I put some leftover white "marine sand" in my 1.5 gal tank because I didn't want to open up a 50# bag of sand for a cup full. Well....2 months later, the tank is now over-run with snails....and I never physically put any snails in there...they just appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Yippee. My guppy fry have taken a liking to the snail eggs though, they always seem to be snacking on them, haha.
don't use "marine sand"
- Thread starter zuesana
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Congratulations, you just proved Spontaneous Generation after it had been put to rest for better than a century. lol.
Marine sand is just calcium carbonate of one form or another. Since you used it for a freshwater tank, you aren't going to get snails because of it. SW snails won't survive in FW. (If it was live sand fresh off the shelf and you used it for SW, I still don't think eggs could survive.)
There is something that you over looked. The snails hitch hiked on something else or were possibly already in the tank if you didn't clean it good. You can get rid of them with a copper algaecide or copper medication. There's a product called something like Snail-B-Gone, but it may be just another copper product.
Marine sand is just calcium carbonate of one form or another. Since you used it for a freshwater tank, you aren't going to get snails because of it. SW snails won't survive in FW. (If it was live sand fresh off the shelf and you used it for SW, I still don't think eggs could survive.)
There is something that you over looked. The snails hitch hiked on something else or were possibly already in the tank if you didn't clean it good. You can get rid of them with a copper algaecide or copper medication. There's a product called something like Snail-B-Gone, but it may be just another copper product.
...by the way, don't use copper in the tank if it has plants. If it does have plants, guess where the snails came from. 
haha, its a gallon and a half tank I bought brand new, the only thing i had put in it were guppy fry that were spawned in a breeder net in my other tank. I had a tank ornament in there but it took up like half the tank so I took it out, now its just the sand and a betta tank heater. I have nerites in the other tank and they've laid eggs EVERYWHERE in there but none have hatched. The ones that have taken over the small tank don't look like nerite or the apple snail i have so who knows where they came from.
Is the copper stuff safe for baby guppies?
Is the copper stuff safe for baby guppies?
Assassin snails should take care of them? I have one assassin snail in my 60g and 1 in my 75g and I never seen a snail in either tank.
Nope, it isn't safe for the babies. :/ Not much really is since they are so small. The only safe way to get rid of the snails is to pick them out by hand. And you have to keep at it. And you never really get them all, so the job never ends.
Have you ever seen those green spotted puffer fish? Some of the Walmarts around me carry them. They love snails. You'd want to keep the puffer in its own tank because it would eventually start to eat the guppies. Just a thought.
I vote for an assassin snail. They make short work of other snails and don't populate like the prey snails either.
Hello; It seems likely that the snail population is large because they are finding plenty to eat. Perhaps the excess food in the tank that the fish do not eat. One way to control a snail population is to reduce the amount of food introduced into the tank. I pick out excess snails and crush them with plires to be feed to the fish. The snails may be doing a service for the tank in eating the excess consumable material that is available.