Hi all, new guy here, quick question

[Plecofanatic]

Hi all, new here, love the site, its awesome!
Just got done setting up my tank for my zebras and noticed the other day some very small snails, didnt think much but there are like thousands of them in there now. What can I do to get rid of them? They dont bother the fish but do eat alot of the leftover food. My zebra is sitting on eggs, will they try to eat them too?

[sirbooks]

Hey, welcome to the site!

I don't think the snails will eat your pleco eggs, but I could be mistaken. Snails are more vegetarian anyways, and they like greens more than foods with protein. This leads to a way to get rid of them. You can place a big piece of lettuce, cucumber, zucchini, etc. in your tank at night, and leave the room for an hour or so. Come back and quickly remove the veggie (making sure no fish are on it), and many snails should come with it. If there are still snails left, you can repeat the process as many times as needed. This usually seems to work pretty well.

[Allan]

That is very different from snailspecies to species. Some snails are mostly vegetarian, but others (most spp.) will eat anything from dead fish to algae and bacteria.... and eggs, if they get the chance at it.

There are even snails that are predatory. (Well, I know of predatory saltwaterspecies anyway)

Bottomline from my POW: If you don't know the caracteristica of your snails, I would advice you to just start picking them up by the numbers until your eggs are hatched (Very boring... I know.... ZzZzZz)
When I do a waterchange and have a snailproblem, I will just vacuum every snail I can see. Takes time, but what can you do.

Welcome to this magnificent site, btw

[racoll]

Botia such as clown loach are quite partial to snails, as are some doradids such as agamixis. although biological control may interfere with your breeding attempts.

good luck.