Regular Member enesta Posted December 1, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted December 1, 2010 I started my first live planted tank with my new betta. It's been up for about 3 weeks. Haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary, but then today I found a snail crawling up the wall! Still small, but about half an inch big. It must've came very tiny with one of the live plants and slowly grown. So weird! Should I leave it in there... anyone have experience with snails? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Hidr Posted December 1, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted December 1, 2010 I love my snails. Great for planted tanks. If it is a trumpet I would leave it. I thin mine out from time to time. I have some small round ones in my 6 gallon I have been keeping an eye on so far they don't bother my plants nor do they seem to take over the tank. They never get big either so leaving those. Just keep a close eye on them see how it works out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Chrissy_Bee Posted December 2, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted December 2, 2010 I agree with Hidr. It won't do any harm, but if 1 turns into 50 you may need to start removing them 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member kukana d Posted December 2, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted December 2, 2010 I had that happen in 1 of my betta tanks too!!! There was suddenly a snail and round and round the tank he would go(it's a hex),pretty fast too! Then,just as quickly as he appeared,he was gone I have NO idea!!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member enesta Posted December 2, 2010 Author Regular Member Share Posted December 2, 2010 Crap, now suddenly 2 more appeared and one is eating my plant. That must be why that plant has been dying, they're eatin' it. I hope there are no more lurking around, 3's enough. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member whitner Posted December 2, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted December 2, 2010 Crap, now suddenly 2 more appeared and one is eating my plant. That must be why that plant has been dying, they're eatin' it. I hope there are no more lurking around, 3's enough. If any more show up, I'd start to dispose of them. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Migaloo Posted December 3, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted December 3, 2010 Cool! That happened to me once when I bough driftwood - but then I never saw the snail again... it was only tiny! Hope you dont get two many though! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member johann_pond Posted December 3, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted December 3, 2010 I recently had the same issue. I had not added anything new to the tank and after a water change there was this very tiny snail climbing up the side of the tank. Within 2 days he was gone. It has been about a month since I last saw it, I think the goldies ate him. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Migaloo Posted December 3, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted December 3, 2010 (edited) I think the eggs can last forever... even when they're dry. Then, when placed in the right conditions they hatch. Im sure I read that somewhere... - I suppose it does sound feasable considering how they just show up in our tanks!! Edited December 3, 2010 by Migaloo 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Calluna Posted December 5, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted December 5, 2010 Crap, now suddenly 2 more appeared and one is eating my plant. That must be why that plant has been dying, they're eatin' it. I hope there are no more lurking around, 3's enough. This may not be the case. I keep a few snails in a little tub and they will only eat dead plants that I put in, not live ones. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member enesta Posted December 5, 2010 Author Regular Member Share Posted December 5, 2010 Now I'm finding smaller growing ones.. I think I've seen about 5 or so now. I also found these little white clusters of balls on my plant (which looks like it's being eaten) .. are these snail eggs? There's a few groups of these clusters (best shot I could get), And here's a shot of one of the larger snails, 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Migaloo Posted December 6, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted December 6, 2010 wow... i dont know what they are, but they look quite fascinating! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member enesta Posted December 6, 2010 Author Regular Member Share Posted December 6, 2010 They're encased in some kind of gel. Either the largest snail died naturally or my betta killed it. Found it floating dead today, not sure what caused its death. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member devilduck Posted December 6, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted December 6, 2010 (edited) That looks like a tadpole snail to me, we get them for our puffer to munch on and they lay gloopy strings and blobs of eggs stuck to stuff. Entertainingly they can 'swim', they skoot across the surface and can rise and sink in the water using a trapped airbubble. They shouldn't eat live plants, it might be that the plant just doesn't like your tank setup so has decided to die, I am personally incapable of keeping anything that requires its roots in substrate (and unfortunately that includes house plants!) and they all seem fine before they just fall apart, sometimes in a very short time. I did have an apple snail that chowed down a seemingly healthy plant I'd had for a while, he was like a woodchipper sawing through the stems then they'd just disappear in record time to reappear as pellets not long after...maybe he just liked that one... Tadpole snails are asexual and will reproduce like CRAZY. They are the bane of every pet stores plant tanks and pretty tricky to get rid of. Unless you have a puffer....then what should be 3 days food will disappear in about 15 minutes. Edited December 6, 2010 by devilduck 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Quvantine Posted December 6, 2010 Regular Member Share Posted December 6, 2010 I think they do come in with plants, I've seen snails come in with new orders of plants where I work all the time. Most of them are tiny though so they're easily missed, besides the numbers we haven't had any problem with them in any of the tanks. Although I have heard that an excessive amount of snails can alter your PH...but I'd say you would need A LOT of them in order for that to happen. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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