General Care Discussion :: Are snails harmless?

[Bumby's Mom]

A month or two ago I bought Nyx and Anacharis plant that was infested with little snails and after a complete water change all of them disappeared except they had already covered her filter with eggs. Well I found 2 little tiny snails on her filter so I put them into the babies tank because I figured the babies are so small maybe they would see the snails and eat them OR not touch them and let them grow, but now I am wondering if I made a mistake putting them in there... I saw one of the snails today and it is growing lol. Is it ok for the snails to be with the babies (they are 3 weeks old now)?

[Safdar]

Theyll get bigger and bigger and will multiply and youll have the same problem

But if your turtles eats them before this happens you should be fine
considereing there are no more eggs or babies left in there

I once brought home 1 snail from school (back in elementary) and put it in my fish tank

After 3 months
The whole tank was infested with snails
seriously you could barily see through the glass

I never understood how 1 reproduced

Oh well

[Bumby's Mom]

I was more concerned about parasites or something since the babies are so tiny. They can't harm them in that way right?

[Safdar]

There is always a chance of parasites in live animals
But i think you should be fine

[jenaero]

There's always a risk with live feeder items. I've had snails hitch a ride on live plants before and I've always just left them alone. I did eventually have one heck of an infestation and I had to clean the eggs out of the filter (ick!)

To avoid this issue in the future, you can rinse the plants (that's always a good idea anyway) before you put them in the tank.