# Snail problem



## offroadwrangler (Sep 26, 2010)

Ok, i have a 55gallon fish tank and running some tetras and guppise, nothing fancy. One dayi noticed i had this little black snail running around in the tank, i gave it no worries because he wasnt bothering anything it seemed, a week later i noticed the snail had a buddy and i figured i would leave them be because he found a friend to keep him happy. its been about 2 weeks since i saw the 2 of them and i go to feed my fish this morning and all of a sudden i have like 10 other baby snails crawling the walls of my fish tank. where did they come from? are they harmful to my fish? and mainly - WHERE DID THEY COME FROM!!!! - because i didnt buy any snails and i dont want a fish tank populated with hundreds of snails.....thanks in advance for any advice.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

When you get fish from the fish store you can usually see snails in their tanks. Sometimes one gets scooped up (how I got my first one) and ends up in your tank. From there its history. The produce pretty fast and do so asexually. I smash everyone I see. No, they won't hurt your fish. When I smash mine now my fish usually eat the remains. They love it.

They can also have eggs attached to plants that may not be visible. If you buy any live plants.


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## offroadwrangler (Sep 26, 2010)

dang, i was hoping not to have as many as i did - one or 2 is fine by me but man, do they reproduce fast. i need to figure out what kind of fish to add with my guys - i know i am going to need an algea eater soon - but so far my fish have been very happy. its sad, they will come up to the same corner everytime they see me for feeding - and i can even stick a finger in there and a few of them will just continously brush up against me. kinda cool actually


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

Do you have plants? Some snails will do a lot of damage to plants. They won't hurt your fish. Some types of snails are even welcomed by some fish keepers. You can treat for snails but I think that is a last resort as the poison for the snails isn't really very good for fish either and will kill other inverts like shrimp. Usually the problem can be controlled by not overfeeding and squashing the ones you see. Clown loaches eat snails but are not really suitable because they grow too big. Assassin snails eat other snails.


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## Niki7 (Aug 16, 2010)

I get clear egg clumps on my plants and the sides of the tank. Scoop them out when you see this or you will have many many more!!


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## mfgann (Oct 21, 2010)

Time to get a loach or an assassin snail.

Assassin snails eat other snails, and do not reproduce like they do (you have to have a male and a female, they reproduce slowly, and sell well I bet.). You can find them on aquabid or sometimes in the for sale subforum.

Most loaches like to eat snails (AND shrimp, if you have any). Kuhli loaches probably wouldn't make a dent, but many people get yo-yo loaches or something similar to eat up all the snails. Just be sure that your tank would support the size fish they will grow into. As mentioned before some get very big. Especially clown loaches (about 1 foot long). 

Another way to limit snail populations is to be very careful how much you feed. You will often see a snail population explosion because they're eating the leftover food at the bottom of the tank. Once thats gone, the population will often dwindle down to something manageable.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

offroadwrangler said:


> Ok, i have a 55gallon fish tank and running some tetras and guppise, nothing fancy. One dayi noticed i had this little black snail running around in the tank, i gave it no worries because he wasnt bothering anything it seemed, a week later i noticed the snail had a buddy and i figured i would leave them be because he found a friend to keep him happy. its been about 2 weeks since i saw the 2 of them and i go to feed my fish this morning and all of a sudden i have like 10 other baby snails crawling the walls of my fish tank. where did they come from? are they harmful to my fish? and mainly - WHERE DID THEY COME FROM!!!! - because i didnt buy any snails and i dont want a fish tank populated with hundreds of snails.....thanks in advance for any advice.


I always get a snail bloom as you have described in all my new planted tank.

Then a year later there are only a few left.

I guess the fish start eating the eggs and the snails run out of food.

But whatever happens I basically do nothing.

The population is self regulating.

And a couple in the tank are kinda cool, eat the "extra" fish food, the fish poop, and algaes as well.

my .02


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