Snail Problem

Hi Fishcake,
Could you not just get a couple of assassin snails. They'll get rid of your snails without affecting anything in the tank I think. I just caught a couple of baby snails in my shrimpery. I put them in my Betta tank as there's an assassin snail in there, but Barquentine beat him to it, went for the new snails immediately and now they're just empty shells.
 

Problem with that is I have some snails I don't want to get rid of. Wouldn't assassins kill all my snails?

I'm planning to sell the MTS's and kill the pond snails, just want to know the best way to make sure my plants are free of baby pond snails.

Sue, I will check with eSHa before I buy any Gastropex.

FC76

I wouldn't like to use any snail killer in a tank where you want to be able to keep some snails. I last used the intestinal worm killer almost 2 months ago and I killed a snail a couple of weeks ago by putting in back in the tank too soon. Any of the chemical that isn't completely removed could kill the snails you want. I ran carbon (several batches) for a week, then polyfilter for several days and my snail still died. I assume the chemical had got into the algae which the snail ate, and no amount of carbon or polyfilter could remove it from there.

What snails do you want to keep? My assassins have done a great job keeping my pond snails at a minimum and seem happy enough leaving my three nerites and devil snail alone. From my experience they seem to target the smaller snails in the tank. As snails go, assassins are quite attractive and they rove around like little daleks at night and bury themselves in the day.

I avoid chemicals as much as possible as anything that kills something (be it bacteria, parasites, snails), is likely to have unwanted effects elsewhere in the tank. You also need to dose again if the problem comes back. My pond snail population is tiny now, which is due to reduced feeding and the introduction of other snails (the assassins eat the pond snails and the nerites eat their food source).

I would thoroughly recommend assassin snails as a solution to the problem, and if you find they're eating the snails you want to keep, just throw them in the other tank!

I think that's a wise choice. Just as a word of warning, don't be surprised if the little blighters do nothing for the first few days or disappear into your substrate not to be seen for days on end. Once they settle in they are snail eating machines! Your biggest worry will be how to get all the empty shells out of your tank!

8 assassins will have the tank clear in no time! I have 3 and don't have a pond snail in sight! They leave my nerites and Sulawesi snail well alone, though with more in the tank they may 'gang up' on your other snails. I've never seen it with my assassins, but read a couple of forums where people stated they had seen it happen. Give them a couple of days and I'm sure there won't be too many small snails left!

When I bought my first live plants (which seems many weeks ago now) I ended up with a tiny baby snail, thought he was cute so left him.
Then I read here and other sites about what a problem snails can be so a couple of weeks later when he reappeared I fished him out and into the garden he went.

When I got more plants recently I put on my glasses and went over every single plants carefully and rinsed thoroughly.
Last week, sitting in front of me on my glass, was another baby snail so out he went too. Doubtful if he was from the original purchase as the tank has been emptied a few times since then

Do Nerite snails produce viable eggs if there is just one snail?  I was going to buy one when I got the fish this week but got the impression that it wasn't a good idea if I didn't want to be over run with them.

Glad your problems are under control Fishcake, albeit a bit enthusiastically 

Brilliant. Thanks Sue

I've just been saying to the other half, as you do  , I was thinking - when we go to the not so LFS, it might be an idea to collect another couple of salt and peppers (I only have two and it should be 4 for their comfort) and then I could put them in the quarantine tank ready for when the big tank is cycled . Ho hum!!

He said "I thought you were going for more food"
Umm yes but it would be silly to do all that extra journey for a bit of food we might as well pick up the fish too and now a snail! 

Think I'd better leave that  bit until we're in the shop. 

Hi Sanjo,

Baby snails are incredibly sweet aren't they? I set up a cold water tank just for my bladder snails (not the same as pond snails as they have perfectly smooth shells and no spirals) when I first found them in my tank but once I'd reached about 20 and run out of ideas for naming them (yes, really!)I gave that up as a bad job and bunged 'em back in my tank. Now I have none left due to various treatments killing them off I think! I do however have hundreds of pond snails and MTS.

Are you sure your snail was a nerite?

The ones that come in on plants are usually pond snails and they breed like billio!! You may well have had eggs on your plants which are now hatching. Putting them in the garden will kill them as they cannot survive out of water, so it's probably kinder to squish them and let your fish eat them. My cories do a good job of eating squished snails but now I have the assassins I doubt I'll have to squish any more.

This website shows you some of the nerites that are available and I agree with Cod, ebay is the best place to buy. MA will be expensive.

http://www.planetinverts.com/snail_species.html

FC76

I didn't think about its survival to be honest which was wrong of me.

Yes. There is, however, a more important point raised, you did not think about the survival of other creatures in the environment either. The snail may have been a carrier of dread doomsday diseases; Or it may predate on some crucial organism in our local ecology, kittens for example!

Not every non-native species released into the wild becomes a pest, but the risk is real. So, unless you want the kitten protection league on your case please take care!