What is going on?

[countrykat]

I went to work for a few hours this evening, shut the lights off the tank because all was good. Got home an hour ago, turned the lights on to feed them, and, HERE'S the kicker, my entire tank is absolutely full of SNAILS. I have not put any new fish in the tank in a few months, October to be exact. I have never had a snail in any of the tanks I have ever had, EVER. What is going on? I have had my Hongi spawn a couple weeks back and yesterday I noticed that my Zebra is holding. This my first spawn since the tank has been set up (almost 1 1/2 years) I am running a wet/dry capable of a 300 gallon tank, mine is 75. Been feeding the same food for almost a year, NLS. Water parameters have been the same since sart up, (african cichlid style) I have had africans for almost 20 years so I know what I'm doing.

My question is did the snails possibly come from the food? It's the only thing I can think of.

Second question, how do I get rid of them without killing the eggs or the fish.

Talk about blowing my mind, there are HUNDREDS of them that I can see let alone all the ones that I can't. I have sacs of snail eggs everywhere.

Where would they come from other than the food?

 

[Pittbull]

Any new plants added lately or did you place a decor item like a rock from another tank ?

To rid the snails by means of not using chemicals there are two ways either add a skunk botia or use a leaf of romaine lettuce.. the loach if hungry enough will eat snails but usually what happens is that the loach will eat fish foods provided to your cichlids so its a hit n miss type of situation.. romaine lettuce leaf will atract the snails in mass quanities so what i would do and i have done this as well is place a leaf of lettuce in at lights out and come back in a couple of hours and remove the leaf with snails on it..

You will be amazed at how many snails you will get out of a large leaf of romaine lettuce..

 

[countrykat]

No new plants. All my plants are artificial and have been in the tank since day 1. What is a skunk botia? I will do a search.

 

[Pittbull]

Its in the loach family and with most loaches they tend to eat snails in my experience they are good at eating snails when they are not being fed properly so its sorta like starve them so they rid snail populations me i use the leaf of lettuce route i really dont like to starve my fish..

Loches and Botia's have an appuratus located in their mouth to pierce a shell of a snail and a finger as well..

 

[Pittbull]

Live food - could possibly happen, never heard that on dry goods..

Also another way would be while the pet shop clerk that was bagging up some new fish could have also scooped up a snail that was tiny or a small piece of gravel with an egg or two on it and you weren't aware of it and usually it only takes one snail for infestation..

 

[rayfong]

Sounds like they are Malaysian trumpet snails. You might've already had them in the tank before. Mine tend to come out after the lights are out for a few hours so you might not have seen them before. They are not too bad as these snails tend to spend most of the day in the substrate and help turn it over. If you do want to get rid of them without using chemicals, then use lettuce or botia loach.

 

[Pittbull]

Yep rayfrog is correct more than likely they are the trumpet snails i actually add them to my sand tanks to rummage thru the sand for me and you will only see them at lights out time and is when they come out and when the lights come on they tend to be back into the gravel or sand..

Only when you have a zillion of them is when they tend to stay out longer but again these guys are great scavengers so you may just want to reduce their numbers a bit..

Your call my friend..

 

[MalawiTango]

Any new plants added lately or did you place a decor item like a rock from another tank ?

To rid the snails by means of not using chemicals there are two ways either add a skunk botia or use a leaf of romaine lettuce.. the loach if hungry enough will eat snails but usually what happens is that the loach will eat fish foods provided to your cichlids so its a hit n miss type of situation.. romaine lettuce leaf will atract the snails in mass quanities so what i would do and i have done this as well is place a leaf of lettuce in at lights out and come back in a couple of hours and remove the leaf with snails on it..

You will be amazed at how many snails you will get out of a large leaf of romaine lettuce..

Thats brilliant!!

 

[Blue2Fyre]

I will second the trumpet snails. I added some to my mbuna tank to keep the sand aerated, with the added bonus of them eating algae. I have no idea how many I have because I never see them during the day. They only come out at night, pretty nice snails if you ask me

 

[le patron]

i agree with pitbull on the romaine. when they're all on the leaf take it out and stomp on it to teach those snails who is boss