My adventures with bladder snails

2022-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

This year we finally got the aquarium and I set it up the beginning of summer. Only a few months passed since and I’ve already learned a lot and lots of things happened I never thought I’d experience, it would’ve been better if I hadn’t.

I’ve already encountered some roadblocks. I had to fight the various aquarium algae, after an emergency shopping trip, I’ve found the best way to deal with them. After that, I’ve accidentally discovered from a book that my neon tetras have ich and quickly cured them. However, in August, I’ve started to notice little spots appearing on the aquarium’s wall. Upon closer inspection, I saw that they were eggs.

At first, I didn’t suspect anything. I thought my fish laid them and I will have baby fish soon, I was happy. I wish it was that simple. A day or so later, more eggs started appearing everywhere, and shortly after, they disappeared, replaced by weird little snails - a lot of them, and I mean A LOT. I quickly realised this wouldn’t end well if I didn’t do something.

I didn’t really know where they came from, at first, I thought they were the offspring of my helmet snails, I even got rid of one of them. Thinking back, it was a hasty decision I’ve made and unfair for the snail, it didn’t deserve its fate. (Luckily, my other snail is still alive and well since.)

I was contemplating how to get rid of the little snails, so I visited my local aquarium shop and they’ve recommended assasin snails there. I remember, bringing them home on the tram, a lady was curious about what I’m holding in the plastic bag. I always thought how ironic it is that snails eat other snails.

In the beginning there were 4 assasin snails I’ve put in the tank. I eagerly waited. At first, I didn’t believe it would work at all; I was expecting more dramatic results. One or two assasin snails even died within the first few days. However, after a while, I started to notice empty shells at the bottom of the aquarium floor, I was amazed - it looked epic.

However, I wasn’t very satisfied with the pace the assasin snails were working, so I had to assist them. One day, while cleaning the tank, I grabbed a glass of water and started picking up the snails by hand, putting them into the glass. I removed as much snails as I could. This helped make the process faster, from that on, whenever I saw a bladder snail, I reached in and removed it. It was working.

And this was only a fraction of them...</figcaption> </figure>

Skipping to the present: a few weeks ago, I noticed there were no more bladder snails to be found. When I was cleaning the tank, I disassembled the filter and found like 8-10 snails inside, one of them even was a relatively big one. My theory is that they tried to escape from the assasin snails, went into the filtration housing, laid a few eggs but in the time that took them, they’ve grew up to a size that wouldn’t fit through the small holes. Anyhow, I’ve thoroughly examined the filter unit and made sure not to leave any eggs or snails behind.

This concludes the bladder snail invasion, a phenomenon every aquarium owner encounters at least once. To be honest, I don’t wish it on anyone.

UPDATE (2023. 03. 01.): I’ve only encountered one or two little bladder snails since, but quickly got rid of them. After a month or so my last assasin snails died, probably due to starvation. Rest in peace, they were helpful.

Advice for the future (for myself and others)</h2>

When buying new plants, especially from unknown places, be sure to check what you “bring into” your aquarium. I recommend thoroughly examining the new flora, checking if there are any uninvited guests present.</li>
If you know there might be snails on your plants, it is recommended to get snail traps or assasin snails before you plant them.</li>
Traps and assasin snails might be better than chemicals. It is a good idea to ask around, especially asking a professional.</li>
These snails are not useless, although they multiply quickly. According to Wikipedia</a>, these snails consume green algae and are not harmful. I still recommend considering whether you want to keep these creatures around, because as I said, there will be a lot of them in a short amount of time and they are not the prettiest critters around.</li>
Next time, it’s a good idea to search for something, instead of assuming it’s fine. This way I could’ve probably prevented the invasion if I looked up what could’ve made the eggs, instead of assuming they were from a fish.</li> </ul>

ymstnt - aquarium

My adventures with bladder snails