# Random Snails Appear In My Tank?



## platyfishlover123

I looked in my tank this morning to find several baby snails of some sort crawling along the bottom and a few on the glass. I have no live plants in my 10 gallon just a few fake plants and a cave like decoration. The tank has been running since October fine. Any information on how this could've happened would be greatly appreciated!


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## Boredomb

Have you ever had live plants in this tank? What about the substrate is it used? Maybe from a tank that had plants in it? Same questions about the cave? I only know of snails coming from live plants so has anything in the the tank come in contact with live plants that the snails could have laid eggs on?


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## Irish Dancing Man

I had the same issue once, after a week or so i had literally HUNDREDS of snails. What I did was used Aquarium, it icreases health of fish and inproves healing.(you doing want it in all the time) I put it in the cup my betta came in and put gravel on top so it slowly disolved. The snails were drawn toward it like it was food, and when they get there it kills them. Same way rat poison works.


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## Stoke88

I've also heard of them being attached to fish or in the water from the LFS. Did you dump the water from the LFS in you tank along with the fish? I had this problem once in my 10g. I used something like Rid-O-Snail and it killed off all of the snails without harming anything else.


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## Nubster

I would never use a chemical to kill snails. Snails generally are good for the tank. When they get out of control it can be an eyesore but there are steps to reduce the problem without resorting to chems.


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## platyfishlover123

I have never had any live plants what so ever or have had any contact with live plants just artificial...


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## MinaMinaMina

I've had snail hitchhikers with fish, as someone mentioned. It could be pretty easy to pour in/net in a baby snail with the new fish.


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## Nubster

I wonder if fish could eat snail eggs at the LFS and then deposit them still viable in a new tank.


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## Byron

Snails or snail eggs can arrive on/in any object that has been in another aquarium.

Look upon them as your true friend in your fish tank. Snails perform tasks you never could, getting into tight spots to eat organics and break it down for the bacteria to more easily handle. The Malaysian Livebearing snail is perhaps the best of the small snails, given its burrowing constantly through the substrate. Pond snails and acute bladder snails are two others that are good workers.

As for removing them, if this is for some reason necessary, never but never use chemicals. If any chemical is strong enough to kill a snail, it is not something you want in a tank with fish.

Byron.


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## mileshs95

i would like to get one or two snails for my 20g aquarium. is there anyway to keep the population at one or two snails or will it become a snail "epidemic"?


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## Nubster

You can get Nerite snails. They do not breed in freshwater. 

You could also get a variety such as pond snails and MTS and add an assassin snail or two to the tank and they will keep the population in check by eating other snails. They breed very slowly so they shouldn't over populate and even if you get a handful of them, you can sell them off. They commonly sell for $1-3 each and there are always people looking for them.


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## platyfishlover123

Okay thank you everyone, I think I am just going to keep them in the tank unless they overpopulate the tank.


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## SinCrisis

snail populations can only get as large as the food source in the tank allows. If you have snails that are overpopulated, it means you are overfeeding your fish (usually) or that you have too many decaying organics in your tank, ie dying plants, rotting wood, etc. Additionally, you can sell excess snails to people who use them as live food for their puffers or loaches.


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