Tiny snail in my planted tank... Why ?

[greenhorn]

I saw tiny snails crawling slowly on the surface of my tank. They are so small that if they are not crawling on the tank, I wouldn't have notice them. My tank is new and it is only near to a month. I do not buy any snails and am puzzled how do they develop ? Anybody can enlighten me on this. Don't ask me on the water parameters 'cos I don't have any test kit. I only have some tetra to be my live test kit. I like those snails anyway.

I am new here and have been reading all your archives. They are all very enlightening. Interesting people with fast responses on the replies. I am a newbie on planted tank and fish rearing benefited a lot from all your forums.

Thanks in advance.[]

[Simon]

they r from yr plants... but must have not wash them thoroughly.. better remove the snails.. manually or with the help of fishes like puffer, clown loaches, dwarf cichlids

[greenhorn]

Will my plants wither or die if I do not remove the snails? What kind of adverse effect can happen to the tank residents (i.e. plants and fishes)? Thought of keeping them in the tank.

[Simon]

they r itemed as pest in a planted tank, if u dun remove them soon, yr whole tank will be infested by them... not a pretty sight

[vinz]

Only main adverse effect is aesthetic.

They will not harm your plants. The feed on algae and dead or dying plant material. By feeding on the dead/dying plant material, they help to hasten the decomposition process and the return of nutrients back into your tank eco-system. So actually, they are beneficial.

To keep them or not is up to you. I think most ppl can't stand the sight of them. Some leave them in there to do their job. To keep them in check, you can use loaches, rams, and puffer fish. Puffer fish is very effective, but will start to nip your other fishes once it runs out of snails to eat.

I think a good compromise is to introduce fishes that will eat them. The population is kept in control, yet they are there to do their job.

[juggler]

You can engage the services of Puffers, Feeder shrimps, Clown Loaches, maybe Rams to keep their population in check.

[greenhorn]

Thanks for all your valuable advises. I think I'll get a puffer fish or clown loach. Trying to maintain my tank with small fishes that will not grow too huge in size.

[vinz]

What is size is not too huge? Cos clown loaches can get quite big.

[bclee]

Yah... clown loaches grows big.

Puffer choosy about food... only live or frozen food. They are fin nippers too.

Read more about the fishes before you buy... I lost a few puffers not knowing their requirements.

BC

[vinz]

try reading on other loaches... most will eat snails. try searching www.thekrib.com, rec.aquaria.freshwater and APD.

If you consider rams and are not too fussy about their looks, try local bred rams which are hardier.

[CoryDorus]

I don't feel comfortable having my tank infested with fast breeding snails.

Recently it becomes my past times picking them out with long tongs.

Don't let it go out of hands like mine.[]

[eggz]

Puffers are super efficient snail eaters, but also
dangerous to have around small tetras. In fact mine was a real maniac!

I had a pretty bad snail infestation, within two days of putting the puffer in, almost no snails visible (perhaps they go hide somewhere). But then I started to get dead cardinals and rummys, about 1 a day no sign of sickness or infection, just dead, sometimes with fins eaten. []

Now the puffer is isolated in a breeding box near the surface and guess what, no more dead tetras. I just catch a few snails for him every day. Maybe I'll give him back to Chan []

Thinking of getting some Rams this weekend, where can I get the local bread ones?


eggz

[greenhorn]

Alamak! I just went to get two puffer fishes(I am on leave today) and introduced it into the tank. You mean they will wipe out my tetras ? I have also notice that they don't eat fish food. Chia Lat lah! ** sob sob ** . Should not have acted on impulse. They are very shy when I fish introduced them to the rest, thought it might be alright. Do not know they are a threat to the tetra expensive to keep and a choosy fish.

[bclee]

Can refer to this site for help.

PUFFERNET

BC

[greenhorn]

BC are you interested in adopting my two puffer ? I stay in Tampines and from some of your forum comments, I know that you stay in Bedok right ? Or is it someone else ? I'll meet you at Bedok interchange or something of that kind. Adoption anyone before the puffer suffer an early death?

[bclee]

What species is your puffers? May consider if they are indian puffers (dwarf puffers). But currently feeding mainly pellets leh...

Maybe there are others interested.

BC

[kgoh88]

hey greenhorn,i interested in adopting ur puffer....can??

[sherchoo]

Greenhorn,
I guess if you have the puffer in already, you can juz leave them there till they finish clearing your snails. But keep a close eye on them as they will resort to nipping the tails off your tetras. Juz monitor your tetras, if they start losing the tails, remove the puffer. Anyway, it's not very critical as it won't kill your fishes.

[sherchoo]

Another option is dwarf cichlids e.g. Rams, Apistos etc. They will do they job plus they look good.

[anakin]

Anyway Greenhorn, next time when you buy plants, just check for snails eggs - pretty difficult at times because they have a jelly-like coating to deter any fish from eating up the eggs with white spots (eggs). quite small also. Once you put in the plants, very difficult to eradictae - keep your puffer for at least 1 week even if there isn't any snails beacuse that's how long the eggs will take to hatch. Dun use chem that kills snails too - may proof too much for some fish, esp. catfishes, incl corys.