Ok I have in my tank mystery snails, shrimp, and clams. Somehow, prob when I boght plants from LFS I got infected with pond or pouch snails. I keep pulling them but they keep comming. The thinh is that I checked the plants really good and washed them, I guess I missed some eggs. :swear:
I had that happen one time when I bought some Java Fern. I checked them really good but got the snails anyway. I dont know of any way to treat the plants without harming them to make sure no snails eggs or snails are hitchhiking on them. Does anyone else know of any way to do that?
As long as you keep buying plants, odds are that you'll bring in more snail eggs from time to time. Even thorough washing and treatment may not get rid of them all... as you've found out already. But this is not a big disaster. Just a normal part of fishkeeping.
You can control the population of snails well enough, thank goodnes. Snail overpopulation is directly linked to overfeeding. Never leave any excess food lying around the bottom. Spot feeding certain fish will help too. Then just manually remove the snails you find whenever you're working with the tank.... and this problem is solved.
Those pest snails do serve beneficial purposes in the tank as long as you're willing to accept the fact that they're there and you can learn how to maintain the tank well enough to control them. Snails can't overpopulate a tank unless the fishkeeper keeps feeding them.
I had the same problem. I went out of town for 8 days and only had a friend feed them a little every other day. I came back to almost NO snails left
Limited food = Limited snails
I had the same problem. I went out of town for 8 days and only had a friend feed them a little every other day. I came back to almost NO snails left
Limited food = Limited snails
Snails, unless they are devouring your plants healthy leaves (I said healthy leaves, old dying or dead leaves are fair game for most all of them I think).
I had a reef tank several years ago and from that I learned that having various different kinds of animals in the tank were beneficial. So in my tanks I started adding shrimp and snails. They keep everything cleaned up, and keep the bad stuff like algae and excess little snails (pond snails most people dont like) in check. I dont mind the the pond snails if I get them, as long as nothiong eats my leaves. If I dont do water chagnes frequently enoughthe CO2 gets their shells so think they keel over anyway. If something were to happen I could just turn up the CO2 and kill them all. The shrimp though would suffer too... I agree that food=snails, so lay off the feeding so heavily for a while and they wil naturally die back. Your fish dont have to eat 3 times a day everyday if you feed them right. This often lends to algae and snails. Good luck though if you dont like them. You can control them if you try hard enough and be diligent.
Snails, unless they are devouring your plants healthy leaves (I said healthy leaves, old dying or dead leaves are fair game for most all of them I think).
I had a reef tank several years ago and from that I learned that having various different kinds of animals in the tank were beneficial. So in my tanks I started adding shrimp and snails. They keep everything cleaned up, and keep the bad stuff like algae and excess little snails (pond snails most people dont like) in check. I dont mind the the pond snails if I get them, as long as nothiong eats my leaves. If I dont do water chagnes frequently enoughthe CO2 gets their shells so think they keel over anyway. If something were to happen I could just turn up the CO2 and kill them all. The shrimp though would suffer too... I agree that food=snails, so lay off the feeding so heavily for a while and they wil naturally die back. Your fish dont have to eat 3 times a day everyday if you feed them right. This often lends to algae and snails. Good luck though if you dont like them. You can control them if you try hard enough and be diligent.
