oh boy. unexpected babies. Now what?

tanker

I decided that my apple snails were too messy for my betta tanks so they've gone into my big tanks. They have been laying eggs on the top glass, but I've been removing the egg bundles. Somehow there are babies in there (250 litre).....

Are they going to take over the tank? Will they be eaten? Will there be hundreds and hundreds of them? What do I do now?

stevenjohn21

i had the same problem not long ago and all i did was place some lettuce or zuccini in the tank at bed time and then in the morning . . . . 100's of snails chomping away, just remove the veg and throw it away and repeat the next night until they are mostly gone.

hope this helps

dfbiggs

If you only have betas they won't get eaten or at least I don't think betas have the appetite to keep up. Are these the only fish you have? With apples they make it easy to pull the clutches and throw away. But ones that are already living I would trap them with a big hunk of blanched squash in the bottom of a glass jar (one you could fit your hand it would be better). Leave it in your tank for 24hrs ( I have found that that's the perfect amount of time to give them to all get to it.) But of you don't have enough food they will eat and leave. Also, I don't know how you feel about throwing away live snails..I have made contacts through craigslist where people are willing to pay to feed their snail eaters. Or I just give them away. Makes me feel better. Or just sell them on ebay.

Jakiebabie

Puffers eat snails!

tanker

Thanks for the replies.

I used to have an Apple Snail in with each of my bettas, but I put them in my big tanks instead because I thought they were too messy. The baby snails are in my 250-litre with my dwarf neon rainbows, blue rams, tetras and cories.

I spoke to the aquarium shop and they'll take them when they are bigger. I was just worried that there'll be hundreda upon hundreds and my whole tank will be invaded. So far, I've only seen the couple and I couldn't spot them yesterday afternoon. Hopefully I won't be overrun. I don't really want to kill them. As long as there aren't a zillion I can hopefully let them grow up a bit and then sell them to the shop.

I just need a better method of prevention. I don't know how they managed to hatch when I've been taking out the egg bundles.

I don't think we have puffers here. I've never seen them. I know that dwarf chain loaches were recommended before for eating ramshorns, but they are very expensive and I don't want anyone bothering my big "Garys".

Lupin

Are these babies apple snails? Very few will make it to adulthood even without stunting, possibly 20-30% of the clutch. Apple snails are very different. They need sufficient food supply in order to grow. They starve very easily from lack of food thereof.

tanker

Yes, they are apple snails. There only seem to be a couple of the babies, so my initial panic has worn off a bit. I still don't understand how they managed to hatch when I've been removing the egg sacs......

Lupin

Time to watch your tank like a hawk.

tanker

I already did, and look where that got me

Lupin

No, you had eagle eyes. You need hawk eyes now but peregrine eyes are much more efficient.