They are probably trumpet snails that hitch hiked in, they won't cause any real harm but to thin their numbers try putting some raw meat on a plate in your tank overnight, in the morning toss the meat and snails. There are many fish that will eat them too, (botia loaches and some gouramis) Also step up your water changes to cut off their food supply. (detritus)
I had those and they were all over my tank, I told the fish store and he said puffers or loaches and a lot of puffers are fin nippers. I'd get a couple Kuhli's or a Dojo loach. hope this helps.
I've had the same problem for a few months now since i started putting live plants in my tank . I have heard of the raw meat but i am wondering if putting raw meat in a aquarium is a good idea due to all the viruses tha can come from raw meat (ecoli ,salmonella,etc.), can these viruses affect the fish? Also if these viruses get into the tank water can they affect you when performing regular matianance?
I had the same problem a while back. what I did was I put slices of zucchini in the bottom of my tank at night and take them out in the morning. also I added a pea puffer and within weeks all the snails were gone.
also cut back on the amount of food you feed your fish.
If you siphon water out of the tank with a hose (i.e. for water changes) use it to siphon out the snails on the glass. Do this everyday for a week or so (you can dump the water back in once the snails have settled if you don't want to take out too much water). This will reduce the number of snails but will not eliminate them entirely. It is very hard to stop the snail population completely. Another possibility is to get some Florida Flagfish (Jordanella floridae). They love to eat snail eggs. BTW, what do the snails look like?
when this happend to my tank i took my fish out of the the tank and got some snail killer ( king british ) and poured a bit in not following the guide lines as they did not work.
but if you do this make sure u take the fish out for an hour or so as some fish do not like the chemical level that high but after so long its alright to put them back in.
If they are indeed trumpet snails, don't worry about them. Let them run their course naturally, they are actually good biological filtration helpers. They feed on detritus in the gravel bed and on top, they won't harm your plants. I wouldn't commit to a clown loach unless you want a big fish eventually (they grow pretty large). I had a huge wave of them once and then over the course of a month they leveled off naturally. The zucchini trick is a good way to keep them in check.
Say no to chemical treatments or killers. And bleaching is pretty bad since its basically like starting your bacteria culture over again.
actually the best way to get rid of them without harming your fish or your established tank is by putting salad leaves in there at night or a piece of zuchini as someone suggested already
Put it in just before you turn off the light at night, and take it out in the morning, you will see that lots of snails will be hatched on it
repeat as often as needed
most likely you got them by putting new plants in your tank
Also stay away from chemicals, do it the natural way
And since i don't know what size tank we're talking about here, stay away especially from clown loaches
if you're considering puffers, they would need to be the dwarf puffers and are very sensitive as well
i dont know if anyones mentioned this but putting in a copper addative helps kill invertebrates in any tank. you can find safe copper addatives at a local aquarium that are safe for your fish and wont harm them or change any alkalinity or any thing else in your tank. hope that helps
from personal experience the snails came in on the live plants as eggs most likely. if you get anymore check them carefully for eggs and remove the eggs. if you do go chemicals to get rid of them be careful and check which ones are good for which fish. i heartily suggest a carnivorous fish to get rid of the snails or the zucchini trick. I have a couple fish in my tank that are extremely sensitive to chemicals and copper in particular so i avoid chemicals myself.
