FishProfiles.com Message Forums

I had that problem a year ago. I have had trouble putting live plants in with my blind cave tetras as they annihilate them, but the first time I tried it, a few weeks later I was overrun with snails! It was fun for a while, as they were keeping things clean for me, but obviously weren't that aesthetically pleasing.

I bought live plants and ended up with a little snail. I only see him about once every week or two. fortunately, though, I haven't seen any new ones

A Dojo Loach also works well to rid of the snails! Plus they are really funny to watch swim and eat!

We had snails on the latest sets of plants, but as we have clown loaches they were gone by the next morning. (

We were left with very happy looking loaches as a result too - they spent days searching for more!)

Usually snails are considered as pests when they are unwanted. If you've seen 4 snails, you've got 40 & in a few days time you'll have 400.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Hi,
I have a salt water tank. Last Yr. I got some Nassarious snails ( 50 ) now I have so many I have been selling them in droves. It is wonderful for me !!!

A good solution if you want to deal with the snails is a small loach called the Pigmy Chain Loach, Botia sidthimunki. Stays small unlike a Clown Loach (PCLs only reach 8 cm), eats snails, looks very attractive, is peaceful and has a perky disposition. I've posted on this several times in Bottom Feeder Frenzy now

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

you should just leave them in there.

u cant boil the live blants but u can remove them by:
1)bleach solution (i mean its bleach ,DUH...)
2)pottasium permenganate (kind of purplely powder)


SOON ill get the info on how much grams or ml shuold be put in a quarantine tank or any other container but not the main fish tank . these live plants should be dipped like some time not a whole day. ill get the info about that later too. sorry...

I have 3 different species in 3 separate tanks, and they dont do any harm.

Do the ones you have look like itty bitty ramshorn snails? if so, i have those and they are harmless, and they dont breed that fast. They are actually kinda cute!

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

That's got to be it, Fallout, will try the lettuce leaf (organic no chemicals) tonight and hall the little blighters out. It's just amazing, it seemed they appeared from thin air!! Thanks for all the storys and suggestions guys!!

Cheers

About 2 months ago I purchased a brand new tank, brand new gravel brand new EVERYTHING (housing 4 Angels) and out of no where months later i have 3 or 4 tiny bizzare looking flat shelled snails - has any one had a similar experience?? Where do they come from?? I'm baffled!!!

Cheers

As will yoyo loaches and a whole host of fish.

Maybe your fish ate a few eggs beforehand and it came out in feces, you never know. If you wish to get rid of them, a copper treatment will help if you don't get other fishies that eat 'em up You can also bait them with a piece of blanched lettuce or cucumber overnight and just take them out physically if adding chemicals is not your intent.

First of all, that board nickname miist be a pig to type when logging in ...

Second, snails can come in on all sorts of things. Plants are a favourite culprit, because you can't boil live plants to destroy the snails beforehand - not unless you want to waste your money But they'll come in on rocks from other people's aquaria, bogwood pieces, all sorts of sources.

Three, removing them will be fun. I'm in the middle of a snail infestation of my own, and I'm looking forward to a few hours meticulously picking the visible adults snails out before beginning some copper sulphate dosing. Unless of course I can find someone with a juvenile Clown Loach I can borrow!

Oh, and Clown Loaches aren't the only fish that will devour snails. Freshwater puffers (Tetraodon species) will demolish them ravenously too.



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

aha ive just remembered that the eggs of these snails are like in a TRANSPARENT HEAVY LIKE JELLY SUBSTANCE with tiny white dots in it . remember that snails dont have SEXES,they are hermaphrodite. i removed my rocks plastic plants and put them in XTREMLY hot water and then i removed my substrate and put sand instead of rocks,and no more snails....

I've read that Clown Loaches will goble these little guys right up.

LOL !!!!!!!!!!
i had the same problem , same flat shelled small snails !!
when i first bought some live plants .after some time , 6 weeks maybe .. they started to come out crawling like PESTS they are pests!! i removed them with no snail control solution !!!

My guess would be from the water from your LFS.



Dan

Did you dump the water from the LFS in your tank?

No sorry - I forgot to mention I have a fake plant (bought new)!!! It is located on my kitchen bench no where near any other plants and no other fish have have been placed in from another tank. The only other think I could think of is if there were eggs or something in the water when bringing the fish home from the lfs - but if that was the case then does it usually take months for them to hatch?? -Still Baffled!!!