Snails!!!?!?!?!

[katie]

I was cleaning up some plant debris and Sparky poop, or what I think is poop today when i noticed that one of the "poops" moved!! Upon further inspection, there are two tiny snails in his cage!! They are about 0.5cm in length and are brown if that helps.. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm not sure if they are parasitic, or even where they came from...I think they may be stowaways that came with the new live plants I bought last week...If anyone knows what is going on Sparky and I would greatly appreciate some help...

 

[kellee]

Unless you want your tank completely overrun by snails, I would suggest getting rid of them. I now have an aquarium full of them, impossible to get rid of. If they've laid eggs you'll have to scrape them out, rather than rinsing them, they're a pain. The snails haven't had any sort of negative effect on my aquarium, but they're are only fish in there. A friend of mine told me they were killer to oxygen though.

 

[katie]

Thanks for the advice.. I took them out immediately

What do their eggs look like by the way...I hope they didn't lay any yet...Do you think they came from the plants?

 

[jennifer]

I have small snails in all my tanks, most of them stowaways. They are harmless scavengers. They don't consume enough oxygen to worry about. I don't know if this will make you feel better, or worse, but those live plants probably also brought in all kinds of microscopic life forms. I really wouldn't worry about it.

 

[dot]

Sounds like common pond snails to me. Just for kicks, I have a breeding colony of them in a fish bowl on my desk. I also have a few in my mudpuppy tank, which is fine, because they eat dead plant matter and if they get large enough, my mudpuppy has the option of eating them. They'd do well if you've got live plants in your tank and are generally harmless, but it is a good idea to keep an eye on populations. With the size you stated, you probably won't be getting eggs for another month or so, which gives you plenty of time to decide whether or not you want to keep them around.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[kellee]

Yeah, my main problem with them is I dislike crushing them, or killing them at all. They practically ARE the filter in the fish tank, they've built a little city in there. Makes cleaning and changing things vveerrrry difficult. They eggs are little clear sacs with bubble like things inside of them, very small, a quarter size...maybe even an eighth of a pinky fingernail...