Can snails carry bacteria?

[Tay690]

Hi there,
I just wanted to clarify this question of mine...i found the answer for land snails but I was wondering for aquarium snails

I heard before that snails cannot carry parasites

Can they carry bacteria?

Reason I'm asking is I feed my clowns Pond Snails & Red Ramshorn snails from time to time

I recently had some Clown Loach casualties (*Sigh*) and I can't really put my finger on what caused it...

I read that land snails can carry salmonella...does the same apply for aquarium snails?

 

[bradlgt21]

As for Salmonella I don't know. I know they can carry eggs on them. Just a example. Someone sells you some of there snails they caught out of there tank. There fish had a outbreak of ich that they did or didn't know about. The eggs from the parasites fall to the ground and get on the snail, now the snail and the water from the tank with parasite eggs arrives at your door, you open bag and watch as you poor them in. The fish are now eating the snails and maybe some parasite eggs which could also fall to the bottom and eventually hatch.

Long story short, breed your own snails for feeding or at least QT them for a short period of time to ensure they are clean. The QT should cure them as inverts can't really get fish diseases they can just have eggs and stuff stuck to them.

 

[excuzzzeme]

In the case of plants with the possibility of snails, I use a mixture of 1 part bleach and 19 parts water. This seems to work on the majority of concerns I have but as far as snails go, yes they can be carriers without being affected by a fish borne illness.

I agree that QT is the only safe method. A QT of 4 weeks (or longer) is advisable.

 

[Michwol42795]

I agree, either breeding your own or QTing for a good amount of time is the best method to assuring they're safe.

 

[RodInCALIFORNIA]

invest in a diatom filter it filters out ich and and other nasty things I have 2 System 1 diatom filters i run once a week for 2 hours on each tank. Been doing this the last 3 yrs and have not had one disease in any of my tanks.

 

[GEV83]

Snails can carry parasites I dont know where you got the info that they cant. Some snails can be carriers of fluke which is transmitted to its new host by consumption.

 

[Lupin]

Flukes are the biggest problem lately and they usually are undetected without a microscope. Doesn't hurt to prazi apple snails but I don't have luck treating nerite snails with prazi. I killed all my nerites with it.:duh:

 

[Tay690]

Well I guess we learn something new every day huh?

Reason I asked this question is because the guy I get my red ramshorn snails from doesn't really keep his snail tank in the best condition (which is understandable for a snail tank you're trying to promote breeding in I guess)

I haven't actually gone and just straight fed one of his snails to my fish after acquiring them...but I got them from him...they're breeding in the guppy tank and I grab them from the guppy tank and feed them to the clown loaches

Soon the guppies will move to the 29g and the snails will have a 15g solely for them and hopefully that should eliminate some of the questions I have when feeding snails

 

[Michwol42795]

Maybe you could QT any new snails and then that way you could make sure any potential disease carrying new snails wouldn't have a chance to be fed to the clowns.

 

[PhaidOut]

As already said, Snails are a known pathogen carrier. I know they can carry parasites and bacteria without having issues themselves. I honestly don't know that quarantine will necessarily fix the issue though. Quarantine does not kill parasites or bacteria without treatments. Most of which will kill snails as well.

What it does in fish is provide a period of time to establish their apparent health. It allows you to treat them if they are sick. I have dealt a LOT with fish disease in the past year. I really became interested when I had some issues.

It's hard to say what killed your Loaches without more info. Clowns are really healthy fish until they are not. Personally, I have given up on feeding live foods with the exception of Baby Brine. In all honesty I have far fewer problems since then.