Subj : Mysterious Snail Explosion
To : Jeff Snyder
From : Carol Shenkenberger
Date : Thu Apr 02 2009 04:46 pm
> CS> Oh we are here and there. Right now, trying to figure out how I have a
> CS> snail explosion. I mean, I got maybe a hundred of them little things ov
> CS> night.
> CS>
> CS> Humm. No new plants, and no snals in the tank for over a month.
>
> Hello again Carol. The fact that you discovered them over night suggests one
> thing: you had a snail egg pouch stuck somewhere and didn't even realize it.
I suspect so. Old one before dying must have been preggers somehow and left
a final gift.
> Depending on the type of snail, it was either a small, clear, gelatinous blo
> which could very easily have been overlooked, or it could have been a more
> foamy-looking thing, kind of like a sac of praying mantis eggs. And the thin
> is, not all snails lay their eggs in the water. I remember many years ago,
> like around four decades ago, when I discovered that a large snail -- I can'
> remember the variety now -- laid such a foamy egg pouch on the inside of the
> light fixture where it was nice and warm. I honestly don't know what the
No sign of that now, if there was one.
> incubation period is for snail eggs, but if the parent was one of those tiny
> snails, you could very easily have missed it, as depending on the size and
> color of your gravel, it could very easily have blended in. Also, some will
> borrow just below the surface of the gravel, near the glass sides of your
> tank. One could have also been hiding within the fronds of one of your plant
> assuming that you have any.
I suspect below the gravel or inside one of the ornaments.
> The cure: I really don't recommend any chemical solutions. Even if used
> properly, they could still mess up the chemical balance of your water, and
> possibly kill plants or livestock, or both. The best solution is to either
No live plants, but I don't want to kill the existing fish either.
> take the time to closely inspect your tank and manually remove them before
> they reach maturity, or to purchase a fish which eats them. Right off hand,
> don't recall which fish those might be. The manual approach can be tedious,
> but it won't cost you any money.
