# Little Pond Snails in the Tank!



## Tabby216 (Feb 20, 2013)

So I just saw about 2 snails a few weeks ago and removed them. Now today I saw 4 and I could only remove out 2. It seems they may be multiplying quick...I also have some green algae growing on the sides of my tank.


I am sort of thinking of keeping them to control the algae but I don't want them to take over my tank. Has anyone owned a pond snail before? If so how do you control the population?


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## bniebetta (Feb 26, 2013)

You control the population by squashing into oblivion or removing every snail you see immediately. I cannot think of any reason at all why you would want to keep a pond snail, they don't help much, produce tons of waste, and multiply like there is no tomorrow. haha


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## Tabby216 (Feb 20, 2013)

hmm I hate feeling their squishy body whenever I take them out >_< 

Should I buy an assassin snail then? also do these snails reproduce fast and are they really helpful in cleaning the tank?


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## bniebetta (Feb 26, 2013)

you yu have a net or a turkey baster? that might help a lot  The very best kind of snail in my opinion would be a freshwater nerite snail. They produce the least waste and eat the most algae, but if you have an existing snail problem and want to use a snail to combat that specifically, assassin snails would be the way to go!


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## Chevko (Nov 15, 2012)

What I did was remove all the adults and then during water changes looked for egg sacs. Found them on Honey, the heater, the filter, the hamster tubes, the cave and individual pieces of gravel in addition to corners of the tank. Haven't seen a single snail baby yet since then.


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## Skyewillow (Dec 28, 2012)

when we had them, we squished adults, and soaked all decor in hot as we could stand water, then wiped off and flushed all egg sacks (they're around here naturally, that's where we got the original group from), I found an egg sack recently on a plant I gathered at the lake, and threw it in the frog tank. free food.


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## Jexx (Feb 2, 2013)

what does a pond snail egg sac look like?


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## Skyewillow (Dec 28, 2012)




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## Jexx (Feb 2, 2013)




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## colorxmexravyne (May 8, 2012)

Jexx said:


> what does a pond snail egg sac look like?





Skyewillow said:


>





Jexx said:


>


I don't know why but I'm laughing so hard at this.

But like everyone else said, take them out immediately. While they're super great at eating decaying plant matter and all that, they breed like rabbits and under any conditions. I purposely kept some around in a 1 gallon bowl that I clean like twice a month. I pay minimal attention to them and they've still multiplied from eight to at least 80.


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## Skyewillow (Dec 28, 2012)

colorxmexravyne said:


> they breed like rabbits


That, my friend, is a LIE! 

Rabbits occasionally say no!

XD


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## cheylillymama (Apr 30, 2013)

Assasin snails, loaches like clown or yoyo if you have space. I keep assassin snails in all my tanks except the 20 gallon where the coaches reside at the moment.


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## Xaltd1 (Dec 9, 2012)

I've found the pond snails having orgies in my filters!!! (I was wondering about the faint sounds of house music & clinking glasses @ 2:00 AM!)

I don't sweat it. I remove what I can, when I can. I find the babies really tough to handle, and I can only get at the egg sacs on the glass. I have a good friend that is a director of the Boston Macological Club (a shell club but they study mollusks, I know, nerd alert). I asked him what to do, and he said to return them to a local pond where they will be food for larger fish (circle of life & so on) BUT I really don't have the time to visit a pond all the time. I'm thinking of just getting a jar w/ a salt solution to drop them in, hoping for a quick death.


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