Pond snails????

[Bethany1979]

I heard these things seem to come out of nowhere, but this is crazy. Two days ago I woke up to about 30 tiny snails in my 5 gallon. I'm assuming they are pong snails. My question is, how to humanely get rid of them? I've been netting them out and putting them in a jar of water, but don't know what to do with them now. Any suggestions?

Thanks!:nilly:

[petluvr]

Freeze and discard them or just squish them against the glass for free fish food:)

[vequalsir]

That's hardcore petluvr...

I fished mine out and donated them to my parent's pond.

[petluvr]

^^LOL...Not really it's what most do believe it or not. I am not for sure that it is a good idea to take them from your tank and release them into the wild.

[KIM_TMA]

I am a big fan of squishing them!
I bought some plants and bleach dipped them but maybe not long enough b/c I got them now.
My mollies see my fingers in the tank and they are right there waiting on that baby to fall off the glass from being squished. They love them.

[DarrylR]

Could always buy some assassin snails if you really don't want them. Or squish, can't buy a loach for that small of a tank.

[petluvr]

Problem is then the assasins start breeding, I vote **SQUISH**:)

[AshK]

They are not harmful and can be seen as beneficial for a tank. They eat left over food, decaying plants(not healthy live ones) and other gunk. Their population is easily kept in check by maintaining your tank properly. I use them as an indicator, meaning if there are a lot of snails, you need to decrease feeding and up gravel vacs.

They are also very interesting to watch. Sometimes they float from the bottom of the tank to the top or visa versa, almost as if they are riding an invisible elevator!

[Bethany1979]

Which is more humane, death by squishing or salting the little buggers? I can't help but feel bad killing them.

[petluvr]

You mean take them out and dump salt on them, or just adding salt to the tank?

[AshK]

Why are you killing them in the first place? I find most people bent on destroying them have received incorrect information on them. They've heard falsified statements such as "they'll eat all your plants" or "zomg they will take over your entire tank and you'll be completely overrun"

If you want to do it humanely and not as hands on as squishing, consider placing a container of water in the freezer until it forms a layer of ice. Break the ice and then drop the snails in the cold cold water.

[Bethany1979]

They are not harmful and can be seen as beneficial for a tank. They eat left over food, decaying plants(not healthy live ones) and other gunk. Their population is easily kept in check by maintaining your tank properly. I use them as an indicator, meaning if there are a lot of snails, you need to decrease feeding and up gravel vacs.

They are also very interesting to watch. Sometimes they float from the bottom of the tank to the top or visa versa, almost as if they are riding an invisible elevator!
That's a bit complicated. I bought a plant from LFS last week (I know this is where they came from) I don't think it's a husbandry issue, the problem is that they are in my fry tank, can't decrease feedings, and if I vacuum the gravel any more often I risk ridding my tank of the bacteria, thus causing my tank to have to cycle again. I already have 1 mystery snail in the tank and she does a pretty good job of cleaning up what the fry don't eat, so I really don't need the pond snails.

[Bethany1979]

You mean take them out and dump salt on them, or just adding salt to the tank?
Take em out and dump salt on em' :devil:

[ChilDawg]

Which sounds more humane? Squishing, definitely. But I personally just make peace with them being there.

[DarrylR]

I agree that pond snails are a nuisance and breed like rabbits. Some people don't like them and some people do. I dislike them for a while now, but today just got some to roam around in my 5.5 gallon tank. My MTS are already spreading like wildfire throughout all my tanks, but I prefer them over MTS. I guess when assassin snails become a more cheap on the market, I will start breeding their future buffet :S.

[blue2fyre]

I have a bunch in my 5 gallon tnk. they aren't hurting anything so I just let them be. I put a lettuce leaf in the tank and night and in the morning their were tons of snails on it. I just moved the leaf to my cichlid tank. But many dispose of them that way by freezing or whatever.

[Lupin]

I'm in love with pond snails. See my tiger loaches over there?:naughty: I don't mind a few of them but certainly not a tank full of them.

[catnipgal]

If you had a larger tank I'd say get some clown loaches. They are eating my pond snails!! :dance::dance:

Otherwise, I squish them against the glass and the fish love the treat!! The fish cant get there fast enough to chow down.

Nips

[stezatois]

I thought i would keep my pond snails til i got over run with them lol. It didnt take long. But then i got my botita striata (sp) (zebra loaches) they go nuts when i scrape the eggs off the leaves and they sink to the bottom of the tank for lunch. They adore the eggs, and enjoy the odd snail too.

[jbradt]

I'm in love with pond snails. See my tiger loaches over there?:naughty: I don't mind a few of them but certainly not a tank full of them.

My dwarf puffers are the same way... a tank full won't be that way for long! :evil_lol:

[murraycod]

I squish....often, but agree with Ash that they're indicative of imbalance. I don't think I overfeed, but they remain. My fear is that they eat fish eggs. Is that so??
Hope you don't mind the post, Molly. Not wanting to steal the thread lol.

[Lupin]

Some fish do eat snail eggs if they find those rather tasty. Some aren't exactly tasty like the apple snail eggs.

[wendamus]

You can also take them to your LFS, some places will take them and sell them as loach treats, or they'll just turn them loose in with their loaches or other aggressive fish.

My housemate has a tank full of large rainbows, leporinus, catfish, etc. I just vacuum my extra pond snails every month or so and put 30 or so in that tank, they get eaten in a day or two.

If you overfeed, they'll eventually reproduce to crazy amounts. Since many of us breed and have good reasons for overfeeding, there's not a great way to regulate except use the extra as feeders.

I don't recommend releasing them into the wild. It's a bad idea to get in the habit of transporting species across state/country boundaries, then releasing them in the wild, you could inadvertently starve out a local species or release a predator on a plant and cause a serious change to the ecosystem that you can't recover later.