# Snail invasion - yikes! Advice please!



## loopyviolet (Feb 12, 2017)

First off, I wasn't sure where to post this, but the planted tank forum seemed like the best place. Am open to suggestions in that regard and can post this elsewhere if that would be more appropriate.

OK, so I've had my tank for about two months. There have been various issues, but snails have never been a problem. I've have a nice happy nerite for about a month. Well, two days ago I bought an anacharis at petsmart. It looks great, and my betta took to it immediately. Except that suddenly I'm finding baby snails! I immediately yanked the darn anacharis, but the damage is done because the snails are in there.

So my question. - Is there any hope of catching all the darned things and once again having a snail-free (except for the nerite) tank? Or do I need to just put my betta in a different tank, give my nerite to someone else who has a tank established enough that it won't starve, and empty out my tank completely and start over from scratch? I really don't feel like doing that, but I can. I am planning to get a pair of long tweezers in the next day or two for picking off the baby snails so that I don't need to keep sticking my hand in the tank, plus tweezers will work better than my fingers anyway. Compounding the problem is the fact that I'm going to be on vacation May 1 through 6, so if I don't have the snails under control before I leave, they'll have a whole week to multiply, and after that I imagine there really will be no hope.

It won't kill me to redo the tank, but I sure would rather not have to do that. Advice, please!


----------



## bluebutterfly123 (Feb 23, 2017)

If you have a turkey baster, you can use that to quickly get the snails out with little disturbance to everything else.. 😉

Sent from my SM-N920W8 using Tapatalk


----------



## loopyviolet (Feb 12, 2017)

I do have a dedicated turkey baster - I bought it for this tank and don't use it for anything else. So I'll try that. I am so bummed, partly because I don't feel like dealing with the snails and partly because the anacharis really completed the tank for both my betta and me, plus I know it's a great ammonia fighter. Oh, well, what's life without a bunch of challenges? LOL


----------



## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

What you got are bladder snails.They only eat decaying plants. Some people keep them in their tanks intentionally. They don't reproduce quickly if there is not enough food.




Anyway, you can squash them every time you see them. You can also place a slice or zucchini or lettuce leaf in the tank and remove when they gather to eat it. There is no need to redo the tank. It's not worth it. 
I've gotten pond and bladder snails every now and then, but they have never become a problem. Actually I have one pond snail as a tank mate in my betta tank. The other tank has ramshorn that are the best at cleaning algae. I like them much better than nerite. 


No matter where you get plants from, always treat them before adding in tanks


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

If you're squeamish about squishing you can throw them out in the yard to feed the birds and bugs. Do not flush or otherwise introduce into local water. In California it's against the law.


----------



## loopyviolet (Feb 12, 2017)

OK, thanks, both of you! Now I know that I should treat my plants and will do so going forward. Any particular product you recommend using to do this? I'll put a piece of zucchini in there and see what I harvest, snailwise. I really, really don't like having them in there but guess I'll live with it. I'm not squeamish about squishing but don't want to do that because I don't want to introduce any decaying flesh into the tank. I'll pick them out - on zucchini, with my turkey baster, with tweezers. 

I hate to reintroduce anacharis into the tank, even if it's clean, because it seems like such a perfect hiding place for those little snails. Thoughts?


----------



## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

An airline tubing is a good tool to suck out tiny snails. It's more powerful and you can pin-point targets.


----------



## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Maybe the snails you saw are the end of the problem. I've sworn off getting plants from the plant tank at PetSmart after having the exact experience that you did. I bought anacharis from them, checked it for snails, and rinsed it really well under running tank water, put it in my tank then a week or two later noticed a small snail climbing up my tanks glass. A week after that I noticed another very tiny snail on the anacharis. It's been a month since then and as far as I can tell the tanks bladder snail free. Hopefully yours is also. 

I now get plants in the cups at Petsmart, or I get them in vitro on Amazon.


----------



## loopyviolet (Feb 12, 2017)

I like your strategy.  I haven't noticed any new ones for a few hours. I'll do the zucchini thing tonight and see if that finds any. Maybe I caught the invasion in time!


----------



## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

You can quarantine new plants in an extra tank. There is also a bleach bath method for plants. Dip plants in Water 19 : Bleach 1 solution for a couple of minutes. You can use this method for more hardy plants like Anubias, Amazon Sword and Crypt. 


Snail is much better than hydra IMO. They are hard to get rid of.


----------



## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Rainbo said:


> Maybe the snails you saw are the end of the problem. I've sworn off getting plants from the plant tank at PetSmart after having the exact experience that you did. I bought anacharis from them, checked it for snails, and rinsed it really well under *running tank water*, put it in my tank then a week or two later noticed a small snail climbing up my tanks glass. A week after that I noticed another very tiny snail on the anacharis. It's been a month since then and as far as I can tell the tanks bladder snail free. Hopefully yours is also.
> 
> I now get plants in the cups at Petsmart, or I get them in vitro on Amazon.


Opps!!!! That should have been, running TAP water. LOL


----------



## Fishingforcats (Mar 1, 2017)

This might be a little late but I've heard of fish keeps building snail traps. I'm not sure how effective they are but it might be something to look it to?


----------



## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

If the zucchini doesn't work, a lettuce leave works well, too. The snails will find it. If you put a new leaf in every day, you'll do a lot for minimizing the snail population. Any food or fish waste should be cleaned up quickly because the snails will use it to reproduce more quickly. They don't eat all the poo, but they'll eat undigested bits to keep themselves going.


----------



## Falcon (Jan 9, 2008)

or find some assassin snails to buy.


----------



## loopyviolet (Feb 12, 2017)

Thanks! If I didn't already have a happy nerite, I'd definitely go for an assassin snail asap. However, if I did that, then what would I do with my nerite? He's very cute and active.  My next snail will definitely be an assassin, but that might be a while from now (knock on wood).


----------



## loopyviolet (Feb 12, 2017)

Actually I forgot to do the zucchini last night. No new baby intruder snails this morning. I suspect they're still in there, just hiding. I'll try to remember to do the zucchini or lettuce tonight. Thanks!


----------



## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

Snail babies can be more active at night. I've been getting too many ramshorn babies, so I decided to make surprise visit last night and picked up 12 tiny guys. It was an easy job. They were on leaves and glass. You should make surprise visit too. 


Don't forget to look at filter media next time you do water change. I've heard sometimes tiny snails go into there.


----------



## Falcon (Jan 9, 2008)

I have two SA bottom feeders that eat snails as a staple for their diet. Send them my way


----------



## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

Falcon said:


> I have two SA bottom feeders that eat snails as a staple for their diet. Send them my way


Hahaha. Are you breeding feeder snails for them?


----------



## Falcon (Jan 9, 2008)

I just found that out last night, not yet. I'm thinking about it now


----------



## marabriscoe (Jul 22, 2016)

if you didn't mind the new addition, get an assassin snail. i got one for my pond snail problem and he's almost done munching them away.


----------



## Falcon (Jan 9, 2008)

I discovered I do have two new snails in my tank. Must've pigged backed off the plants I bought two weeks ago.


No big deal for me, they can breed in my 5.5 gallon and I'll transfer them to the 65 gallon. Apparently snails is a staple to my two bottom feeders. You can't keep snails in a cichlid tank, it's basically a death sentence.


Oscars have been known to push a mystery snail upside down and suck the snail out of the shell.


----------



## MapleNeko (Sep 19, 2016)

I got that problem with a bunch of horwort, Got myself quite a few Bladder snails off that sucker and still finding. Atleast its not out of control. I have a dedicated "snail" tank(like a tiny haf gallon "betta" thinger..ew) for any of the little suckers i find, xD ill probably just chuck them in the yard one day but its amusing to have


----------



## Falcon (Jan 9, 2008)

MapleNeko said:


> I got that problem with a bunch of horwort, Got myself quite a few Bladder snails off that sucker and still finding. Atleast its not out of control. I have a dedicated "snail" tank(like a tiny haf gallon "betta" thinger..ew) for any of the little suckers i find, xD ill probably just chuck them in the yard one day but its amusing to have


 Interesting, I bought horn wort two weeks ago. My betta has been happy with the extra cover. I love the fact the leaves are super soft


----------

