Sigh hitchhiker

[Hound]

Just sitting here cruising around the web when I notice a black speck on the side of my quaratine tank. Don't think much of it until I realize it has moved a few inches over the last few minutes. Closer look and I seem to have a snail. Must have come in on some anarchis I have in the tank, but only one single snail that I can see. I just hope the anarchis that went into my main tank didn't have any snail eggs on them. In that tank I won't notice them until the start climbing the glass in front. I'd never spot them in the gravel.

 

[Richer]

A snail or two doesn't hurt a tank. Unfortunately, many people think that once a tank has a snail in it, it will forever be plagued by a massive population of snails. This is untrue. A fishkeeper will only experience a snail population explosion if the fishkeeper either neglects cleaning the tank often (ie. good gravel vacuuming), feeds too much, or neglects to clean up leaves that have dropped off of plants (in the case of a planted tank).

I personally keep snails in my 70 gallon planted tank as part of my cleanup crew. Never has the snail population ever exploded, because I keep the amount of excess snail feed down to a minimum.

HTH
-Richer

 

[Hound]

I actually have lost track of him now. I highly doubt my quaratine tanks inhabitants (lemon tetra) bothered it so it's probably on the anarchis again. I actually have a gold mystery snail in my 50g tank, but I put him there on purpose. Not used to getting hitchikers. I just wonder what sort of snail it is.