Tropical Fish Forums

[Guest]

No tetra is going to appreciate salt in the water, and I wouldn't use it anyway for your purpose. For now, I'd handpick the snails out, as you have no room for more fish, and I'd just watch carefully for signs of parasites.

[chris78corvette]

I seem to have some small snails running around my cichlid tank and don't know what they are or where they come from , I havent added any fish to that tank and its not planted so I wonder where they came from, never seen them before
If they are any danger please advise , if there not dangerous looks like the only thing their doing is eating alge and leftovers , if thats all they do I'm not to concerned about them .
Info appreciated

[Gillaz]

If you haven't added any new stock I'm clueless how you got the snails.

As you pointed out they do it algae and leftovers, and a few snails are OK.

However its when their population increases that problems arise:
1.Their pollution would put a surprisingly large strain on your filter.
2.They cause more waste than they prevent.

I would sugest you keep the population under control. There are loads of methods at doing this including snail killing chemicals(not always a good idea), clown loaches (might not be compatable) or leaving a large amount of leftovers in one place turning the lights off then catching the snails as they move towards it.(it won't work if you have inquisetive fish though!)

Dan

[chris78corvette]

its 97 gal right now I have 2 millinium hang ons ,an ugf system , flu 404 and a xp3 I'm cycling for my other tank , I like lots of filtration I have read on this site about cuccumber bait ill probably try that tonight and see what it does .
I just now thought of something though I did add feeder guppies to it a couple months ago (had to quit adding them they stopped eating them) so that may be where they stowed away at

[honeypoo]

I forgot to mention that my tank is only 10 gals. I have resorted to squishing them on the side of the tank, because I have not been able to find a fish of the proper size for my tank. The reinfestations still occur.

[Froggity]

<-----------(see avatar) Synodontis multipunctatus (Cuckoo Catfish) are great snail eaters.
You won't have enough room for them permanently in your tank, but maybe you already know someone that keeps them who'll let you borrow one of them for a coupla days.

[Huntress]

Actually kuhlis do eat snails. Not big ones mind you but they will eat smaller snails. I had a tank with kuhlis and platies in it and when I first added plants I had an infestation of snails. A few weeks later the gravel looked like a snail bone yard. Although they do not eat MTS because of the special trap door they have to hide behind.
_________________
"Feminae bene moratea historiam raro faciunt"

[pudstah]

I don't mind the odd few snails... and so far I have seen about 3 different types in my tank, which is new (has been cycling for about 3+ weeks with only 1 live plant and a bunch of gravel and rocks).

but today when I was rearranging some rocks I found a few rocks with tiny (about the size of a pea) gelatinous bubbles attached to them that had little white specks inside of them, probably about a dozen little white specks per bubble. are these snail egg pods or something? and when I get a pleco will he like to eat these strange little pods?

also, does anyone know what these little lily pad things floating on the surface of the water are? they multiply like mad in just few days - I skimmed it clean one day just to see how long it would take for them to reappear:

[SherryNE]

Could be snail eggs. Some kinds are pests, so you might try to remove them.
Your floating stuff is duckweed or something very similar..many fish love to eat it, it reproduces like crazy, and people usually love it or hate it for the above reasons.

[pudstah]

hey thanks for the identification. I'm not sure if I like it or hate it or what, but if the fish like it I suppose I do too!

as far as I can tell, I have mainly apple snails or similar species, maybe pond snails - tho just recently I did see a dark coloured cone-shaped one (may be a cerith snail??). there's one in there that looks like it has no shell it all for one reason or another.

something I did notice which is a bit worrying is this very silver, shiny worm like thing that constantly swims near the surface of the water. I don't know if it came in on the plant or what, but it must've because there are no fish in the tank at all. it's far from microsopic, it's about as long as the gel bubbles. as of now it's hanging suspended in my net in the tank but I've no clue as to what it might be... hope it's not a parasite it swims like a sperm!!!!!