# For those who have snails ....a couple questions.



## Phish Head (Jul 23, 2019)

So...... I've suddenly got tiny snails in the new tank. Sorry no pics yet. I don't know what kind they are (the cute kind?) They tend to come out at night and crawl on the glass. I've seen one on a submerged Pothos leaf. They're surprisingly fast. 

I don't mind them. If they can survive the ammonia more power to them. Or am I being an idiot and I'm going to wind up with 100s of them? A snail palooza! 

I'm planning on Nerites. They look cool, love algea. But open to suggestions.

Anyone have favorite snails? 

Those Apple/Mystery snails are fun but the tank's too small and they poop way too much. 

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## Old Dog 59 (Nov 11, 2018)

From the sounds of it you have pond snails. The eggs probably came in on a plant and hatched. They are in my opinion pests and should be gotten rid of any way you can. You may just wind up with 1000s of them if you keep them.


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## DaceyJ (Apr 9, 2018)

If they are pond snails and you like them (some keepers do) you can get a snail catcher to scrape any excess off the glass. It's basically a roller that scoops them up if they start getting out of control. It's a pretty cheap and effective item. An assassin snail would also help control high numbers.


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## Phish Head (Jul 23, 2019)

Thanks for the info. Yes the eggs hitchhiked a ride in. At first I was removing the babies but I decided to let two remain to see what happens. 

I'm going to leave the two for now and if I wind up with a major snail fest I can't say I wasn't warned.

Since they climb up on the glass (presumably for air) it's easy to remove them (well so far). 

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## bettatanksalot (Mar 6, 2018)

I was keeping snails to feed my dwarf puffer when he was alive... now he’s gone and I still have snails. I find if you don’t over feed and clean the tank well they won’t reproduce rapidly. They love a dirty tank with lots of food, if you give them that they will reproduce rapidly!


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## Phish Head (Jul 23, 2019)

@bettatanksalot I've heard that before and I think it was from a video with Cory from Aquarium Co-Op 

I seem to remember him saying that snails will self regulate with respect to food abundance so I'm glad to hear your experience bears that out. 






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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Phish Head said:


> @bettatanksalot I've heard that before and I think it was from a video with Cory from Aquarium Co-Op
> 
> I seem to remember him saying that snails will self regulate with respect to food abundance so I'm glad to hear your experience bears that out.
> 
> Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk


Yep, we tell members that all of the time: More food in, more baby snails out. ;-)


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## Phish Head (Jul 23, 2019)

Sounds good; nature doing its thing.

Is there a colorary in there "A watched tank never cycles"?  



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## Phish Head (Jul 23, 2019)

I don't see them anymore and found a dead one on the filter intake.

It's possible the massive ammonia and nitrite spikes killed them off. 

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## bluesamphire (Nov 20, 2018)

I'm currently on a steep learning curve.

1 x 5.5 gallon tank
1 x betta who is a faddy eater and tends to let food sink to the bottom. In fact, I think he bobs about to break the surface tension deliberately, and then doesn't eat anything that is sinking.
zillions of yellow shrimp who vacuum up all the spare food and then produce babies
10 x zilliions of pond snails who are loving the whole situation. They must think it is a holiday resort.
2 x assassin snails who don't eat the baby snails and wait til they have got big enough to be laying eggs before they nab them...

and so the cycle continues.

lol

I am beginning to think that the answer is to move Tagawa (the betta) out, and then do a really strict ration control feeding program.
Meanwhile offloading excess yellow shrimp to local fish stores.

Unfortunately, Tagawa is a devil to feed. He won't eat New Life Spectrum (pellets too big). He won't eat powdered NLS. He won't eat Repashy, or blood worms, and he is hopeless at catching daphnia. He will eat Fluval Bug Bites, but only 2 fragments out of 10.

I stopped feeding the shrimp months ago, and yet they still breed on Tagawa's crumbs.

I can see two berried females jigging about on a crypt as I type. Mocking me with their pre-natal classes. 

Snailwise... I think the Assassins need to get breeding soon. Or I will be importing more.


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## Phish Head (Jul 23, 2019)

So the snails think they're on holiday? Lol what an image - a snail resort.   

And the assassins aren't eating them? Yikes.

I know there are ways to trap snails - try Dr. Google.

Regarding your picky eater who can't eat NLS you could always use a rolling pin to crush the pellets. 

I have a very picky eater who was raised exclusively on daphnia - he didn't know what pellets were. The NLS pellets were too big for him too. He didn't care for them even when crushed. 

What worked - and what he LOVES - are the tiny pellets in Dr. Bassleer's Bio Fish Food. You've probably heard of it in the UK.

I'm feeding Acai (great for color) but Cavar is designed for picky Bettas (and breeding Bettas) I tried this product - Lo and behold it became his GO TO. To my amazement he prefers this stuff to live daphnia - how that's even possible I don't know? 

The cost is similar to NLS (Cavar is a little more) but the protien (from fish) is almost 60% which is double NLS. The pellets are tiny - they float for a bit then slowly sink. My betta also prefers to chase them when they're sinking and he also likes to pick them off the bottom. Nothing is wasted.

I can post the ingredients if you'd like. 

Maybe worth a try - if you have similar results, that would cut the snails off from their all you can eat buffet heh heh. 

Also it's funny your betta won't chase down daphnia? When Rigel AKA Sparky is fasted he enjoys the sport, but now that he's hooked on this Bassleer stuff he's not so interested in hunting - maybe it's making him lazy? Here's his pic the Acai really brought out his color. 











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## Phish Head (Jul 23, 2019)

p.s. sorry just realized your fishy won't even eat crushed NLS. 

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## bluesamphire (Nov 20, 2018)

Thank you! Will try the Basleers. (Off to google it now).


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## bluesamphire (Nov 20, 2018)

And Sarky looks stunning!!!


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## Phish Head (Jul 23, 2019)

It's from a company in Munster, Germany but I'm blanking on the name. You probably have it in your LFS. 

Oh Rachel O'Leary has an awesome YouTube video with an easy and effective DIY snail trap.

It's called "Pest snails in the Aquarium - the good the bad and the ugly". The trap is brilliant! 

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## Phish Head (Jul 23, 2019)

TY. His "real" name is Rigel (like the blue star) but he has a number of nicknames. 

He's a bit skittish I suspect his almost cycled big new tank is going to freak him out. But talk about landing in a resort - if he has any complaints he can contact mgmt LoL. Pardon all the brown moss. :/









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## bluesamphire (Nov 20, 2018)

That tank is great!

Sorry for all the spelling mistakes on Sparky and Bassleer's - was on my phone, and that is always dodgy.
Have ordered some of the food. Funnily enough not readily available here. £30 for 1 oz on Amazon! So I have bought direct from Germany. Should only take a couple of days.
Reached a decision yesterday and also ordered a breeding box, due to arrive tomorrow. I think it is the only way to accurately monitor his eating for a few days until I see exactly what is going on. He has stopped reacting to visual cues (me waving the food tub around) and is spending a lot of time burrowed in the weeds. He has never been a courageous fish! Wondering if he needs* even more* surface cover...


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## Phish Head (Jul 23, 2019)

Oh my hope he's okay. Crazy price on Amazon! Really hope it works out. 

So I discovered the one surviving snail has been busy reproducing. I found egg sacks all over and what I think are tiny baby snails.

So I made Rachel O'Leary's trap and put it in the tank this morning. I know it's hard to tell by the photo, but all you do is cut off the top of a water bottle and invert the top. Before placing vertically in the tank, put some greens in the bottle and fill with water. 

The snails crawl up into the bottle and can't get out - kinda like the Hotel California  

The YouTube video does a better job of explaining than I just did.









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