Snails have taken over my tank. PICS

[GoneFishin]

I've, unintentionally, had these little critters in a tank for quite a while. I've tried to control them with zero luck. I'm finally to the point that I'm just going to tear the whole tank down and start over.

My question lies with moving fish. I have a few Mbuna, few Petricolas, and a couple bristlenose that I'd like to put in another established tank full of Mbuna. Is there anyway that these snails/babies could get transferred to the other tank with the fish?


A couple close ups:

A mix of live and dead shells on the substrate.

 

[Fishman1995]

If you just check the bag/container you transfer them in for snails and make sure there are none in there than they wont get in there

 

[breebrry]

i'm not positive about this but i am pretty sure just moving the fish would be ok... if you use the substrate you will probably have this problem continue.. these snails reproduce asexually which means they don't need a mate and so each of those buggers can multiply and so on.. i'm sure you know how they do that.. LMAO.. anyway.. i don't think you will have trouble as long as all you move over is the fish

 

[GoneFishin]

I sure hope you guys are right. rofl

I really don't want to get my established 110g mbuna tank taken over by these major annoyances.

I just wasn't sure if the fish could have them in their gills or some crap like that.

My hopes are to move the few fish from this 55g into the 110g...completely tear down the 55. Get rid of all substrate, media, etc. Drop a bomb on the 55 and start over. haha

 

[achase]

I feel your pain....my 16 gallon has quite a few of these guys but not nearly as many as yours. Usually I just hand pick them out when I see them. I don't mind them to much because they stir my gravel around.

Drop a bomb on the 55 and start over. haha

I like that idea.....

 

[Thyra]

I don't know anything about this, but maybe someone else can answer - what about the eggs?? The droppings from birds can transplant seeds - can fish do the same thing??

 

[GoneFishin]

I don't know anything about this, but maybe someone else can answer - what about the eggs?? The droppings from birds can transplant seeds - can fish do the same thing??

This is one of my worries. I don't really have any other options for the fish though. I'm completely emptying the 55 and don't want to get rid of the 8 fish I have. At this point, I'm just crossing my fingers and going from there. I'll be really saddened if my 110g gets these damn things in it though. *ALL*

 

[riseabovethesun]

This is one of my worries. I don't really have any other options for the fish though. I'm completely emptying the 55 and don't want to get rid of the 8 fish I have. At this point, I'm just crossing my fingers and going from there. I'll be really saddened if my 110g gets these damn things in it though. *ALL*

I am quite certain you will not have issues with snails being carried over by the fish.

And if you continue to want to use the same substrate/plants/etc., you're going to need to clean it to the best of your ability to rid the snails. I've accepted that most pond/ramshorn/mts snails are inevitable and have assassin snails in my tank for that reason -- but they can (but not always) could eat any fancy nerite or apple snail you have so that's something to watch out for if you have any of those in the future.

Worst case, find some assassin snails OR a loach (yoyo, clown I hear are the best snail eaters) to take care of it and prevent it. Just note the size of the loaches and requirements for tank size, etc because the clowns I know can get to at least 12"

Snails can be awful, I'm sorry you're having to deal with them, I'm still finishing up my snail eradication.

 

[bassbonediva]

Those are Malaysian trumpet snails. If you get rid of all your substrate and rinse the tank out really well, you should be good. Check your decorations and plants for them (maybe blast the decorations with a hose to get any out of the cracks or whatnot). I had them in my 29gal and my 55gal. In the 29gal, I just removed everything and started over (was planning on doing that anyway) and haven't seen any since. In the 55gal, most of them died as a result of the tank going Chernobyl on me anyway, but I got rid of all the substrate regardless (mainly because it was nasty and a half). Again, haven't seen any since redoing the tank.