Snail Surprise

No, not for supper. In the fish tank.

We brought home a live plant for our aquarium and noticed later that the teeny little bit of gravel that piggybacked with the plant wasn't gravel. No, it was a snail, and damn near microscopic in size.

Well, that was about a month ago. The snail grew rapidly. He was cute. Kids named him Gary (a la Spongebob). Even though he was still quite small apparently he was ready and willing (and apparently he didn't need any other snail's naughty bits for sex) because a couple of days ago we realized there were many more snails in the tank. Dozens. Probably over 100. They're everywhere.

What to do? I read up about something you can put into the aquarium to kill the snails (I know, poor Gary) but instead I am wondering if certain fish would eat the snails (again, poor Gary) but if we don't do something soon it will be like a horror movie.

They came from Kansas.

Has anyone had to deal with this before?

(The pictures aren't great because the damn things are so small. That flower in the picture is barely 2 inches across.)

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/sweetsubsarahh/snailsonflower.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/sweetsubsarahh/moresnails.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/sweetsubsarahh/fishtankandsnails.jpg

Call the local pet shops and ask if they'd like some captive-bred aquatic snails at .25/ea. Sell them, all except one, and then be happy with your little guy. Girl. It.

Awwww.... cute.... and yummy.

There are aquarium fish which eat baby snails, but they never do so great a job. Find one you like, but don't put it in the snail-filled tank. It will overeat and die on you. Bring the snails to it, rather, in its tank. It seems to me oscars will eat them, but look it up in the books. Oscars eat baby gupps, too. You may find the kids have a really easy time of it, feeding baby fish to other fish. They get right into it, bloodthirsty little creatures as they are. Gary's tank can become the guppy tank, and the big carnivore type can inherit the flower.

If you aren't ready to open another fish tank in the house, then you'll have to scoop all the tiny snails out and try to isolate Gary. Just heave 'em, unless the college needs some baby snails in the biology department someplace. My local college took my gigantic oscars and the 11 inch pleco.

cantdog said:

There are aquarium fish which eat baby snails, but they never do so great a job. Find one you like, but don't put it in the snail-filled tank. It will overeat and die on you. Bring the snails to it, rather, in its tank. It seems to me oscars will eat them, but look it up in the books. Oscars eat baby gupps, too. You may find the kids have a really easy time of it, feeding baby fish to other fish. They get right into it, bloodthirsty little creatures as they are. Gary's tank can become the guppy tank, and the big carnivore type can inherit the flower.

If you aren't ready to open another fish tank in the house, then you'll have to scoop all the tiny snails out and try to isolate Gary. Just heave 'em, unless the college needs some baby snails in the biology department someplace. My local college took my gigantic oscars and the 11 inch pleco.

Click to expand...

Hey cant -

I found something about adding Clown Loaches or Yoyo Loaches. Our tank isn't huge so adding more fish may be a problem, but I'd rather go the natural route instead of adding snail killer chemicals to the water.

You are quite right in that we should bring the snails to the killer snail fish. ROWRRRR.

We lost our giant pleco, did I tell you? It was nearly a foot in length, was a couple of years old, and after a few days of slowing down it died. We buried it in the kitty garden (hey - too big to flush, ok? It was prehistorically creepy. Anyway). Son thought it was appropriate to have the cats chasing the fish in the afterlife.

Laughing at the thought of my bloodthirsty children.

Here's another pic. See all the black specks in the upper right hand corner? Compare to the size of the guppies. Can you stand how many of these little suckers there are?

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/sweetsubsarahh/SNAILS.jpg

You won't like my answer. Wife bought a live plant and got snails. Snail-eater fish would eat her fish as well. Chemicals will kill the fish. Only alternative was to completely empty the aquarium, wash and completely dry all the stuff inside and replace the gravel. The only fortunate thing was that the aquarium was 5 gallons. The fish lived in an ice chest for three days.

Bleach.

blackhaus7 said:

You won't like my answer. Wife bought a live plant and got snails. Snail-eater fish would eat her fish as well. Chemicals will kill the fish. Only alternative was to completely empty the aquarium, wash and completely dry all the stuff inside and replace the gravel. The only fortunate thing was that the aquarium was 5 gallons. The fish lived in an ice chest for three days.

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Well, hell.

You're right, I don't like your answer.

Damn.

http://bestsmileys.com/fish/10.gif

I agree with blackhaus and c_d. Your tank is infested, and snails can really unbalance a tank. Give the fish a vacation spot and start the tank over from scratch.

I lost a tank by introducing live plants (and snails), too. The only safe ways to have live plants in a freshwater tank is to start the tank with live plants and no fish, and build from there, or start up a smaller, secondary tank to build safe environments in (it's always good to have a vacation tank, anyhoo ).

sweetsubsarahh said:

Here's another pic. See all the black specks in the upper right hand corner? Compare to the size of the guppies. Can you stand how many of these little suckers there are?

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/sweetsubsarahh/SNAILS.jpg

Click to expand...

Ewww!

cheerful_deviant said:

Bleach.

Click to expand...

Clever. <nods>

But final-ish for the fish.

Oblimo said:

I agree with blackhaus and c_d. Your tank is infested, and snails can really unbalance a tank. Give the fish a vacation spot and start the tank over from scratch.

I lost a tank by introducing live plants (and snails), too. The only safe ways to have live plants in a freshwater tank is to start the tank with live plants and no fish, and build from there, or start up a smaller, secondary tank to build safe environments in (it's always good to have a vacation tank, anyhoo ).

Click to expand...

That's a great idea.

But damn it, I HATE to clean the fish tank.

It'll keep until this weekend.

Even isoating Gary won't stop him... it.. from making more babies. Snails are hermaphrodites and can do the nasty with themselves.

Stella_Omega said:

Even isoating Gary won't stop him... it.. from making more babies. Snails are hermaphrodites and can do the nasty with themselves.

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Eggsackery. *snort*.

I still say that you should net all the snails out and offer them around pet stores- I know for a fact that aquatic snails down at Delightful Pets right around the block cost 2 dollars a piece. I don't know why anyone would WANT aquatic snails (I had one whenever I had an outdoor goldfish barrel) but hey, why not?

A fine-weave net should be able to sieve them out, and then you can transfer them into a smaller aquarium or fishbowl and tote them to anyone who is interested.