Perhaps this is a weird question... but I have a snail problem, and not the usual kind.
I have regular ol' pond snails in all of my tanks, and I don't mind them a bit. The population hasn't exploded and they're actually kind of cute. My problem is that I almost always get a bunch in the water change bucket when I gravel-vac and I really, really don't want to flush them. (I'm okay with my turtle eating them because that's a natural thing, but death by flushing is not.)
So far, I've been letting the bucket sit for a few minutes so that they have a chance to latch on to the sides. I scoop out the ones I can see and put them back in the tank, then I try to pour the bucket out gently so the snails can hang on and I can scoop out the rest. I know that I can't save them all, but I would feel terrible if I didn't even try. This process is time-consuming and tedious, though, and I'd love to find a better one.
Is there anyone else who has this problem and DOESN'T want to flush the poor little things? What do you do?
I have regular ol' pond snails in all of my tanks, and I don't mind them a bit. The population hasn't exploded and they're actually kind of cute. My problem is that I almost always get a bunch in the water change bucket when I gravel-vac and I really, really don't want to flush them. (I'm okay with my turtle eating them because that's a natural thing, but death by flushing is not.)
So far, I've been letting the bucket sit for a few minutes so that they have a chance to latch on to the sides. I scoop out the ones I can see and put them back in the tank, then I try to pour the bucket out gently so the snails can hang on and I can scoop out the rest. I know that I can't save them all, but I would feel terrible if I didn't even try. This process is time-consuming and tedious, though, and I'd love to find a better one.
Is there anyone else who has this problem and DOESN'T want to flush the poor little things? What do you do?