[digitalgraffiti]

Ok, so, we have been doing cycling/fishless cycling of our tank to get it ready for fishies. AND IT HAS SNAILS. ALREADY. ITS ONLY BEEN 11 DAYS!

I do NOT want to have a snail filled tank, so what can I do to stop this before it starts. we have a blue rock, some driftwood, 5 live plants, and some sand, all from the same store. Is there a way to kill the snails without destroying the tank, or should we dump everything and start over or what? I really don't want to have to deal with a snail infestation once i already have fish, unless there's some kind of fish that will eat these tiny monsters.

Additionally, If the tank has snails, will they get into the filter too? do I have to throw out all of the filter media if i start over, or would be ok?

 

[AquaAurora]

Snails are not a bad thing, they eat dead plant matter and leftover food, they do not harm healthy plants, they also eat some (not all types) of algae. They will not become an 'infestation' unless you feed way too much to your fish, have a lot of dead plants, or monster algae infestation (all of which can be prevented). I have them in all my tanks (pond and ramshorn) and do not mind them at all.
They will get into filter if you don't have a prefilter cover (like a cut piece of sponge on the intake) and will live on leftover food and dead plant matter that gets sucked in. They will not clog the filter, and can be rinsed out easily from filter/media.
If you are very against snails get 1 assassin snail, or you can try a dwarf puffer but they are usually not a community fish (very tiny buy very spunky, they will peck at other fish no matter the size).

 

[digitalgraffiti]

so i dont need to freak out and go all scorched earth on my tank?

thanks for setting my mind at ease!

 

[Bushkill]

The number snails, of pretty much any variety, will be directly reflective of how much you feed and your frequency of water changes. There aren't many animals whose populations will rise and fall in direct proportion to those two factors than snails.

 

[wrm130]

Nope, no worries at all.

Like Aquaaurora said, if you keep a clean tank and don't overfeed, the population will stabilize without being ridiculous.

As suggested an assassin snail (pretty sure passion snail was a typo...?) or several they will keep the population in check. They've never completely wiped out 'pest' snails in my tank but they keep the population much much lower. I also have a theory that they go after the snails eggs first. When I had assassins, I rarely saw egg sacs. Also, if you keep a few, they may possibly breed...which is ok as they are attractive and can easily be sold or traded.

A dwarf puffer is an option as well. They're amazingly cute, interesting and intelligent fish. But IME, they were pretty much all I could keep in a tank...they kept nipping or killing EVERYTHING else.

A third option not yet suggested, would be to introduce some nice looking snails in your tank......the idea is to get them established so they out compete the ugly pond snails for food...some snails you could google are: red/blue ramshorn and various nerite species. The latter are my favorites as they are beautiful and the only critter with a mouth capable of eating spot algae off the glass.

 

[AquaAurora]

haha yeah typo sorry ^^'' ty for correction, assassin snails is what I meant

 

[digitalgraffiti]

strangely there only seems to be 2 of the, so i think we will be ok. if it gets crazy ill try the lettuce thing, and if that wont work ill get one of the assassins

edit:I'd love to get a dwarf puffer, but my husband wants lots of little shoaling fish, so that probably wouldn't work