# Snail outbreak! Desperately need help!



## DarkSky (Dec 23, 2010)

I had a 3 gal tank: 1 betta fish, 1 bottom feeder (can't remember what it is - some kind of 'sucker fish') and HAD 1 mature snail. I bought the snail and bottom feeder fish to control algae growth which was getting bad at times. 

Worked great. UNTIL...

I noticed one morning a couple VERY small things in the tank. I instantly thought "oh no!! parasites!". But no, it turned out the snail I bought from Pet Smart must have been ready to lay eggs. It sure did.

Those 5-6 snails I noticed over the next few days became 20+. I bought a new 5 gal. tank and moved my betta and sucker fish into that, and no snails. So I thought. I used some of the old water to put into the new tank and there must have been some eggs that went in.

In the 5 gal tank with the 2 fish, I now have about 20 baby snails.

My old 3 gal tank which I kept the large snail in, now has HUNDREDS of snails, and possibly THOUSANDS of more eggs all over the top ready to hatch soon. ACCCCHH! (photos attached)

Is there any small'ish type fish I can put in my 5 gal. tank that will EAT these snails? I have pretty much an endless supply of food for it since my other 3 gal. tank is snail-ONLY right now, and they're breeding like nuts. I don't know what to do! I really dont' want to dump them all down the drain. 

And even in my 5 gal tank now I can see small sacks of eggs stuck to the sides. These things really reach maturity FAST! The snails in that tank are only the size of say... large pieces of cooked barley (that's all I can think of that's the same size).

I only wanted ONE mature snail ! 

The 2nd picture below is the top of my 5gal tank where they tend to stay while the light is on. I turn the light off at night, and notice them on the bottom when I wake up.
The other 3 pictures are all of the 3 gal snail-only tank.
In the last picture, up at the water/air boundary just above the water level - those slimey sacks are all eggs sacks. And the entire width of the top of the water is covered with egg sacks.


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## lybrian1 (Aug 10, 2010)

dont panic, you probably fed too much, just get a loach to eat them up.

do you know what type of snail it was? you can start by giving some away to forum members if they are MTS


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## DarkSky (Dec 23, 2010)

lybrian1 said:


> dont panic, you probably fed too much, just get a loach to eat them up.
> 
> do you know what type of snail it was? you can start by giving some away to forum members if they are MTS


Thanks for the quick reply! I'm not sure what type of snail it was. It's all dark brown, about the size of.. er.. a ping pong ball? A bit smaller actually.

I was reading about loaches, but apparently clown loaches have to be in small schools, and I only have a 5 gal. tank. I read that clown loaches, yoyo loaches, and smaller loaches such as Pakistan or Zebra loaches all like snails.

I also read that dwarf puffer fish LOVE snails, but the same page said the dwarf puffers only grow to the size of a PEA (!!??) which is almost what the size of these snails are at.

I should also mention - my betta is a FEMALE betta (my male tried to make the leap of freedom on my old tank which didn't have a proper lid - 'found him on the floor one morning)

So anything I put in my 5 gal. tank to eat the snails would of course need to be able to live in that amount of space, but also get along with my female betta and bottom feeder. I'm also thinking of stopping the feeding of my bottom feeder (algae chip/wafers) for a couple days to see if he goes back to a better job of cleaning the sides of the tank, in hopes he'll suck up the eggs that are there) ( ? )


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

lybrian1 said:


> dont panic, you probably fed too much, just get a loach to eat them up.


I would not get a Loach. They will get too large for either of your aquariums.



DarkSky said:


> Thanks for the quick reply! I'm not sure what type of snail it was. It's all dark brown, about the size of.. er.. a ping pong ball? A bit smaller actually.


A ping pong is rather large; I doubt you have snails that are that large.

Try to get a good picture of a snail; they may be pond snails, Ramshorn snails, etc. The shells do not look pointed enough to be Malaysian Trumpet Snails.



DarkSky said:


> I was reading about loaches, but apparently clown loaches have to be in small schools, and I only have a 5 gal. tank. I read that clown loaches, yoyo loaches, and smaller loaches such as Pakistan or Zebra loaches all like snails.


See above for my comment on Loaches.



DarkSky said:


> So anything I put in my 5 gal. tank to eat the snails would of course need to be able to live in that amount of space, but also get along with my female betta and bottom feeder. I'm also thinking of stopping the feeding of my bottom feeder (algae chip/wafers) for a couple days to see if he goes back to a better job of cleaning the sides of the tank, in hopes he'll suck up the eggs that are there) ( ? )


I am not sure what "bottom feeder" you have, but if it is a common Pleco, it will outgrow your aquarium.

Really, a 3 and 5 gallon aquarium is not suitable for all but the smallest fish, or a single Betta (shrimp would also work).

As for the snail problem, I would just manually remove as many as possible. If you continuously do it, you will eventually get rid of the snail population.


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## Kajendra (Dec 12, 2010)

lybrian1 said:


> dont panic, you probably fed too much, just get a loach to eat them up.
> 
> do you know what type of snail it was? you can start by giving some away to forum members if they are MTS


I agree, there must be a plentiful supply of food so that these snails would multiply :/ My snails never multiplied like that :/

I agree with DarkBlade, try take a close shot of a snail. Maybe with a ruler beside so we can see the size to :/

I'm sure you could sell off most of them though.

Another thing you could try is Assassin Snails, but then you would have an influx of them too and that would be another problem :/

Darkblade has a point for saying that a 3-5 Gal is not really a viable aquarium size :/

The snails would die off in time after you have no food but manually removing them would make a large dent to the population :/


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

For the 5gal a dwarf puffer (AKA pea puffer) would work. It is said from all my reading up on them earlier this year when I was thinking of getting one is that 3gal is the smallest spacing for them tho 5-5.5gal is more preferred. They are messy eaters so you'll have to keep up with water maintenance (say 20% water change 2 times a week or 10% a day). The dwarf puffers max at 1 inch to some accounts 1.5inches in size. 

As someone else mentioned the assassin snail will also help as well but you'll need a few of them if you have 1000's as you say. Likely you have 100's. 

If you provide a better photo of the large snail we can help ID it for you. If you have a ramhorn snail they are known to breed themselves (hermphrodite AKA both fe/male in one unit) and thier shells resemble a rams horn thus the name. Thier eggs are easy to spot on the glass and sometimes decorations but if it's inside hidden areas of the decoration or under plant leaves where you can't see it well they can stay around till hatching. Warmer the temps the faster the hatching.

When I did to rid my tank of the snails was pluck any visiable snails out first that are large enough. Any babies I just let them live till I can spot them better (like 1mm in size) then when they're on the glass near the top fo the tank I just squish it with my fingers and they die and fall back into the tank and the fish end up eating it along with my shrimps. Just keep squishing them each time to see them and not long you'll wipe out the population. Also using lettuce or zuccihini or cucumber slices (thin) in the water for 1-2 days checking often you can lure snails up there as well. 

Assassin snails will eat a meal then stop eating for a day or two then resume eating the snails from all I've read on that. If you do go the dwarf puffer route put the snails into a cheap bucket or something and throw small piece of lettuce in there every few days so you can breed the snails to feed your puffer. You gotta look long term if you plan on keeping that puffer then wiating til it eats allyour exsisting snails.

If the tank is empty but only housing snails right now there is the 2 cent trick which is dropping 2 cents into the tank. Copper is detrimental to the health of snails and fatal IIRC.

You could also try making escargout (sp) for dinner as well.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

relax!

just cut back on the feeding, and they'll stop multiplying once the food scraps run out.

they look like pond snails to me. I have the same kind in my tanks, which I also got from Petsmart.

You can also crush the snails and feed them to your fish. They love it.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Those look like pond snails - as mentioned: feed less, manually remove. Try feeding only a small amount every two days for a few weeks.

I suspect your bottom feeder, whatever species it is, is too big for your tank - especially with no filtration.


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## DarkSky (Dec 23, 2010)

ps - the tank has filtration (not the snail tank though. I DO have a filter for it but it's not running)

The dwarf puffer sounds like a good route, although once the snail run out I'm not sure what they'd eat. I've read they don't do well on dried food, and I"m not really willing to start storing frozen food.  But they are DARN cute! 



 Then again, maybe I could keep my 3gal 'snail tank' which has been demoted to sitting on the washing machine, as just a food breeding tank for the dwarf puffer.

If I determine I can find food to keep them, I'll try a dwarf puffer. If not I'll just go the route of putting some veggies into a small glass (shot glass or something), lowering it to the bottom each night to attract the snails, then pulling them out each morning.

My 5 gal. tank probably has a good 30-50 in it already (it was only about 5-10 a couple weeks ago).

My bottom feeder is about 3 inches long right now, and yes, soon it will be time for him to return to the store (Petland here in St. Catharines accepts fish back). A larger aquarium is not a possibility unfortunately.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*puffer*

my [uffer has done well adapting to reg food and bloodworms , they do like plants to hide around , they are deff fun to watch expecially when they are on the hunt for a snail ,pretty kewl actually 
good luk 
tom


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Too bad you didn't live close, I'd come over and pick all of them out for you for my pea puffer. XD

What is the betta in now?


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## DarkSky (Dec 23, 2010)

Actually the dwarf puffers don't sound like a viable option, as they apparently do not get along with other fish at ALL (except for a couple). http://www.dwarfpuffers.com/ under "Tankmates"

I don't want it nipping at my betta or bottom feeder. Guess I'll just have to resort to luring them and manual removal


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

The snails you have so many of are pond snails, Physa or Limnaea spp. They are not the offspring of your large snail which is some form of apple snail.

Stop feeding the snail tank and they'll stop breeding. Bettas love these snails. If you crush a few against the glass your betta will eat them and may get the idea of crushing some of the smaller ones herself. At any rate, you've got a very large supply of live food for your betta there.

You are probably overfeeding your pleco, and the snails are rapidly converting those algae wafers into more snails. Beginners often drastically overfeed -- you're in luck that the extra food is being converted into snails instead of rotting and polluting the water. Feed no more than the fish can consume in a few minutes. Unlike warm-blooded creatures like mammals and birds, which burn most of their food to stay warm, fish need very little food, so it's very easy to overfeed them until you get the knack.


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## DarkSky (Dec 23, 2010)

bae said:


> The snails you have so many of are pond snails, Physa or Limnaea spp. They are not the offspring of your large snail which is some form of apple snail.
> 
> Stop feeding the snail tank and they'll stop breeding. Bettas love these snails. If you crush a few against the glass your betta will eat them and may get the idea of crushing some of the smaller ones herself. At any rate, you've got a very large supply of live food for your betta there.
> 
> You are probably overfeeding your pleco, and the snails are rapidly converting those algae wafers into more snails. Beginners often drastically overfeed -- you're in luck that the extra food is being converted into snails instead of rotting and polluting the water. Feed no more than the fish can consume in a few minutes. Unlike warm-blooded creatures like mammals and birds, which burn most of their food to stay warm, fish need very little food, so it's very easy to overfeed them until you get the knack.


Thanks. I feed my bottom feeder about 2 small algae 'chips' (TopFin Algae Thins) a day. It used to be only one - but he also used to be only 1.5" long, and he's now more like 3". (time to return him to the store soon so he can get in a bigger tank).

The snails themselves are hard to squish without just pancaking them into a crunchy/slimy mess, which is mostly shell and falls to the bottom along with the meat of the snail which basically just disintigrates (sp?) into nothing.

Since I can't add a fish that eats them (either tank is too small, or it'll start attacking my other fish) I think luring them with bait and removal is the only option. Then flushing them down the toilet I guess.

I never had this problem until I added that 1 mature snail.


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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

if you don't want to get a new fish you can do this it however will take a few weeks but you can get rid of most of them but not all of them, get one of those tupperware and drill some small holes big enough for the pond snails to get into drop a wafer in there and close the lid and toss it in the tank, put some rocks on top to keep it down, come back in a hour and you'll see lots of snails in the tupperware then you can discard as you wish. The reason I say you can get rid of them is because most likely some has crawed in your filter and most likely lay eggs on your media so unless you bleach everything you are stuck with pond snails forever.


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

woah...adding a new fish is only masking the problem. There's tons of members who would easily take them off your hands. Or like you said, lure them and flush them I guess. A little part of me always feels a little guilty when I wash equipment and live snails go down the drain lol.


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## DarkSky (Dec 23, 2010)

gucci17 said:


> woah...adding a new fish is only masking the problem. There's tons of members who would easily take them off your hands. Or like you said, lure them and flush them I guess. A little part of me always feels a little guilty when I wash equipment and live snails go down the drain lol.


EXACTLY the reason I was trying to use them as food instead  Heheh. I'd gently pinch the ones that I noticed going out in the dirty water in the laundry tub an place them back in the dedicated snail tank.

Unfortunately, driving around snails to people's houses is not feasible  You can get a mature one for like 3 bucks. Of course if someone wants 100-200 of them for a lump sum, it might be worth it.

It's just too bad there's no small fish that would eat them that would get along with my current fish, and be able to live in my tank. I'm tempted to try a dwarf puffer but would hate to see it going after my other 2.


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## Y2KGT (Jul 20, 2009)

gucci17 said:


> woah...adding a new fish is only masking the problem. There's tons of members who would easily take them off your hands. Or like you said, lure them and flush them I guess. A little part of me always feels a little guilty when I wash equipment and live snails go down the drain lol.


I couldn't agree with you more.

And I also don't like flushing or allowing snails to go down the drain. Not only is it a live creature but I also worry about introducing a foreign species into our water/sewer system.

I take all the snails I collect from my tanks and filters and put them into a small cup that I then put into the freezer. Once a week on garbage day I toss them into the garbage.
--
Paul


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 21, 2007)

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but consider assassin snails. They would be perfect for a 5G and they will slowly eat all your snails. It looks like you have one large snail (maybe apple snail ... again didn't read the whole thread) ... but "most likely" the assassin snails would leave the big guy alone and just focus on all the pond snails you have.

Harry


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## DarkSky (Dec 23, 2010)

Harry Muscle said:


> Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but consider assassin snails. They would be perfect for a 5G and they will slowly eat all your snails. It looks like you have one large snail (maybe apple snail ... again didn't read the whole thread) ... but "most likely" the assassin snails would leave the big guy alone and just focus on all the pond snails you have.
> 
> Harry


Someone mentioned that, but it was also said that I'd just have the same problem all over again, except this time with assassin snails


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 21, 2007)

DarkSky said:


> Someone mentioned that, but it was also said that I'd just have the same problem all over again, except this time with assassin snails


They reproduce significantly slower than pond snails. You might have a few dozen after they eat all the snails you got ... and once you're done with them you can sell them ... they go for a few bucks each.

Harry


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## Y2KGT (Jul 20, 2009)

DarkSky said:


> Someone mentioned that, but it was also said that I'd just have the same problem all over again, except this time with assassin snails


Not really because Assasin Snails reproduce much slower than some of the other snails plus you can sell them to other hobbyists. You'd be surprised how much a few of these guys cost.
--
Paul


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