Snails......where do they come from???

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Gulp

Gulp

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Dec 16, 2003
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I go to clean one of the Magnums today and when I took the cover off, there were tiny snails all in the canister. I never had them in the 55 gallon when it was just Gulp......but here they are in the 110.


They had to come from the shrimp pellets I bought for the catfish. That is the only thing that has changed. I have no live plants, and the driftwood was all boiled at least 10 times before it went in the tank. I wanted some large snails (didn't work..), but I have NO desire to have 1000 tiny snails take over the aquarium. :eek: I am just curious where they could have come from......if not the shrimp pellets.


This must be the day of the snail threads. :D :D
 
Leopardess

Leopardess

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Aug 13, 2003
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in situations like yours, snails usually come as eggs in with a new fish. They come freefloating in the water or can even get stuck on the fish. It could even be that with the last time fish was added,it ended up getting sucked into the filter, and having babies. I highly doubt they came in the pellets...theyr'e processed and sit in cans forever. Could they have come from another tank (im a little confused about the 55/110 part) on a syphon or something?

Also the little snails could indeed have come from the mystery snail. I had little snails (lots) that would climb INSIDE the shell of herbie the mystery snail i had.

and as long as you keep the tank clean and don't overfeed, you won't get 1000 snails. You may get a few, but hey, its biodiversity and they're not hurting much.
 
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MelJr

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I had some snails appear in one of my aquariums too. I hadn't added any fish or plants to the aquarium in months. I was wondering about t the food also. They were very small snails with a ramshorn shape.
 
Leopardess

Leopardess

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A lot of times, snails eggs/small snails enter the tank when you first set it up. The eggs take a bit to hatch and when they do they are SUPER tiny. They can take months to grow. Also, when you're not looking for them, they're easy to miss.

Unless you are feeding live foods, there is no possible way that I know of that snails can be introduced through food. Canned foods are processed and kept dry for long periods. Frozen foods are often treated and irradiated..and well...frozen. Snails may be hardy, but they're not that hardy!
 
Gulp

Gulp

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Dec 16, 2003
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Originally posted by Leopardess
in situations like yours, snails usually come as eggs in with a new fish. They come freefloating in the water or can even get stuck on the fish. It could even be that with the last time fish was added,it ended up getting sucked into the filter, and having babies. I highly doubt they came in the pellets...theyr'e processed and sit in cans forever. Could they have come from another tank (im a little confused about the 55/110 part) on a syphon or something?

Also the little snails could indeed have come from the mystery snail. I had little snails (lots) that would climb INSIDE the shell of herbie the mystery snail i had.

and as long as you keep the tank clean and don't overfeed, you won't get 1000 snails. You may get a few, but hey, its biodiversity and they're not hurting much.
Click to expand...
The one fish I added was the lace cat. Maybe something was attached to him. When I added him to the tank, I netted him and did not add any of the water he came in to the tank. Could be something was on his skin though. The only reason I mentioned the food was I remembered many years ago getting a snail outbreak shortly after using the same type of food for corries (sp?). Like you said, it's all processed so I can't see how that would happen.....but it's the one thing I have changed in my aquariums over the past year (other than the cat).

I still don't think it could be the mystery snails though because like I said earlier, they were added to the tank about 24 hours ago, and all of them were removed about 12 hours ago. I know snails grow fast....but 12 hours? :D

As far as the 55/110 goes, I recently moved Gulp to his new home. I did not use any of the old substrate, but did use a few of the old rocks. The problem is I never had a single snail in the 55 gallon before the move. Here is a thread about the whole adventure: http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20097&highlight=intro

I don't think they will be a problem though. I don't overfeed......and gulp apparently doesn't like snails (see my other snail thread). :D

For now, I will go with the "snail eggs attached to catfish" theory and just keep my eyes open for an outbreak.


EDIT: Now that I have seen your most recent reply.....I DID feed Gulp some live fish when he first moved in the tank. I had some goldfish living in the 110 for a while to get the cycle started. Maybe they are the culpret. Now that I have actually used some brain cells......I completely agree it can't be the processed shrimp pellets......and I doubt it was the frozen cubes I have been feeding Gulp. Thanks for the comments. :D
 
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Leopardess

Leopardess

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Aug 13, 2003
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what i was trying to say about the mystery snails is that small snails could have been IN his shell..and came out once they were in your tank. Also, snail eggs could have been on the net you used to put fish in the tank (even if you didn't dump the water in)
 
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