What to do with snails?

joephys

joephys

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Dec 22, 2005
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I am curious what people do with snails when they start to over run the aquarium. They came in on my plants. I like having some in there, but they reproduce fairly quickly. What do people do control their snail populations? I don't want to just through them out because I don't know what kind they are and don't want to through out a non-native species. Any suggestions? I think that getting a snail eating fish is out of the question since my aquarium is about at capacity.

Also, How many snails are too many? and how much does a dead snail polute the tank? Some times its hard to tell whether they are dead or just sitting there.
 
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I've got quite a population of small snails in my tank. They don't seem to be doing it any harm. Sometimes they will climb up the sides of the tank only to be knocked down by my fish again. If you stop moving and sit really still for a sec you can them all slowly moving.
 
dead snails can foul up water pretty fast, at least bigger ones. if you have never smelt a dead mystery snail, consider yourself very, very lucky. I raise snails for my Puffer. The big ones, i just crush with my fingers and drop the remains in his tank. Guess you could euthanize them LOL
 
Don't crush them with your fingers, I once read an article about a woman who used to do that all the time until one day she got a very small cut from one of the shells. (nothing beyond a knick) She thought nothing of it until her finger, her hand, and then eventually her whole arm swelled up with a horrible infection that required hospitalization.

So, word to the wise: use something other than your finger to crush those guys.
 
Get some apple snails, they seem to make short work of any hitchhikers!
 
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