# A Snail APPERARED!!!



## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

Today I was looking through my tank prob 1 hour ago and I seen something moving on the bottom of my tank it look like a normal size pebble.

I got closer and looked at it and it was a freaking snail!!!

How did the snail get in there or how was the snail made in there?

I never heard of this and it kind of freaked me out and me made me laugh lol

Any information and/or explanation would be helpful

Thanks

Chris


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## Guest (Sep 23, 2008)

have any live plants?


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## Sea-Agg2009 (Aug 2, 2008)

Is your gravel new? I've seen gravel dried out over 3 months in texas heat, once water gets put in, tons of snails come out.


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

yes I have two plants one that is kind of sick the other one is doing awsome. I have put in new gravel aprox a month ago it is the natural gravel that you see in the picture of my eel or in my tank pics on the other thread. 

The gravel I cleaned as I was instructed and I am religious on cleaning the tank aprox once a week and doing a 8-10 gallon water change and treating the water before I replace it.



Update: i was just cleaning the tank at 12:15 a.m. lol i was bored and i found another snail a little bit bigger. I stayed there and looked through the tank really good and im positive there are only two snail in there now.

The snails are see through body and the shell is a light brown with some black in there, they look extremely healthy to me but i dont know anything about snails or even if they are good to have and to keep


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## Guest (Sep 23, 2008)

you got it from the plants most likely


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

I didnt know that, do they just appear or is there a process which it has to go through? I never heard or seen it so it startle me a bit.

Are snails good to have and what are their functions?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Snail eggs are a clear goo stuck to plants. Very easy to miss. Some people dip all new plants to kill snail eggs. Pond or ramshorn snails (the most common) will eat uneaten fish food and algae that grows on plants and glass. Some people like them. Snails make decent fish food, too. Some fish will suck the snails out of the shells, others will eat snails if you crush them. If you overfeed or are just unlucky, the snails can multiply like crazy. This causes people to try to genocide the snails. Snail shells can also get in your filter and grind up the impeller and float up into your siphon hose and clog it. 

At this point, you don't have a snail problem, but you do have snails. You will prob. always have snails in that tank now.


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## Plecostomus (Jul 31, 2006)

If you don't know what kind of snails they are, I would recommend getting rid of them to be safe, because a lot of snails can reproduce quickly and eat your live plants. That's what happened in my tank.


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## elvis332 (Dec 29, 2007)

that is the same thing that happend to me it probly came from my plants too..


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

Thanks for the information guys, so what exactly do I do to limit the snail population? i got two small snails and one little bity baby snail.

I clean my tank once a week so all the uneaten food which is not alot or nothing at all is gone and so are all other wastes.

Any suggestions?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

peac_ock eels eat crustaceans. with luck your fish will deal with them for you. You could try crushing a snail and dropping it in front of your fish and see if it eats it.


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## Steve155 (Aug 28, 2007)

Also, i'm pretty sure that empty snail shells left lying at the bottom of the aquarium can polute the water. Sometimes when you buy plants snails are attached, other times just their eggs. i have never been too bothered with them 2bh although at one time they did multiply to literally 1000... i just pulled every one i saw off the glass sides + off plants everday for a week and also bought a loach to feast on them. Tht got their numbers down. =P


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

> empty snail shells left lying at the bottom of the aquarium can polute the water.


 I don't know about pollute, but they can make the water harder, like limestone or crushed coral as they slowly dissolve. My big issue with the shells is the little pieces getting in my filter's impeller. I didn't need a sponge on my intake until I got snails. If you use chemicals to kill the snails, the dead snails will pollute your water and give you an ammonia spike.


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

is there any kind of fish i can put in there to control the snails if my eel doesnt do anything?


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

Suess00 said:


> is there any kind of fish i can put in there to control the snails if my eel doesnt do anything?


Clown Loaches do an excellent job as I found over the last month, but they will eventually get rather large (max out at 8"). I intend to move mine as soon as he eradicates my remaining snail population.


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

8"? What resource are you using, GK? A clown loach's adult size is somewhere more around 14".

I don't recommend or endorse "using" fish for a specific reason (cleanup, snail eradication) if the environment they're "in charge of" is not the appropriate one for them to live out their life in (ex. common plecos in small tanks, loaches for snail eating in small tanks) 

Adult clown loaches require a MINIMUM of 125 gallons, and they are very social fish, meaning they need to live in schools. You could use a fish to decrease the snail population, but completely eradicating them? Nigh impossible. No fish can eat every snail in a burgeoning snail population explosion. (which is what often happens in aquaria) Not to mention that the eggs are often unseen by humans AND fish-thus meaning that even if every snail was eaten, chances are they laid eggs somewhere, and the snails will always come back. 

I simply manually removed snails when I had them in an older tank, and kept up my maintenance. Snails thrive in a dirty tank with lots of muck and leftover food for them to eat. When I kept up my WCs, I hardly saw them.


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

Agree on the clown loach size. That's a big species. Disagree on the tank size they need. They really are fine in a 55 or 75 gallon tank. 125 gallons is far larger than 99% of home aquarists have or can accommodate.

I don't have any problem with "using" a fish for a specific purpose so long as that fish isn't mistreated. If we're talking about putting a clown in a 10g, that's not right. If it is a 75 as in this cases, clowns are fine, IMO.


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## Manthalynn (Aug 23, 2008)

Chris, I purchased a clump of Java Fern and something else from my LFS and a couple days later discovered I had a handful of TINY snails. I was NOT happy about this because I work in the horticulture industry in California and snail-free is a BIG issue. Granted, that's for terestrial snails.

I'm sort of in the same boat as you, do I want to try to find all of them and clean them out? Or do I just ignore them and risk a population explosion? I feel like they've gotten bigger in the last 3 weeks that I had them. Does anyone here think it's possible for snails to double in size (from 2mm to 4mm) in 3 weeks? I don't always trust my spatial visualization...


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Yes, snails can grow surprisingly fast.


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

COM-you see nothing wrong with keeping a 14"+ fish in a 13" wide tank? Just because a proper size tank is difficult for most to get doesn't mean the fish should have to live in a smaller one--the owner should do their research before deciding to go with that species.


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

well first off calm down Julie its just a discussion and everyone has their own opinion.

I have done alot of research the last couple of days and figured out i got snails in my tank because I did not clean my plants after I bought them which was my mistake because the plants probably had snail eggs on them.

Left over food is not a problem i feed one medium sized frozen bloodworm cube to my 2inch eel and the pleco takes care of the rest of the left overs, and my tank is extremely clean.

So Julie why do you think there are different types of fish?

In my view there are different types of fish becasue each fish has a certain function in the animal kingdom and each fish balances each other out and perfom a certain task.

Pleco cleans your tank or why else do most people buy them?
Clown loaches or even dwarf chain loaches help people out with a snail problem its just a plus that they get the same as with the Pleco

The list goes on and on

Like Julie said though proper research is needed to take care of fish that you purchase and I totally agree with her on that and the research that I did would have allowed the Clown Loach to fit in my tank quit well

The fish that I am going with though is the Dwarf Chain Loach for their smaller size (max size 3-4 inches) and they look pretty awsome at that and the plus is they will take care of my snail problem.

Yes I do know that the Dwarf Chain Loach do best in schools of 5 or more and that is why im going to buy 5-7 of them next month.

Manthalynn yes my snails looked like they double or even tripled in size since I posted this and the number is up to 5-7 of them with a couple of tiny little babies.

My question is: Is it normal for snails to be on top of each other while they are moving for a long period of time? No joke its a serious question I have observed this the last couple of days from the bigger snails that I have 

Any suggestions on what fish that I should get or any answers to my questions or comments of my opinions feel free. lol and remember its just a forum discussion

Thanks 

Chris


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

Hey, hey, didn't mean to start a big debate.

If you read what I wrote carefully, _I said I don't recommend or endorse "using" fish for a specific reason (cleanup, snail eradication) *if the environment they're "in charge of" is not the appropriate one for them to live out their life in (ex. common plecos in small tanks, loaches for snail eating in small tanks)*_


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

Sorry that I took that the wrong way and I agree with you of people placing the wrong fish in too small of an tank and am ifhy on placing them in the minimum required tank.

I will not buy a clown loach I dont have the space for it and will probably buy Kuhli loach or polka dot loach which will keep the snail population in check.

I wish they snails would not reproduce in such an aggresive manner because I do like having them around and they make a nice addition to my tank.

Sorry Julie again for the confusion

Chris


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

I see a lot wrong with keeping a 14" fish in a 12 or 13" tank. However most clown loaches don't get that big... again, the effect of generation upon generation of hobby breeding. We as humans also have that wonderful option of moving fish when they are outgrowing their environment.

As for snails in the OP, I've never had a problem with them. I think they are slimy and gross (Calvin and Hobbes fans - GROSS) but I have only ever found one in a tank (one week ago) and it has never been a problem for me.


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## Plecostomus (Jul 31, 2006)

I don't know if Kuhli loaches will get rid of your snails. I have four, and I had so many snails eating my plants that I had to remove them by hand. The Kuhli loaches I would say ate about one or two snails each week judging on the amount of empty snail shells that I saw.


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

I was thinking about getting some Kuhli loaches and was wandering if they would do good with my Peac_ock eel


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## Guest (Oct 6, 2008)

Suess00 said:


> My question is: Is it normal for snails to be on top of each other while they are moving for a long period of time? No joke its a serious question I have observed this the last couple of days from the bigger snails that I have


Happens all the time. They're probably getting ready to mate and increase your snail issue.

I don't know why people have such a problem with snails. IMO, they're part of an ecosystem and really get out of hand when you're tank is in a mess. However, you can encourage a large amount of snails without being a lazy fishkeeper. In our little recreations of an ecosystem, we often _don't_ have the natural predators of snails, which is why we end up getting them later on or resorting to chemical use to eradicate them. Heck, snails are cute IMO 

Anyway, not everyone feels that way. I think I've suggested the dwarf chain loaches to you in chat along with another member. They're just as cute as snails :lol:


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

I cant find Dwarf Chain Loahches anywhere. Not at Petsmart, Petco or 4 LFS. Today I bought some Kuhli Loaches they are quit small but seem to be getting along with my eel and my pleco. 

Im gonna start taking the snails out because they are eating my plants and one of my plants I most likely have to throw away and replace it because of them.


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