# Unexpeected hitchhikers!



## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

So I was looking at my tank today, checking to make sure the plants were thriving, when I noticed not one, but TWO tiny little snails crawling on the glass! They must have been stowaways on the plants that i put in. 

This is going to sound silly but: What do I do with them?? Just leave them be? My tank hasn't completed cycling yet, so will these two little critters critters be ok when the levels spike? Do i need to feed them or something??


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## GAT (Oct 8, 2011)

If you don't want any snail then take them out now before they multiply. Hopefully they are not pond snails. I got bunch of them and I can't seem to get rid of them.


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## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

Uh oh ... I don't know what kind of snails they are, too tiny to tell yet, I had to really squint to confirm that they were actually snails. They seem to a reddish/brownish tinged shell ... eeriely like the pond snail pics i just googled ...

If i'm to be getting rid of them should i get rid of them now or wait till they're a little bigger?? They are so tiny right now once they blend into the gravel they are impossible to find ...


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## GAT (Oct 8, 2011)

Get rid of them now so low chances of them laying new eggs. However, if you are seeing one then good chance there are more.


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## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

Oh boy ... I better go snail hunting then ...


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## OneLastDecree (Nov 13, 2012)

I'm a total beginner; however, through my research I found that you can get rid of snails by placing cucumber shavings in over night. 
The snails will flock to it and you just remove the shavings in the morning. 

If anything; you can also get loaches. Certain loaches eat snails.

Others can verify this. 

Anyways, good luck with the hitchhikers.


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## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

OneLastDecree said:


> I'm a total beginner; however, through my research I found that you can get rid of snails by placing cucumber shavings in over night.
> The snails will flock to it and you just remove the shavings in the morning.
> 
> If anything; you can also get loaches. Certain loaches eat snails.
> ...


Ooooh interesting! I may try the cucumber trick then - removed 3 last night, and this morning found another one merrily climbing up and down my Bacopa leaves!!

Can't get any loaches yet as my tank hasn't finished cycling yet, will have to remove the snails by hand ... it's almost like a clutch of eggs hatched or something and now it's an unexpected infestation lol ...


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## bob123 (Dec 31, 2009)

To remove snails I place a slice of cucumber or sweet potatoe on the bottom of the tank and in the morning they are on the slice which I remove and clean them off and replace the slice. The snails I remove I squeeze the shells and feed to other fish as live food. Good luck.


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

I use those plastic containers you get from a grocery store when you buy bulk olives or salads. 
I poke holes in them from just big enough for the snails. I place food inside as well as a rock to weigh it down. With in minutes they start to enter and can't get out.
It will only work if you don't feed the rest of the tank.
I like to use a few pieces of dry dog food.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

If you keep a planted tank, then sooner or later you'll get snails. Most likely those snails hatched from snail eggs that were attached to your plants.

I've kept a planted tank for two years now and I've learned to just let my snails be. Their population will stabilize over time, and once you get a good plant growth, they will not be very noticeable.

Snails serve several interesting purposes. They help with controlling algae and uneaten food. The Malaysian Trumpet Snail helps aerate a sandy substrate. I've also found that pond snails are extremely resistant to ammonia, having seen them even breed in a cycling tank that had off-the-charts ammonia or nitrite. So they make excellent sources of bioload for cycling a tank.

The key to controlling snails is to control uneaten food. The best way to do that is to get (once your tank is cycled, that is) a colony of cherry shrimps going. You can also add some amano shrimps, it depends on how big your tank is.


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## OneLastDecree (Nov 13, 2012)

All good information; 
I hope you have luck with the snails.


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## Dsharp (Apr 22, 2011)

I had a large amount of snails in my 90gal planted tank.

Got 5 adult botia loaches and in a few weeks i have no snails anymore.

Really neat and good looking fish too.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Another good idea is to get assassin snails. They will eat your snails and they themselves don't multiple like crazy and they also look very nice. I have a few in my tank and no more any kind of other snails and for a year my population did not increase much.


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## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

Thanks for all the good suggestions and advice everyone! I'm going to see how many more snails have popped up by the time i get home from work and make a decision whether to leave them be or remove them then ...


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Fwiw, when you get a new plant, you should rinse it well before you plant it and run the leaves and stems through your fingers. You will be able to feel snail egg masses as slippery little bumps on the leaves or stems. Wear gloves is this is a bit too squicky for you. They will look like clear lumps of gelatine. Ramshorns lay a crescent shape mass that is quite firm, pond snails lay a rounded one that is a little bit softer.

Most of those egg masses can be sort of squeezed off, with your fingers, and go down the drain or be tossed out. If you make a habit of this, you will at least not be adding too many snails to the tank with plants. You'll also find baby snails this way, it can be surprising how many can hide in one little bunch of plants. 

The typical hitchhikers are pond snails, but you will also see small ramshorns and occasionally the MTS, Malyasian Trumpet Snail. The MTS don't usually eat plants, but pond snails and ramshorns may well eat them, so keeping their numbers down helps avoid that.
But it's unlikely you will ever get rid of them all.. they are very successful creatures when it comes to both hiding and reproducing in large numbers and they do perform some useful services, such as eating excess food and cleaning some algae off the glass.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

I have snails in my plant hospital, when I can I take them out and toss them in my 90 gallon which has 4 yoyo botia and no snails at all. Last night my festivum was grabbing them fast which was a nice surprise

Problem with buying a fish that eats snails is that they usually eat shrimp to. So before getting a fish to deal with snails, be sure you actually want that fish for the long term. I love my yoyo's


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## OneLastDecree (Nov 13, 2012)

Good thing I subscribed to this thread. 
Will help in future if I have any issues.


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## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

ppaskova said:


> Another good idea is to get assassin snails. They will eat your snails and they themselves don't multiple like crazy and they also look very nice. I have a few in my tank and no more any kind of other snails and for a year my population did not increase much.


Is that why they are called "assassin" snails?? 



Fishfur said:


> Fwiw, when you get a new plant, you should rinse it well before you plant it and run the leaves and stems through your fingers.


Aaahhh ... me being a complete noob neglected to do the rinsing step! Doh ... i'll know for the future!!



pyrrolin said:


> Problem with buying a fish that eats snails is that they usually eat shrimp to. So before getting a fish to deal with snails, be sure you actually want that fish for the long term. I love my yoyo's


Well i do want to have shrimp in my tank so i guess there won't be any snail-eating fish in there!


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

Just gives you a reason to have another tank!

this is how MTS starts


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Yep, that's why they are called assassin snails.. they assassinate other snails, and other shellfish too. 

And rinsing off plants should be a pretty standard precaution. You can also get other kinds of hitchhikers that are less benign than snails, including such things as predatory insect larvae of a few types, that can and do eat anything they can catch, like small fish and other things. I've had several show up at various times and know at least one fish was eaten by something like that. 

So always rinse well in tap water. Won't hurt the plants, the chlorine doesn't bother them so much for short term exposure, and it's even possible to dip them in various things to kill snail eggs and/or algae if they are badly infested.

Excel is one that does in algae, Potassium permanganate is one that does in snails.. I think Hydrogen peroxide does too, but I'm not certain on that last one. Only issue using dips is that if you mix the dip too strong it may damage or even kill some plants.. if really strong it can kill almost any plant. So you need to be careful if you choose to dip a plant. Even a 10% solution of bleach will kill off most algae, but it won't kill a lot of plants.. just some of them. That's not much help, really, is it ? . There have been some good threads on this topic in the past, here and on other forums.

I know Vals and Java ferns are sensitive to Excel, for sure, at more than the recommended dose, and also to most other dips, so don't dip them. If you have shrimp or other algae eaters, they'll pretty much clean most algae off plants, unless it is hair algae, which most critters won't eat. In fact, snails will eat the algae off plants too, particularly Mystery and Nerite snails. Mystery snails only eat live plants if they are starving, but they love algae and leftover fish food and will happily clean off any plant and the tank walls too. Nerites are safest if you are worried about plant eating.. they just don't eat plants. Nerites also eat the brown algae that tends to get into tubing, if they can reach it.


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## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

Update on the snails situation:

Well, all snails (i believe) in the tank have been removed by hand. Initially I had decided to leave them be, but after discovering that they were chewing up my Bacopa plant (RIP little plant!) I decided that they had to go. Tried the slice of cucumber trick but it didn't attract any snails overnight so i just picked the snails out whenever I saw one. I'm pretty sure I've removed all of them now (thank goodness it's just a small 10g tank lol), but still keeping a close watch. 

I bought and planted a new Cabomba in the tank to replace the Bacopa. Thanks to everyone's advice here, this time I made sure to thoroughly rinse it before planting it in the tank!

Thanks again everyone for chipping in with helpful advice and information


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

I would put a couple of assassin snails in it to be on the safe side.


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## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

ppaskova said:


> I would put a couple of assassin snails in it to be on the safe side.


Well I was planning to eventually add in a mystery snail .... I'm not sure where to find an assassin snail - I'm in the Durham Region and the LFSs here aren't the best in terms of variety


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Exquizique said:


> Well I was planning to eventually add in a mystery snail .... I'm not sure where to find an assassin snail - I'm in the Durham Region and the LFSs here aren't the best in terms of variety


I get my in BA


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

I can almost guarantee that you will see a bunch of new baby snails in a few days. Basically once you get snails, you are stuck with them as a general rule. I bet even my tanks with loaches actually have snails and the fish just keep the population down so low that I don't see them and if I removed the loaches, I would soon see snails again.

I wish you luck


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

pyrrolin said:


> I can almost guarantee that you will see a bunch of new baby snails in a few days. Basically once you get snails, you are stuck with them as a general rule. I bet even my tanks with loaches actually have snails and the fish just keep the population down so low that I don't see them and if I removed the loaches, I would soon see snails again.
> 
> I wish you luck


I had the same situation but when I put baby assassins snails in the tank (about 10) they cleaned up the tank in 1 months and so far I do not have any snails beside assassins (who is grown now)


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## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

Gah ... guess i'll have to check out BA's here to see if they have any assassin snails ... was thinking of putting a loach too, but it's a 10g tank I don't want to overstock it to the point that i can't put fish in it ...


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## Bantario (Apr 10, 2011)

Get some dwarf loaches, its entertaining to watch them play rugby with a snail


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## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

Bantario said:


> Get some dwarf loaches, its entertaining to watch them play rugby with a snail


Can you suggest the name of some dwarf loaches that i can get?  I do love them, just don't want to overstock my tank ...


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

never heard of dwarf loaches, sounds interesting


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## Bantario (Apr 10, 2011)

pyrrolin said:


> never heard of dwarf loaches, sounds interesting


Here's what I have , peaceful and munch on everything, though I don't give them bloodworms...
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/yasuhikotakia-sidthimunki


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## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

Bantario said:


> Here's what I have , peaceful and munch on everything, though I don't give them bloodworms...
> http://www.loaches.com/species-index/yasuhikotakia-sidthimunki


Oooooh they are so neat!! Hmmm ... have to have them in shoals ... do they play well with shrimp, do you know??


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## Bantario (Apr 10, 2011)

Exquizique said:


> Oooooh they are so neat!! Hmmm ... have to have them in shoals ... do they play well with shrimp, do you know??


I have plenty of shrimp in my tank, never seen them bother them


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## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

Bantario said:


> I have plenty of shrimp in my tank, never seen them bother them


Oh that's good to know! There will definitely be shrimp in my tank. How big is your tank? Where did you get your dwarf loaches?


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## Bantario (Apr 10, 2011)

Exquizique said:


> Oh that's good to know! There will definitely be shrimp in my tank. How big is your tank? Where did you get your dwarf loaches?


Tank is 60g and I got them from BA on Kennedy, first and only place I've ever seen them, was looking for them for awhile and they were not cheap 12$ each I think


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

I like them


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## andrewdingemans (Dec 7, 2012)

I live in north east markham an the only successful place I found assassin snails was the big als in Newmarket. I picked up 6 of them for my 20 gal, but the pond snails seem to still be ahead of them.


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## Exquizique (Nov 19, 2012)

andrewdingemans said:


> I live in north east markham an the only successful place I found assassin snails was the big als in Newmarket. I picked up 6 of them for my 20 gal, but the pond snails seem to still be ahead of them.


Oooh that's good to know! Thanks for the heads up  I fished out a largish pond snail just a few days ago, hope it's the last of them ...


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

andrewdingemans said:


> I live in north east markham an the only successful place I found assassin snails was the big als in Newmarket. I picked up 6 of them for my 20 gal, but the pond snails seem to still be ahead of them.


How long ago you have got them ? Give it the time. It takes 3 days for one assassin snail to digest one snail it's size or so. It may take weeks. In my case it took over a month until my baby assassin snails finished all my small snails.


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## Bantario (Apr 10, 2011)

andrewdingemans said:


> I live in north east markham an the only successful place I found assassin snails was the big als in Newmarket. I picked up 6 of them for my 20 gal, but the pond snails seem to still be ahead of them.


Keep in mind that assassin snails will also become nuisance if not kept in check...


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## andrewdingemans (Dec 7, 2012)

one of my cousins had assassin snails and when the smaller snails had a smaller population 2 of the 6 that he had just died off. they're big enough to find and pull out if they reproduce, plus i dont mind them, their shell pattern is pretty nice.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Bantario said:


> Keep in mind that assassin snails will also become nuisance if not kept in check...


Well this is correct but they multiple very slow from the pair of them (and yes you need a pair or better five as it is impossible to identify male and female) you will get 1-3 snails in 3-6 months. I started with 10 of them had 30 in 1-2 years, lost half to planaria and now after 2-3 years probably have over 30 in both of my tanks. Plus when hey multiple and you have overstock you can always sell them on this forum for $0.5 each and people will buy from you very quickly as they sell in LFS $3-4


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## malajulinka (Mar 29, 2008)

Unless you happen to get assassin snails like mine...I had one for months, and he was doing a good job, but anthropomorphist that I am, I was worried that he felt "lonely". So I got him two friends. Now I have >100 assassins in my 30 gallon, of all sizes. It's okay though - they'll eat leftover fish food if there are no snails, and I love watching them crawl around with their little schnozzle waving about! And the orgy seems to have subsided - for the first month or so after adding the "friends" my tank was almost blanketed with their little egg-packets, but now there are just a few here and there. 

Assassins FTW!


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