# Pond Snails!!!



## Kiwimommy (May 4, 2011)

A worker at the petstore gave me 5 pond snails recently for free..and I figured why not, I'll toss them in the tanks..
So one betta has 2 snails and the other has 3..
Well..
The one with only 2 snails is egg-free and his snails are quite cute!
...
The other one, however..:shock: I noticed last night at least 5 egg clusters...
and today I removed at least 15..
Some crazy snail is going on a breeding spree!

If I remove the eggs when I notice them and stick them in a vase..
Should the tank remain baby-free? I'll be checking daily, so I don't see how they'd manage to hide eggs from me. They were all on the sides of the tank.
I'll probably see if my bettas will eat the pond snail babies.. I don't need to be overrun by them and I'd rather they be eaten and provide nutrition as opposed to being flushed or something..
But I'll be "raising" the babies in a water filled vase instead of in my tank.


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

I am a big common snail fan....but these little guys can get out of hand pretty fast especially if you overfeed and have left over food in the tank...more food=more snails.....so limit food for them by removing any uneaten food ASAP....look and remove the egg clusters as you are doing already and destroy and depose of properly.....

PLEASE....DON'T...flush or release into the environment......in some states it is illegal and even if it's not....you can hurt our ecosystem by their release...even if they are native creatures that was collected from local waters....they have now been contaminated/exposed to tropical pathogens that our environment has no immunity to and if not native to the area they can have a negative impact on native species and out compete them....

Proper disposal is important for our ecosystem....destroy them by crushing in newspaper and throwing them in the trash, burning, bury.......sorry...I will get off my soap box now......but this is really important for all of us.......


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## Kiwimommy (May 4, 2011)

I won't be releasing them  Worse comes to worse I'll set up a little 1gal tank and let them go crazy on their own.
But will my bettas eat them if I feed them to the fish?
And how long does it take the eggs to hatch?


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

Honestly I never paid much attention to the time line of common snail egg hatching.....I wouldn't think very long..a week maybe...but not 100% on that....my Bettas eat common snail when I crush them in the tank...they go nuts for them...lol....I thought about using some in my homemade fish food....I remove 100's at a time.....lol......but that would be a lot of work.....removing the meat from the shells.......I am sure they eat some of the newly hatched snail with soft shells.....


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