# Stowaways!!



## cydric (Nov 1, 2006)

I recently bought some plants for my 29g new aquarium and i noticed when i came home tonight from work there were some dark specs on the front side of my glass on my tank. After a closer look i noticed they're baby snails!! I've spotted about 6 or 7 of them already!! I have NO IDEA what type they are. They're obviously from the plants i bought because this is a NEW tank that has never had a fish in it...yet. 

Should i leave the stowaways in there or should i get rid of them? Since i don't know what type of snails they are, i'm not sure if they'll harm my live plants. 

Suggestions?


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Get them out, get them out , get them out! Snails that stow away on plants tend to be harmless but the also tend to reproduce quickly and many, myself included, find them unsightly. 

You're in the WVa panhandle? I'm from a little south and west of St. Clairsville!


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## cydric (Nov 1, 2006)

dennis said:


> Get them out, get them out , get them out! Snails that stow away on plants tend to be harmless but the also tend to reproduce quickly and many, myself included, find them unsightly.
> 
> You're in the WVa panhandle? I'm from a little south and west of St. Clairsville!


Ahh!! I've NEVER heard anything good about snails. I'm always told they reproduce like MAD! I'll get rid of them. They must be able to take horrible water conditions and abrupt changes of climate. I've been doing so many different things to my tank such as reaquascaping it. Grr on snails!

Yes, i live in the northern panhandle. I live roughly about 40 minutes from St Clairsville, OH. If you've heard of "Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort" I live 5 mintues from there. Yay for me. :doubt:


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## evercl92 (Aug 14, 2006)

some people find the snails helpful, others don't. Depends on who you talk to and what kind of snails you have. No real way (except to wait and see) if the snails will be helpful (eat algae, left over food, dead leaves) or harmful (eat your plants).

If you guys know St Clairsville, then I'm sure you know Barnesville. I grew up 10 mins from Barnesville, out in the middle of nowhere.


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## cydric (Nov 1, 2006)

evercl92 said:


> some people find the snails helpful, others don't. Depends on who you talk to and what kind of snails you have. No real way (except to wait and see) if the snails will be helpful (eat algae, left over food, dead leaves) or harmful (eat your plants).
> 
> If you guys know St Clairsville, then I'm sure you know Barnesville. I grew up 10 mins from Barnesville, out in the middle of nowhere.


Well hopefully they just die off. :faint: I really don't want any snails, good or bad for the tank, i just don't want any. I don't like the way they look (look like slugs, gross!). I don't want anything slithering on my glass.

Yes, i know Barnesville. That's close to the WV border. Can't say i've ever been there but i know where it is and have heard of it.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Cydric, it's highly common to get some snails in with plant shipments, and as long as you keep your tank under good maintenance and don't overfeed, you should never have a population explosion with them.

Unless you dip every plant before you put it in the tank, you have pretty good odds of getting snails and sometimes much worse things (like the dragonfly larvae I got).

As stated, there's nothing wrong with a few of them as long as you don't let them get out of hand.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Barnesville, that's working down my way. Well, where I grew up. I lived basically in Calais though the mailing address was Woodsfield. Most of my friends were from the Quaker City/ Seneca Lake area, or over towards BelleValley and Caldwell. 

Evercl92, how old are you? PM me if you want, I miss talking to folks from back home.

Cydric, the snails won't hurt anythign but they are a bit unsightly at times. The best thing is to remove them now while you can, though its doubtful you will ever catch all of them. Small loaches and dwarf puffers are great for snail control but may not be compatible if you ever plan to get shrimp or Nerite snails.

Sorry for the little hijack!


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## cydric (Nov 1, 2006)

Thanks dennis and JanS. I saw one of the bigger snails found it's way to my anubias barteri plants. I'm not worried about them as long as they don't reproduce like mad. I won't over feed. Only things "living" things in my tank right now (besides my plants) are the snails  and my newly bought RCS  that i purchased tonight at my girlfriend's lfs.


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## joephys (May 9, 2006)

Odds are, they are pond snails or ramshorns and will not cause a problem. I never have had a population explosion. As JanS said, you will probably get them with most plants. My tank now has a large population of worms in the substrate that came in on some plants. If you think snails are gross, imagine seeing worms popping up from the substrate. It doesn't bother me, it gives me fish live food once in a while when the are able to catch them. I see both the worms and the snails as making my tank more diverse.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Man, I didn't overfeed, but I didn't fertilize right. Got GSA/GDA on my glass and green water. Did a blackout. 4 days later, SNAILS GALORE. They're dying off, though...keeping the feeding to a minimum. =)


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## cydric (Nov 1, 2006)

Oh my! Worms in your substrate? That'd be a site to see, then seeing your fish take off after them trying to catch them, that'd be neat.  Yeah, i think i'll leave them alone for now, they're just babies. I have something else to look at now in my tank besides the snails, my new cherry shrimp are more interesting to watch and look at than the snails. op2: 

I hope the same doesn't happen to me that happened to you, epicfish. i don't want my water to get all foggy and then once it starts to clear up see nothing but SNAILS! 

I'll go along with what joephys says, i'll look at it as making my tank diversified. :-k


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

I got some leeches in on some Anubias a few years ago too, and they were gross little things. They lived in the substrate and would whip around violently when I vacuumed them out.

Not to veer off topic, but nice job on your avatar Cydric!


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## cydric (Nov 1, 2006)

JanS said:


> I got some leeches in on some Anubias a few years ago too, and they were gross little things. They lived in the substrate and would whip around violently when I vacuumed them out.
> 
> Not to veer off topic, but nice job on your avatar Cydric!


Leeches?? Ew!! That's awful. I now know when i purchase future plants to dip them before i plant them into my aquarium. I don't want snails or leeches or worms making my aquarium their new home. I believe the snails that stowed away were in my hornwort plant. I clipped the dead looking pieces off and kept the green areas. I must've shook some loose while in the process.

Thanks for the comment on my avatar. I did it at work on friday in my down time. :ninja:


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