How worried are you snail owners?

S

spcjrc

AC Members
Jul 31, 2009
69
0
0
38
I've been reading a lot on my freshwaters snails and I can say I am a fan and I love my 2 apple snails. However i am also worried about the well being and health, not of the snails, but mine. I think most of the snails we buy on our LFS may be cultivated, not wild. But there is the 1% that is wild that is the one that worries me. I stumbled upon info of parasites snails can carry and a lot of them cause horrible diseases. The worst one of them to me is schistosomiasis. Here is some info on this disease:

http://animal.discovery.com/invertebrates/monsters-inside-me/schistosomiasis-schistosoma-mansoni/

I know this data is from a T.V documental but the source is pretty trustworthy and I haven't watched the series yet but they tell me it's very informative and based on facts. I've also searched for more detailed info elsewhere and they pretty much say the same. Anyway, Wikipedia has a great article on it too. My question to you guys is, how worried are you about getting parasites like the schistosomas? Have you heard of people getting sick working on their aquariums that has snails in them? I just want to know your opinions or experiences on diseases snails carry before I turn paranoid and stop doing tank maintenance lol. I also would absolutely hate to get rid of my snails :( so i wanto to make sure there is little to worry about.
 
I'm not worried. Just wash your hands after tank maintenance before you eat :D. I own horses and when we used to take them to the fair there was a rule that you cant eat around your horses cuz you might get E. coli. Seriously, I share apples and popcicles with my horse and have never gotten sick. So things like this don't worry me.
 
It is a consideration a lot of animals are carriers for various diseases however snails most always require a secondary host like a bird to be a problem to man or you have to actually eat them.

That being said I had a terrible allergic reaction this year to something my husband swears it was the fish tank ( I had my hands in it a lot this spring!) but never really found the reason probably me just being an allergic freak.

I agree with what the previous person said just practice good hygiene and don't eat them and you should be fine.
 
Not worried, as long as you practice good hygiene. The other thing is that it should be pretty easy to know whether a snail is captive-bred or wild-caught simply by it's species - eg: All Mystery Snails are going to be captive-bred, all Nerites are going to be wild-caught.
 
Thank you for creeping me out forever.
 
Yikes one more thing to that's gonna get us!:nilly:

About 10 years ago I mysteriously came down with pneumonia...Drs. said it was viral and said there was nothing they could do...my body would fight it or I was not gonna make it. They had no idea how I had gotten it.

A few of the members of my family swore it had to be the fish tanks. (I was running six at the time) and told my husband he should tear them down and get rid of them before I got home....Yeah if he had done he would have ended up in the hospital!!!


But seriously....I think that if you wash your hands and change your shirt if you get it wet after you are done doing maintenance it shouldn't be too big of a threat. And never ever use your mouth to start your gravel cleaner!!! There is a guy I work with that does that and I am just waiting for him to come down with something "funky".
 
i've never worried about anything that my fish or snails could 'do' to me. heck, sometimes i forget to rinse my hands after i've had them in the tanks, lol.
 
BettaFishMommy said:
i've never worried about anything that my fish or snails could 'do' to me. heck, sometimes i forget to rinse my hands after i've had them in the tanks, lol.
Click to expand...
:iagree:

I'm probably more "careless" than others but its never worried me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom