Stowaway Snails: To worry or not to worry...

[Burd]

So, a couple weeks ago I found what I thought was a small pebble on Mikau's floating log. I picked it off and oh-ho! Not a pebble at all. It was a SNAIL. I've never bought or introduced snails into any of my tanks at all, so I'm assuming it hitched a ride on one of my plants.

Today, I check the side of the glass and oh-ho-HO! There's more of them! Two of them sitting there, looking all smug at me. Pfff.



I'm not terribly worried about them unless they start getting out of control... my worry is whether or not these suckers are going to grow any bigger and if they do how they're going to affect my tank's well-being.

Anyone had a similar case or can lend an opinion as to what I should or shouldn't do about these wee lil' guys?

[bettalover2033]

Well IME/O i would keep them in the tank and see how it goes. Also they are kind of nice decor for you tank.

They do populate quite rapidly so be warned. I love that they are huge populators though so thats just me. Also you have nothing to worry about them getting bigger because they look like small pond snails and pond snails dont get any bigger than that that you see in the picture.

As for them escaping: you have nothing to worry about because they will only go that far up just to come right back down. They never leave the tank. Trust me i used to think that they would come out of the tank and roam around, but they wont.

So its all just a choice if you want to keep them or get rid of them. Again IMO i love to see more and more snails appearing all over.

[Burd]

Originally Posted by bettalover2033

Well IME/O i would keep them in the tank and see how it goes. Also they are kind of nice decor for you tank.

They do populate quite rapidly so be warned. I love that they are huge populators though so thats just me. Also you have nothing to worry about them getting bigger because they look like small pond snails and pond snails dont get any bigger than that that you see in the picture.

As for them escaping: you have nothing to worry about because they will only go that far up just to come right back down. They never leave the tank. Trust me i used to think that they would come out of the tank and roam around, but they wont.

So its all just a choice if you want to keep them or get rid of them. Again IMO i love to see more and more snails appearing all over.

I'm not worried about them escaping. I'm worried about them over populating. I don't mind them sticking around in the least as long as they don't poop up my aquarium.

I'd feel terrible just ditching them though. What do you do with unwanted snails? @_@

[YoshesMom]

salt em...if you dont want em other then that seperate them and that will help cut down on the over population

[bettalover2033]

Well there isnt nothing that you can do with unwanted snails besides the most humane way:

Squish them. I would never be able to do that. So what i would do is gather as many of them as you can see and give them to you LPS or (what i am doing currently to my over populated snails) put as many as you can see in a small vase or container to keep them out of the tank.

Make sure that you (DONT RELEASE THEM INTO A NEARBY POND OR LAKE OR OTHER NATIVE WATER BODIES) because just a small thing like this can mess up the ecosystem and balance.

[rhiannon5015]

Do these snails mess with your amonia levels at all?

[bettalover2033]

Originally Posted by rhiannon5015

Do these snails mess with your amonia levels at all?

No. They don't mess with amonia levels

[Teishokue]

yes, snails can surely mess ur tank (only if they die), the can actually b very benificial when alive and very disasterous when dead. separating wont do much either since thses are multisexual/asexual.
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[rhiannon5015]

Originally Posted by bettalover2033

No. They don't mess with amonia levels

I kind of figured that being the size they are, they wouldn't do mess things up the same way one of the bigger varieties would.

[bettalover2033]

Exactly