Feeding and Nutrition :: snails in the filter?

[pitym]

Hi everyone, I haven't posted in awhile but have been reading somewhat when I have time.
I searched for "snails" in the forum but did not find my answer.
I just cleaned my filter this a.m. and found all these tiny white snails of different sizes in there. I have the Rena XP4. There was also little droplets of jelly like slime on the outside of the baskets. anyone know what this is and where the snails came from? I had some Rosy reds in there for a couple months, but they are all eaten up so nothing new has been added to the tank. The filter has been cleaned a few times since I got the fish, but this is the first I've seen of the snails.
Thanks so much
Patti

[kmichael55]

Many times snails come in with water/plants from the pet store. They are tiny and very hard to see... to prevent this I make sure I do not ANY pet store water to my tank. I usually dump all of the water out of the bag before adding any fish.

[urbancleopatra]

yeah the white goo could be snail eggs. ewww...

[SpotsMama]

In addition to not putting pet store water in with feeder fish, you can also wash your store bought plants in the sink before you put them in. That will help but it's not perfect!

The snails are not necessarily a bad thing unless they take over. There are snails in my turtle's tank and Spot eats them. They are a good source of calcium for him. I get a few in my filter but they are small and there aren't too many so, in the balance they're a good thing. Hope they are for you too! They're very difficult to get rid of!

[pitym]

Oops didn't realize I posted this under food and nutrition. Thanks for your help. I have not gotten anything new lately. But I washed everything pretty much down the drain. So hopefully no more snails and I am glad they were not supposed to be there!!

[marisa]

Have you put any anachris or similar plants in the tank? If you didn't rinse them well beforehand, that's where your snails came from. And all those jelly-like lumps are snail eggs (you can see the tiny white dots in the them, which are the future snails).

My filters often get snails in them, and I pretty much throw them back in the tank for the turtles and get rid of the eggs. I was over run with them in one tank and had to do a really thorough cleaning once.

If you keep the plants in a container of clean water after rinsing them, you'll probably still be able to pick off more snails. They can be a challenge to eliminate.

[pitym]

Late reply here...The last time I put anachris in there was a couple months ago. I did rinse it but maybe not good enough. I am just surprised I did not see the snails before. There was a little slimy stuff last week when I cleaned the filter so I washed all of it off with hot water. I'll be sure to rinse well in the future.