Nerite snails.

[Slippy]

I chose to use these snails to keep my planted tank clean of algae. I also chose them because of the unlikely event that they would breed successfully in a freshwater aquarium. I woke up this morning and turned on the light to my tank and found an outbreak of baby snails. I have read that the Nerites eggs can hatch in fresh water but the young snails will not live long. I have been very careful to stock the tank with plants that come in the snail free package. I suspect they may have hitch hiked in on the driftwood. Just curious if any of you have had any experience with the Nerites breeding and surviving successfully in your freshwater aquariums?

[Disgirl]

Can you describe what the baby snails look like? If they are white, they are just eggs that will never hatch in fresh water. I have them in all my tanks, they do lay eggs but they won't hatch. I have never heard of them reproducing in fresh water. If you do have baby snails in your tank, I would bet they aren't Nerites.
Barb

[Slippy]

There are the apparent eggs all over my driftwood. The baby snails are all over the glass but too small to get a real good look at. There are obvious antenna on the front of them. They pretty much just look like little grey blobs at the moment.

[Disgirl]

I still think they are not Nerites. They must have come in on the driftwood then? You may need to get a snail eating fish, like a Clown Loach to eat them. But take the Nerites out for awhile to save them. Good luck, and welcome to the forum!
Barb

[Slippy]

Now that I have found a better pair of glasses.
The shells appear to be pointed and elongated.
And thanks for the welcome as well as the input.

[Ryan]

Are you sure you're not looking at planaria or hydra in the tank? These are not snails and are usually a sign of overfeeding.

I've never had nerites successfully hatch in my water and they were in all my tanks at one point. However, they lay eggs like crazy and their calcified shells are on everything -- filters, driftwood, pleco caves, fake plants, etc. It's why I no longer use nerites. Their eggs are still on everything, though. :(

[flutterbug]

Are you sure you're not looking at planaria or hydra in the tank? These are not snails and are usually a sign of overfeeding.

I've never had nerites successfully hatch in my water and they were in all my tanks at one point. However, they lay eggs like crazy and their calcified shells are on everything -- filters, driftwood, pleco caves, fake plants, etc. It's why I no longer use nerites. Their eggs are still on everything, though. :(

It sounds like Malaysian Trumpet Snails. They come in on plants and they are live bearers. They multiply like crazy. I know because I let one in my tank thinking it would keep my gravel stirred and I have millions now even after switching to a ne wtank with new substrate.


I have one Nerite and it managed to make the tank look awful with little eggs everywhere, I would never get them to keep up a tank. Amano Shrimp are much better for me! Just make sure they have driftwood with lots of cave like spots to hide.

[Slippy]

Are you sure you're not looking at planaria or hydra in the tank? These are not snails and are usually a sign of overfeeding.

I've never had nerites successfully hatch in my water and they were in all my tanks at one point. However, they lay eggs like crazy and their calcified shells are on everything -- filters, driftwood, pleco caves, fake plants, etc. It's why I no longer use nerites. Their eggs are still on everything, though. :(

Definitely snails of some sort. I have found larger versions while cleaning the tank.
So getting down to snail eating fish does anybody have a positive experience to share? I I am thinking Khuli loaches if anyone has had success with them I would appreciate the input. I read that the Labyrinth fish will eat snails and am considering moving a pair of Paradise Gouramies over from another tank.

[Rudustin]

I did have loaches because I had a snail infestation in four tanks. First I cleaned as many as I could by hand and then I got fire loaches. They did the trick but are very competitive with discus for regular food and they are mainly nocturnal and are a bit too busy for discus at night. I was able to take them back to my LFS and get a credit. They had grown a lot during that time as well. Loaches can be the ultimate weapon for the snail infestation but for the long term I think they may be a problem. I have had assassin snails ever since and that has kept the snail population completely down. Assassin snails don't reproduce very often and do eat the eggs of snail and smaller snails than themselves. Good luck. Rufus

[Slippy]

I have considered the Assassin snail as well.
It seams to be quite the popular choice. Thanks for the input Rufus.

[pauline]

I have assassin snails in some of my angelfish tanks. They do a fine job of controlling snail populations. Any that they miss I smoosh against the glass and the angels chow down on them before they hit the bottom of the tank.

[nvladik]

Jumping back to the Nerite question for a second, Nerites will lay eggs all over (You will see white rows of spots on driftwood), but the eggs will not hatch in Freshwater.

This is most likely a hitchiker that came with the plants, I dip all my plants in chlorine solution prior to planting/adding to my tanks.

[DISCUS STU]

I hate dumping chemicals into the tank but have found that minimal amounts of chelated copper sulfate generally zap the snails but don't really affect the Discus or the bio filter. The copper sulfate is removed with successive water changes once the snail problem is fixed. I don't know if carbon will remove it, The important words being minimal (possibly 1/2 strength) and chelated copper sulfate.

[Slippy]

I have read a few articles where some people are saying that Assassin snails will eat shrimp as well. Have any of you had an experience where this has happened?

[ProBreeders]

I hate dumping chemicals into the tank but have found that minimal amounts of chelated copper sulfate generally zap the snails but don't really affect the Discus or the bio filter. The copper sulfate is removed with successive water changes once the snail problem is fixed. I don't know if carbon will remove it, The important words being minimal (possibly 1/2 strength) and chelated copper sulfate.
I would never use copper in my aquarium. It's pretty hard to get rid of once you use it. I would also suggest getting Assassin snails.


I have read a few articles where some people are saying that Assassin snails will eat shrimp as well. Have any of you had an experience where this has happened?
I guess they eat pretty much anything they can catch, but shrimps are pretty fast... I don't see how Assassin snails can eat them if the shrimps aren't dieing already.

[flutterbug]

I tried an Assasin Snail and it did do a good job for a short time. However it disappeared and one day I found it dried out and dead in the tank stand. Guess it didn't like my tank and found it's way out! Now I'm just too scared to bring any new stuff in. I don't want to take a chance of bringing something bad in. There are so many potential problems. If you put something in there that attracts them you can reduce populations by removing it with the snails still on it. They are more nocturnal so a little while after lights out would be a good time to take the bait out. I have seen DIY traps that seem like a good idea.

[Disgirl]

Snails love a big piece of Romaine lettuce, attached to a rock or wood with a rubberband. Like flutter said, just take it out in the dark when it is covered with snails.
Barb

[Slippy]

Thanks for all of the input.
I guess I did not think the snail vs shrimp question through very well.:p
Fast invert vs slow invert and all.
I do have some fresh water clams that may not fare out well against the assassin though. So it sounds like manual labor may be the way to go for now.

[DISCUS STU]

[QUOTE=ProBreeders;1106505]I would never use copper in my aquarium. It's pretty hard to get rid of once you use it. I would also suggest getting Assassin snails.

As I said, the chelated copper is removed with water changes. I've never had adverse affects when doing this properly. This information was offered an an FYI and it works. If the water changes are done properly the copper will be removed. At the levels recommended, the snails will go.

[ProBreeders]

Should you decide to nuke the snails with copper, be sure to take out the dead ones because they will make turn in to a big cotton ball and make the water go bad with the quickness.

[ericNH]

Slippy, I have Malaysian Trumpet Snails in my tank, and it sounds like you do too. There are now hundreds of them, and they live in the substrate. They come out at night in droves. So I'll share my experiences with them.

At first I thought they were great. There were only a few that I could see, and they were digging around in the substrate, stirring it and making it better for my plants. They very quickly grew in number, to apocolyptic proportions. I did not (and will never) try any chemical solutions. I tried assassin snails, but there were too many trumpet snails. I tried bits of zuchini and lettuce, as Disgirl suggests, and only caught a few here and there with that method. I tried a pack of four clown loaches. They were awesome, they definately kept the population noticeably down, but they were way too rambunctious and made my discus skittish, and seriusly hampered my discus feeding. I gave three of the clown loaches back to the fish store. I would have given all four back, but I just couldn't catch the last one and so he remains.

So, I have given up on trying to exterminate the malaysian trumpet snails. It's a lost cause for me. If it turns out that you have them too, then I must warn you that I think only extreme measures will work if you want to eliminate them completely. I would love to hear about how you deal with them, and what your results are, because they've beaten me.