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I want snails in my two fish tanks can I just catch them in a lake2007-11-24 23:36:47

I really like having small snails in my fish tanks to eat the extra food & keep the place clean. I'm having a real tough time finding them in local pet stores though.

My tanks currently contain:

1/2 gallon unfiltered with an African Dwarf Frog & 3 brown rams head snails (? That's what the pet store guy I went to called them. These are my favorites and I've been fairly successful with them, but he doesn't carry them anymore and I can't find them anywhere else.)

1 gallon with 3 small feeder goldfish & 1 brown Mystery snail (I've never have any luck with Mystery snails so I don't know why I wasted $7 CDN on another one, but not being able to find anything else I figured I'd try again.)

Both tanks also have 1 live plant.

I wondered. if these snails die. if I sort of quarantined them first (put them in fresh water & kept changing it for a week or so) could I just catch some in a lake & put them in there?

Thanks for your snail experience!!

Answers:

Ive always loved snails also.. My mother raised red ramshorns which were very pretty and we raised albino mystery snails for a while, some types of snails multiply too fast and can become a problem

do not get wild snails as they can carry diseases and other parasites and may eat up all of your plants

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Wild snails are a bad idea. They can carry the intermediate stages of parasites which can infect your fish.

Also, snails aren't much good for cleaning up leftover food. Bottom-feeding catfish will do a much better job of that.

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I just left my tank healthy for a my fish to thrive. As the environment gets older the snails will start to appear. Don't try to rush it. The more natural it comes i guess the better.

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One word, contamination!! (sorry if I have spelt it wrong) It takes one drop of contaminated water to effect all your fish, best idea is to purchase snails from your local aquarium. But be careful, as many aqurium fish will find these as a tasty snack, such as Clown Loaches. Funny story, I had two snails and they both got out the tank - I followed the smell.

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If you kept the ramshorn snails in a proper tank then you won't have to buy or take them from anywhere. I started out with 2 around 2 years ago and I have over 50 and around once a week I have to discard a clutch cause I can't have anymore, just last night I had to discard 2 clutches. Snails need a filtered tank and need at least 2.5 gallons each, they poop a lot more then people think. They also need more then just algae to eat, to them that is a snack.