# Found this a little disturbing



## anasfire23 (Jan 19, 2005)

I went out to my lounge room to look at my 2ft tank for some reason (can't remember why now) and came across this disturbing site. A whole bunch of snails trying to devour a dead 6 week old guppy fry. Needless to say I removed the carcass and as many snails as were still attached to it and disposed of them responsibly (sounds like a condom packet hehe) I was just shocked coz I didn't realise that snails ate live foods like that..well I suppose it wasn't live any more...was more like rotting flesh so putting it that way I can see why they might have found it appealing....the garbage disposals that they are. I am starting to wonder now whether or not they'd have finished off the whole thing if I'd left it in there. It was apparent that one of the fish I have in that tank (probably the male Betta) had already taken a few bites off it. Can't be good for them to eat dead fish.


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## Guest (Jul 6, 2007)

my snails eat everything dead...lol they deff. would have finished it off if you left it in there. every thing except the bones that is..lol


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## Zoe (Feb 26, 2006)

Sure, snails will eat what they come across that is edible. When you don't hunt yourself, nor eat good that grows (ie grass / algae - although some snails do), you have to eat whatever you can find.
I wouldn't be too worried about your betta having taken a few chunks out of him. Dead fish isn't a very good staple food, but a few bites is fine. Meat, you know. Yum.


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## anasfire23 (Jan 19, 2005)

eww gross, glad I'm not a fish. I'm actually just hoping at this point that he wasn't the reason the guppy fry died in the first place. He kind of grew up in that tank (he was removed for 2 weeks and then put back) and I know he had issues with one of the male guppys (has eaten his tail up really severely) but I haven't seen him show any aggression towards the fry and I made sure they were a lot bigger than his mouth so he wouldn't want to eat them before I put them in. I suppose I'll have to wait and see if I lose any more fry and if I do I'll assume he's the culprit and remove him. As for the snails.. that tank is over run by them. I think they are multiplying too...I keep finding these white/clear ovals on the glass that seem to have some kind of internal organs and eye stalks (if you look really closely) but I'm not sure..they could be something completely different. I can't even get my camera to focus on them they are that small. Anyone got any ideas?


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## Zoe (Feb 26, 2006)

The goo in the glass is eggs... looks and feels like a little oval of a gelatine, right? Yeah, those are snail eggs.
There are several ways of getting rid of snails.. but for the most part, you'll never get rid of them 100%. You just have to control the population.

1- manual removal / squishing. When you see them, take them out of the tank, or squish them against the glass (the fish will eat it)

2- trapping. You can take a small tupperware, or an old battery film case, poke some holes in it, stick some rocks and a piece of cucumber in it, close it, and let it sink. The next day there should be a bunch of snails inside. Repeat as needed. You can also just take a piece of cucumber, stick a stainless steel spoon through it, and let it sink.

3- snail eaters. depending the size of your tank, you may find the addition of a snail eater helpful. The two big guys are puffers and goldfish and unfortunately those are likely not suitable to your tank - but loaches may be. A trio if burmese loaches or yoyo loaches is fine in anything over 25 gallons.

4- chemicals. There are some snail-killing products, but I'd advise against using them. Not good for your fish or plants.

5- feeding less. Snails eat mostly excess fish food and waste. I'd say that 95% of fishkeepers overfeed their fish. You can reduce the amount of food you give your fish (feed only what they're eat in 10-20 seconds, twice a day), and that means that less food will go to the snails, and their populations will decline.

6- total eradication. If you REALLY feel you need to get rid of them all, remove your fish and a few buckets of water. Then remove all ornaments, logs, etc, and soak them in hot hot salted water. Rinse the gravel in hot salted water, and dunk the plants in salted water. Even then, you may not get them all.


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## anasfire23 (Jan 19, 2005)

thanks for all those suggestions, I've been removing all the ones I find in my 50g tank and placing them into my fry tank coz I find they keep it alot cleaner than a filter alone. I have no idea where they all came from in the 15g tank they are all in now. it just seems they have had a population explosion when I wasn't looking! I've got to clean out that tank this week sometime anyway so I'll remove as many as I can when I do. 

Thanks Zoe


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## Gump (Aug 2, 2006)

My snails eat the shrimp i feed my preds all the time.


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## Guest (Jul 10, 2007)

EWWWW........i hate seeing dead fish..... i get sick.....


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