Snails infestation

[Azura]

Sorry if this is in the incorrect section.

I have a 10 galon tank with about a 2 year old beta living in it. Snails keep appearing and multiplying rapidly. Only small ones, slightly bigger than a match stick head. They don't bother him, but I'm sure living with 50 or so snails cant be healthy for him.

I have tried to rid the tank of these several times, even moved the beta to another tank and complete removed, washed and air dried the rocks and tank, rinsed the plants etc, but the snails have returned.

Is there something to kill these snails that wont kill my fish? I'm wondering if they originally came attached to the plant I bought, but I've rinsed that also when I did the huge tank clean.

[wiccansinger]

snails can come inside the plants that you buy, im sure that they arent bad for ur betta though, probably a good snack for him. they also would be keeping the tank clean. drying the rocks wont help rid your tank of them though, they have a flap thing that allows them to store water and keep themselves damp for a long time. if you really want to rid them from your tank you can just put the rocks in boiling water and after it cools down scrub hard with a scrubbing brush. then you can probably wash the plants really carefully. also you may have to boil water and put the tank bottom stuff (gravel marbles etc) into it and then after it gets cool just clean off.

thats all i can suggest to you about this though. honestly i would just leave the snails, as long as they dont eat the plant there is no harm done.

[BettaLu&Meg]

those are called pest snails, there not like golden apple snails i use, snails in general,well not the pests,, are GREAT for your tank and will eat anything from your bettas waste to aglae. so getting bigger snails would be a good idea, and usualy they wont reproduce as pest snails do. Also the snails i had/have are golden apple snails and RamsHorn snails. they do not damage plants hardly and like i said keep algae levels down. Now for your infestation of pest snails.
now...well the best way i did was run it under hot water, if there are snails on it, they'll drop off. then cool water to cool off the plant. this is what i did and worked for me.

[bettalvr]

Azura, WELCOME to the forum! Hope you stay around and enjoy yourself!!!

As for the snails, actually, the presence of snails in aquarium is not necessarily a bad thing. Aquarium snails perform the role of a “clean-up crew” as they eat excess food, and decaying plants and fish matter. As they burrow through the substrate, they also help to oxygenate it.

However, aquarium snails multiply like wildfire, and a population explosion can lead to the destruction of your aquatic plants, mar the appearance of your aquarium, and even upset its ecological balance.

There are several ways of ridding your aquarium of snails and most of them definitely require patience. An older method is to use Copper Sulfate BUT I would recommend you talk to betta owners who have used this with success. It can kill your fish so please be careful if you choose this option. Another, and widely used method, is to place a lettuce leaf on the bottom of your tank at night when you are turning out the lights. Make sure you secure it so that it doesn't float to the top. This attracts the snails and in the morning you can lift the lettuce leaf out and throw them away. Keep doing this until your population is down and hopefully the betta will take care of the rest, if there are any. As Luis said, you can take out your plants and decorations and wash them in hot water. Gently rub your fingers of every part of them to remove eggs, rinse and return them to the tank. As for your gravel, that's a hard one b/c if you remove your gravel and thoroughly clean it too, you wipe out the good bacteria that you need in the tank.

Good luck with this. . . I know it's going to be hard and time consuming, but you can do it!

Also, clown loaches love to eat these little pests, but unfortunately they do better in groups and can get quite large. Maybe you could use one or two temporarily???

[Santiago]

you should try to sell them on ebay and make some money and if you do i will buy some off of you ;]

[FishMomma]

Just to add to Bettalvr's post . . . . Put the lettuce inside a small glass container that way the snails will be inside something that you can just lift out. Another thing to remember is that if one snail is left you'll still get more. One snail can reproduce since it has both reproduction organs. That is why you've probably ended up with so many. The apple snails which many of us have are totally different and there are both male AND female snails so you don't get the reproduction issues. Good luck!

[mazurek]

i uysed to have snails in my big aquarium
they were cool until a bigger fish ate them