My freshwater snail has laid eggs!!! Now what??

[HollyDay]

I cannot believe all the problems I've had with this tank!!

 

This morning, we discovered the snail has laid eggs. What on earth do I do now?

[Mom-ninja.]

Take them out?

[Ellie]

Snails will take over your aquarium. Get rid of the eggs as fast as you can.

[In the Rain]

Snails will take over your aquarium. Get rid of the eggs as fast as you can.

 

:iagree: I don't know how you actually get them out. When we were setting up our aquariums, we were cautioned to never get snails because they take over a tank too fast.

[d.g.]

Ok, first of all, is this one of the large, air-breathing snails, somewhere from dime-sized in diameter or up? If so, those snails are single-gender, not hermaphroditic. They can store sperm for ages, though.

 

What do the eggs look like? Are they above or below the water line? Pics?

 

 

(We used to own snails and raised many of them from eggs in our 55-gal aquarium. Thus the questions...)

[Renthead Mommy]

Our snail Gary laid eggs while we were on vacation. The snail sitter was a little surprised.

 

Unfortunately non of them made it. However we would find hatchlings in the yard. They were actually pretty cute. Little mini snails. But these were yard snails that were everywhere in Okinawa. Gary had about a 4 inch shell. He was what you would call a low maintenance pet.

[J-rap]

Good luck! Even a quick wash of the aquarium does not usually get rid of snail eggs. I think I heard you have to leave the dry aquarium out in the hot sun for several days, or maybe bake it in the oven... :001_smile:

[justamouse]

I cannot believe all the problems I've had with this tank!!

 

This morning, we discovered the snail has laid eggs. What on earth do I do now?

 

 

escargot?

 

 

 

:D

[Renthead Mommy]

 

escargot?

 

 

 

:D

 

 

 

HA! I so wish we could have done that in Okianawa. They were EVERYWHERE. And at almost 4 inches, Gary was large, but by no means the largest.

 

I love escargot. That would have been awesome. But yeah these snails gave off some sort of toxin that would make your tongue go numb or something like that, so no Okinawa escargot.

[plansrme]

snail sitter

 

 

That just made my day.

 

Terri

[Ellie]

I don't know how you actually get them out. When we were setting up our aquariums, we were cautioned to never get snails because they take over a tank too fast.

 

 

No one warned me when I bought my first aquarium. :glare: Now I know better.

[HollyDay]

Ok, first of all, is this one of the large, air-breathing snails, somewhere from dime-sized in diameter or up? If so, those snails are single-gender, not hermaphroditic. They can store sperm for ages, though.

 

What do the eggs look like? Are they above or below the water line? Pics?

 

 

(We used to own snails and raised many of them from eggs in our 55-gal aquarium. Thus the questions...)

 

 

The eggs are above the water line. They look like light pink or light grey corn on the cob. I'm told by the fish store that this is a single gender snail.

[Cera]

There is a fish that eats snails. I think it is called a loach but I'm not 100% sure...black and orange stripes and very easy to keep alive. Our aquarium store recommended it when our tank became overrun by baby snails and it took care of the problem in just a month or so.

[claire up north]

Wen we had snails, we did have a ton of them, but the vast majority got eaten by the fish. You could also get a plecostimus (a glass-sucking scavenger fish) who will eat a lot of the eggs and babies.

 

I always thought the snails were cool. And they help keep the algae under control.

[d.g.]

 

The eggs are above the water line. They look like light pink or light grey corn on the cob. I'm told by the fish store that this is a single gender snail.

 

 

That's about what I expected.

 

Well, if there's any chance the clutch might be fertile, you could always let them hatch, but in a tiny tank that's asking for trouble (and lots of dead baby snails, and possibly fish, too, when all the extra waste throws the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels off). Just scrape the clutch off the glass with a knife or razor blade, the sooner the better. As the clutch dries over the first day or two after being laid, it will harden quite a bit and could be much more difficult to remove if you leave it.

 

The good thing about this type of snail is that birth control is easy... just destroy the clutches as they appear. They can't "take over a tank" without your knowledge like the common pest snails. They're also tons of fun... ours used to like "para-snailing" down the flow from the filters. They'd let go of the tank wall right under the filter, "float" down with their foot extended, and then work their way up the wall and do it again and again.

 

If you *do* want to try to hatch some of the clutch, I'd suggest using a razor to remove 3/4s of it so you don't get overpopulated. Don't let the eggs get soaked; they need to stay above the water line so they don't drown. They'll hatch in somewhere from 2-4 weeks. The babies are teeny-tiny, about the size of a pin-head. PM me if you want more info.

[wonderchica]

Shows how much I know about snails/aquariums. I would've thought this was a good thing!

[Wildcat]

.

[Guest Lindsay]

Ok, this is my first post in these forums and I'm digging up an old thread. I've got a 3' tank set up as a basic tropical with a heap of fish in it, Angels, barbs, neons, glass fish, half a dozen loaches, some catfish of varying types and, my favorite, a gold nugget Pleco. I inherited some common river snails with some air weed I purchased, which is not a huge problem because their numbers are kept in check by the fish. However, I recently put a small tank within the large tank to accommodate some funky coloured shrimp. I dropped a couple of snails in the small tank to help keep it clean, which works a treat. I also put a couple of small catfish in the little tank to keep the bottom scum-free. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I noticed today there were nearly a dozen snail egg sacks pasted onto the walls of the small tank. Little horseshoe shaped ones. This could have lead to a major catastrophe in my little shrimp tank. So, what I did was, just scraped the egg sacks off the glass and let them float to the bottom. I've now noticed the shrimp and catfish are enjoying a nice little egg sack snack. Snails are both friend and foe in a fish tank, but you need predatory fish to keep there numbers down or, a strict snail-culling schedule. Just keep your eyes open for snail egg clutches and get them out as soon as you notice them or, as posted above, they will take over your tank. They are not difficult to catch and discard, but it is a hassle you can avoid. I'd like to post some photos, but I'm not sure how to do it on these forums. Maybe I can figure it out later and update my post. - A few snails are a good thing! Snail eggs are the beginning of a lot of hassles!

[Butter]

We ended up with a tank full of snails once.  It led us to change the saying "breeding like rabbits" to "breeding like snails" because those things multiply like crazy!

[Tap]

Resurrected Thread

[Guest Elspru]

The best thing I found is snail eating leeches,
I have a freshwater aquarium with RO water,
I get all my samples (plans/invertabrates) from local lakes/ponds.

At some point there was getting to be quite a few snails,

but then I managed to get a pregnant snail eating leech,

so now she crawls around with her babies in her pouch,

she eats snails, or sucks them out, and puts some in her pouch for her babies,

then when they are old enough they strike out on their own on their search for snails.

It's very fascinating.  So I'm actually happy to see snail eggs,

more food for the leeches! :-D

[Tap]

 Resurrected Thread Again. :confused1:

 

[Guest erinlee1222]

I have two types of snails one pair of which has successfully bred to the point of almost panic. i found "ways' of getting rid of them to keep the population in check but most recently we have purchased a dwarf puffer fish (figure 8 puffer) who LOVES to eat snails and they are really good for those guys. he is in a separate tank because they thrive in brackish but we have a great set up. no over population and no need to spend unnecessary money on food for my puffer ( i supplement him with brine shirmp and bloodworms)