# Aquatic snails...



## The Chillinator (Jun 26, 2008)

Snails are a bit of a problem in tropical aquariums, while small infestations are nothing to worry about a small problem can turn into a big one in a matter of days. While some snails, for example Apple snails, are actually beneficial as they consume algae, it isn't very nice looking into your aquarium and only seeing your aquarium glass or decor covered with them and I've heard of many stories of people having huge populations of snails, often obscuring the front glass! This article will give an insight into types of snail, prevention and of course, how to get rid of populations of biblical proportions.

The main causes of snail problems and where they come from...

If anything is to survive, it must have a source of food. In an aquarium this food is of course detritus that has culminated in the aquarium and uneaten fish food which simply falls to the bottom. Keeping on top of tank maintenance will keep the snail population in check, no food means no snails. It's also important to keep on top of nutrient levels, in an unplanted aquarium, nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate will cause algae. This algae is just another food source for the snails. Cutting back on the food itself will also reduce snail numbers.

Snails are most commonly introduced to aquariums via live plants, they serve as spawning sites and places where the adults can leave their eggs. If you have a snail problem you may also have seen several small, clear sacs on the inside of the aquarium glass or on the decor and internal equipment, these are the egg sacs.

Preventative measures...

Before you add any live plants to the aquarium, I would highly recommend dipping them in a solution of Potassium permanganate. This should be added to the water so that it just turns it a pale pink colour. However be careful when handling this, it will cause burns on any surface that it comes into contact with, including skin and clothes. Always wear eye and hand protection when using this substance. It's also very important that none of this substance enters the aquarium, as it is highly toxic to fish. 

Potassium permanganate can usually be obtained from chemists, however if you can't get hold of any then you can use copper (usually found in many chemical whitespot medications), this isn't as effective but it still does a reasonable job. As you probably already know, copper is highly toxic to invertebrates, this includes snails.

Types of snail...

Ramshorn snails (_Planorbidae_)- Ramshorns can be a problem due to their size and also their tendency to chew on soft live plants. If you have a planted aquarium then avoid these.

Apple snails (_Ampullariidae_)- These are pretty much harmless however if their numbers do begin to multiply rapidly then they can soon become a pest. Most apple snails that come in on aquarium plants are usually very small, often no larger than 1-2mm.

Pond or Wandering snails (_Lymeaea ovata peregrai_)- While not as damaging as Ramshorn snails, these can actually secrete a potent toxin which can cause fish deaths. If you ever experience this, carry out several large water changes and remove any surviving fish from the aquarium immediately. 

How to get rid of pest snails in the aquarium...

Manual removal- This is fairly simple and is probably the safest method of removing them, however it can be very tiring and snails have a distinct ability of moving themselves into areas that are almost impossible to reach. Sometimes you may have to strip the tank down in order to remove them.

Natural predators- For many people, this is the first choice of snail removal. Many species of loach from the genera _Chromobotia_ and _Botia_ are known predators of snails, these genera include old favourites such as the Clown loach and the Pygmy chain loach. 

However if there is another food source available the fish will become pre-occupied on this and completely ignore the snails, while smaller species of loach may have trouble dealing with larger snails such as Ramshorns. Others may just ignore them full stop. Clown loaches can also grow pretty big, so make sure you have a suitable tank to house them in the long run.

Chemical treatments- I can give you many reasons why you should only consider these as your last resort, one of them is that they usually do more harm than good. Owners of carefully planted aquariums should definitely avoid chemical snail killers as some brands are so strong they can burn through the leaves! Other chemicals have also been known to effectively strip the water column of dissolved oxygen, leading to problems with oxygen starvation and fish deaths.

A word of warning...

Once you have killed the snails, get them out of the tank ASAP. Dead snails will simply float around and do two things, clog up the filter intake and decompose. The results are usually poor water quality. Unless you have a major infestation of snails and are unable to keep their numbers under control, leave them alone.


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

Nice one. :2thumb:
I'd personally go with the copper dip, simply because of the fact it isnt deadly to fish lol.

Another predator is the Assassin Snail. They eat other snails right out their shell, and are not prolific breeders so don't become a problem at all. :2thumb:

Also, another way of manually removing the snails is by putting a leaf of lettuce / some cucumber in the tank overnight. In the morning it'll be covered in snails, and you just remove it with all the snails on it.

I'd also never recommend the chemical snail killers. There'll be so many rotting snails that your water quality would just go tits up.


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## The Chillinator (Jun 26, 2008)

Esfa said:


> Nice one. :2thumb:
> I'd personally go with the copper dip, simply because of the fact it isnt deadly to fish lol.
> 
> Another predator is the Assassin Snail. They eat other snails right out their shell, and are not prolific breeders so don't become a problem at all. :2thumb:
> ...


Thanks Esfa. :2thumb:

I've been thinking about the assassin snails, I just haven't had much success with them. If anyone has any special snail-removing methods that they'd like to share then I'm all-ears.


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

Pleccy said:


> Thanks Esfa. :2thumb:
> 
> I've been thinking about the assassin snails, I just haven't had much success with them. If anyone has any special snail-removing methods that they'd like to share then I'm all-ears.


I can't make them breed! 
I know of someone who has a few babies every month, but they don't seem to get more prolific than this. 

I'm thinking of getting a group of 20 or something. I just need to win the lottery first. :lol2:


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## rugbystar55 (Aug 11, 2008)

i just read somthing and there about 2£ each so why would you need to win lottery or am i missing somthing ???


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

rugbystar55 said:


> i just read somthing and there about 2£ each so why would you need to win lottery or am i missing somthing ???


It's still £40. :lol2:
I'm poor.


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## rugbystar55 (Aug 11, 2008)

u spent 50£ on fish you have never seen  
these would be cool to watch i think


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## AnythingWithAShell (Apr 14, 2009)

If you want rid of your snails, pick them out and put them in the classifieds! They're easy and cheap to post. Loads of people would want them if the price was right, and you wouldn't need to kill them, or do anything which might harm your fish.

Just make your prices REALLY good and you'll be rid of them. eBay's good too.


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## The Chillinator (Jun 26, 2008)

AnythingWithAShell said:


> If you want rid of your snails, pick them out and put them in the classifieds! They're easy and cheap to post. Loads of people would want them if the price was right, and you wouldn't need to kill them, or do anything which might harm your fish.
> 
> Just make your prices REALLY good and you'll be rid of them. eBay's good too.


The only problem is selling the snails is the last thing that most fishkeepers would think of, still I'll keep that in mind as I have a rather bad infestation of Apple snails which made have made themselves a bit too comfortable.


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## AnythingWithAShell (Apr 14, 2009)

ooh, what colours are the invading apple snails? I would buy some off you if they're not golden ones (already got them )

Seriously though, good luck. I can imagine how frustrating it is when you don't actually want lots of snails! They breed so fast and so much. I got 6 egg clutches in a short time from my ramshorns, 5 of which were from the one snail, cos the other died! Luckily I have space and enough tanks to seperate them so they can do what they want!


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## robster84 (May 5, 2009)

alternatively get a few clown loaches, they love eating snails 

also just upgrade to a cichlid tank, they eat snails. i have no snails in mine :2thumb:


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

robster84 said:


> alternatively get a few clown loaches, they love eating snails


But grow over a foot long and like to be in groups. :Na_Na_Na_Na:


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## Tinx (Jun 5, 2009)

well of our fish had a baby so we had her in a guppy/breeding box. around the same time we also had a cluster of eggs (which i thought were frogspawn :lol2 and theses turned out to be snail eggs.

like you say once they start hatching there's no stopping them so not wantin to kill them, we placed them in with the baby fish until we'd decided what to do....

anyway..........next morning there were around 20 baby snails sat around and on top of the breeding box. we just carried on putting them in there every time we found one.

the baby fish was released last weekend and so were the snails....hubby did that bit.

hope this helps x 

Jac x


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## Mr_Goodbytes (Sep 7, 2008)

tiny snails (i dont know what they are are becoming a problem for me.
Although i could do with some more apple snails to clear up all the left over food and debris in my 9 tank setup :lol2:


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## connor 1213 (Apr 6, 2009)

buy a pleco they eat them


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

connor 1213 said:


> buy a pleco they eat them


^ bullshit ^


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## Trillian (Jul 14, 2008)

Esfa said:


> ^ bullshit ^


Totally...:devil:


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## basketash (Sep 6, 2007)

Esfa said:


> Nice one. :2thumb:
> I'd personally go with the copper dip, simply because of the fact it isnt deadly to fish lol.


 but any invertabrate would die so if you were looking to introduce any sort of shrimp this would be unable to live in the tank. I have apple snails and pest snails in my black piranah tank and i find that they never explode into a problem they just stay slimmed down i dnt know why as the tank is heaveily planted but i the apple snails are very big and i belive they may find smaller pest snails a food source as iv witnessed them eating bits of fish the piranah has left so in my opinion small snails would be sweet picking i have around 8 apple snails of different varietys and find them to be a good finishing touch.


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

Just soak the plants in fresh water overnight.
Most plants are treated with copper anyway when you buy them.


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## Richyroo (Jun 7, 2009)

snails..................:gasp::gasp::gasp::gasp: horrible little fu:censor:ers


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## Trillian (Jul 14, 2008)

I have Zebra Loaches in my main tanks and they keep the snail population under control...: victory:...for the other tanks, I use slices of cucumber which certainly do the job! :whistling2:


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## Reptile-newb (Jul 13, 2009)

I think you missed some of the other potent pest snails (which are also ornamental snails for some wierd reason like most other pest snails), the bladder snails from the genus Physa and the Malaysian Trumpet Snails...


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## The Chillinator (Jun 26, 2008)

Reptile-newb said:


> I think you missed some of the other potent pest snails (which are also ornamental snails for some wierd reason like most other pest snails), the bladder snails from the genus Physa and the Malaysian Trumpet Snails...


I can't seem to edit the article.


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## pool of light (Jul 18, 2009)

*snails*

ive probably come up on the wrong place , being newbie, if so sorry , but ive two golden apple snails in with ct betta , they are mating but no eggs as yet, how ever in my other tank, ive got supposedly twp apple snails, but one is like a tortoishell colour. my prob is these two are beingt attacked by the fish and have lost there antennae or wotever you call them, will these grow back, i have moved them into the ct tank with the other two today...but i need them in the other tank, i have two small gourami , six danios, 4 female bettas in the other tank


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