# Are these snails eating my plants?



## atclarkson (Jan 22, 2009)

these are the best pics I could get, they rode in on some plants

They have cove ish shaped shells. I also haves ones that have flat would shells (I think they are ramshorn)

Will they eat my plants? 

I also took a pic of what the damage looks like (and one of my cherries just cuz )


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Looks like physa sp (more commonly referred to as pond snails).

Fish love them if you crush them up, so do shrimp. 

I used to have hundreds in my 75g; the only thing that worked at killing them off in the long term was raising the temperature to 82 F, which seemed to inhibit their rate of proliferation.


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## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

I have some in a 1 gal with some plants they havent touched them so far. If you dont want alot of them though get rid of them.


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## atclarkson (Jan 22, 2009)

haha... getting rid of em.

thanks guys


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

I wouldn't worry about them too much.

I've heard bad things about them in regards to them eating plants - but I now have had some in one of my smaller 20g tanks for a few months now, and my father has like 293754297529075235 of them in his 75g planted tank with no real adverse effects on the plants.

I notice them eating dead and decaying stuff, but I've never seen them munching on healthy plants. I imagine they are pretty hard to get rid of, but you can squish them on the glass (the fish seem to gobble them up then) or just manually remove them if they get out of hand.


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## atclarkson (Jan 22, 2009)

well, do they do anything good for the tank? I'm picking them out and putting them in their 'own' tank (mason jar lol)


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## Katalyst (Jul 29, 2007)

They will nibble on soft decaying plant matter and eat algae off of the plants but the plants themself I have never seen them eat.


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## atclarkson (Jan 22, 2009)

so what might be eating my plants?


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Looks more like your polysperma is hurtin' for some food, light or co2!


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## atclarkson (Jan 22, 2009)

ah....

that might make more sense 

2 w/gallon, no co2 no ferts.... lol


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

What sort of substrate?


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## atclarkson (Jan 22, 2009)

most of it looks good tho, and is growing pretty quickly.
was thinking about getting seachem excel, ???


eco complete black


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

BTW, the hygro doesn't look that bad. It is pretty hardy and will grow in just about any situation.


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## atclarkson (Jan 22, 2009)

thanks lol... most of it looks nicer.

I just didnt want so come home to ravished plants one day lmao


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

I wouldn't worry about it. eco-complete + weekly water changes should be more than enough for the hygro to grow.

You will be throwing out handfuls faster than you know it!


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## atclarkson (Jan 22, 2009)

lol awesome.


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## _Green_ (Dec 30, 2008)

atclarkson said:


> these are the best pics I could get, they rode in on some plants
> 
> They have cove ish shaped shells. I also haves ones that have flat would shells (I think they are ramshorn)
> 
> ...


If you don't mind seeing those snails then they won't be a problem. I don't know what they are, but I'm sure I know how you got them  
I guess I should have warned you but I thought you'd clean the plants before adding them and like I said they aren't a problem. I have no clue where they came from in my tank but they've been in mine nearly 8 months now. Funny thing is now that I have the kribs I see almost no snails. Anyway usually they sift through the substrate during the day and come out after the lights are off, at least that's what my experience has been.

If you want that hygro to really take off, mix up some diy co2, and have your scissors ready haha

If you remember when you were here I had about 5 stems of sunset hygro in the right hand corner of my tank, now I have it spread 75% of the way across the tank.



Chris S said:


> I wouldn't worry about it. eco-complete + weekly water changes should be more than enough for the hygro to grow.
> 
> You will be throwing out handfuls faster than you know it!


No kidding, this stuff grows like wild fire


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## atclarkson (Jan 22, 2009)

LOL green

I knew you had snails, i wasn't worried. I washed those plants real good too.

oh well.


No room for Co2, and I want simple 

got a pic of the sunset hygros? they looked awesome


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## _Green_ (Dec 30, 2008)

atclarkson said:


> LOL green
> 
> I knew you had snails, i wasn't worried. I washed those plants real good too.
> 
> ...


Pics are uploading now, going to start a topic in the journal section, or at least post some pics for now lol All the sunset it loaw right now because I've been cutting the tops off and replanting it as on Sunday's. So I guess that's twice since you were here.


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## _Green_ (Dec 30, 2008)

posted the thread, http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?p=49501#post49501

going to play with my camera and try to get better pictures without the flash on. It's kinda hard to tell but there is sunset hygro from the large piece of driftwood on the right all the way to the other end of the tank.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

How long ago did you add those plants? The reason I ask is that the way the leaves are damaged, they look like they were folded and creased, which will cause the tissue there to necrose. Usually happens in transport when you shove a bunch of stems into a bag. The snails probably just ate the dead/decaying parts.

Once the hygro takes off, like everybody else said, it will be a PITA. I probably have to cut it back every 3 weeks or so in a low tech set up. And that's after it's darkened the whole tank by covering the top.


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## atclarkson (Jan 22, 2009)

ameekplec. said:


> How long ago did you add those plants? The reason I ask is that the way the leaves are damaged, they look like they were folded and creased, which will cause the tissue there to necrose. Usually happens in transport when you shove a bunch of stems into a bag. The snails probably just ate the dead/decaying parts.
> 
> Once the hygro takes off, like everybody else said, it will be a PITA. I probably have to cut it back every 3 weeks or so in a low tech set up. And that's after it's darkened the whole tank by covering the top.


about a week ago i think.... and yeah leaves were folded over, so that very well could be it. weill they grow in or should i snip off the bad leaves?


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Just leave them be. Eventually they will die or fall off and be eaten.


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