails to another tank. I have been looking online for how to get rid of the baby snails humanely. Thoughts?

 

thanks

beth 

It is very unlikely that you've got baby Nerite snails. If I recall, they require semi saline environs to multiply. Mystery Snails are possible, but I'd doubt them as well. If they spawn, you'll find this crazy glob of eggs _outside_ the water of the tank looking a bit like this (zoomed in photo):

2054101718_ScreenShot2022-01-22at11_00_17PM.png.1f4a8dd2c7b414fa277c83f4996327e7.png

My guess is that the little snails you're finding came in on some live plants, or something else you moved in from another aquarium.

There are a variety of "pest snails." Pond snails or Rams- horn snails are most common in home aquaria. If you don't like them, you can pick them out. They'll serve some purpose in your aquarium. But they won't stop multiplying . . .

Edited by Fish Folk
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I agree with @Fish Folk 

Wouldn't be nerites in a fresh water tank

and if it were mystery snails you would have seen the egg sack thing. . . and if not you would probably have more than 4. . . more like 400. . .

Probably snails that came in on plants. . .

Edited by MoshJosh
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If they're "pest" snails, you can control the population a bit by making sure you don't overfeed the tank. Their reproduction rate is directly proportional to the amount of food available. However, they're actually a really cool little cleanup crew and great for the tank. You can always contact local fish clubs or groups and see if anyone is looking for snails to feed to their fish. I have voracious pea puffers so I'm always looking for more bladder and ramshorn snails even with a 5g dedicated to breeding them. 

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It’s weird bc no new plants introduced in months.  I didn’t see a clutch of eggs. Is it possible that I missed it?  Is it possible that the tap water has any salt to change the water (like if there is some salt in it) enough that the nerite can reproduce?

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It took months for the bladder snails I have to appear.  They came in with a batch of plants from Aquarium Co-op.  None of my other tanks have Co-op plants, and none have bladder snails.  they are so tiny it takes awhile before you can see them, but then when you notice them suddenly you've got dozens!   I've chosen to leave them alone for the time being.  If the population doesn't go too crazy they are a welcome addition.

My mystery snails have laid thousands of eggs but to my knowledge none have hatched.  They either dry out, or become submerged.  I haven't deliberately attempted to hatch any yet.  When the tiny bladder snails first appeared I thought that a few Mystery snails hatched and survived, but that is not the case.

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Yo yo loaches apparently like them, and Corydoras are supposed to eat the eggs but I have a school of Cories and yet dozens of bladder snails.  My cories are fat, maybe they ate all they could.   Bettas will eat them as well if they are on the smaller side.  I have a tank waiting for a betta.  Hopefully he likes to eat snails.

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I got a few of those guys.  They came in from my ember tetras from PetSmart.  They are only in my quarantine tank.  I like them but I sucked most out when I did a water chanfe this week.  Haven't changed water in months either.  Nothing really kills them either.  They are always happy and moving.

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On 1/24/2022 at 2:24 PM, BAT said:

@meadeamthat is good to know! thank you!

I have attached a pic of one of the snails - not sure if this helps with ID

IMG_0818.jpeg

Bladder snail... I have tons of them. Some are the size of a pinky nail now and have moss on their shells - I call them the grandpa snails like Cory does. I try to watch feeding, but if it gets really out of hand my chickens get a nice treat along with some duckweed!

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I have snails that look like that.  I decided to pull the pothos and other plants out of the tank and rearrange them, so I dropped them into a pail and filled it about halfway with water from the aquarium.  I cleaned everything up, put the plants back, and got ready to dump the water, but then noticed a few of the tiny snails still in the pail.  I rescued every last one of them, and seriously, I enjoy watching the snails as much as I do the fish - maybe almost.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I found that it depends on the puffers size. My juvenile Fahaka puffer cann only eat what he can fit in his mouth other than that he just kinda bites at the shell with little luck getting any substance.  Right now Im feeding rams horns snails until hes big enough for mystery snails or clams

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