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One day you look at your aquarium and you notice a tiny snail in the tank. It looks harmless. A week later the snail has half a dozen of fellow companions and, before you know it, the aquarium is full of them. Where did they come from? How were they able to reproduce so quickly? What can be done to get rid of them? Those who have ever tried to get rid of snails know that it’s a hard battle, but there are certain things you can do to maintain the aquarium and keep it free from snails.

When you bought the aquarium, there were no snails inside, so where they actually came from? Snails usually arrive at the aquarium attached to plants in the form of small eggs that we often overlook and don’t  remove when the plants were washed (it could also be gravel, stones or roots).

Sometimes, they come together with fish. It takes one snail or just a few snail eggs and your beautiful aquarium becomes a snail oasis.

Perhaps one of the most amazing things about snails is that they reproduce so quickly. A snail doesn’t need to mate to multiply as it can fertilize its eggs itself. Moreover, during the day snails usually hide in the gravel and only come out at night to feed on plants, so you can assume that the individual that you see stuck to the aquarium glass, has dozens or hundreds of brothers, living somewhere underground. Each of them are able to reproduce rapidly so your snail problem can grow really fast.

Although snails reproduce fast and spend days in their hiding places, you can still win the battle.

Try luring them outside with the lettuce leaf that you stick to the aquarium glass for night and in the morning you will probably find the whole snail family feeding on the lettuce. Of course, you won’t eliminate every snail using this very method, but at least you can control their population.

Another solution is to place snail-eating fish in the aquarium. Any fish belonging to the loach family will be eager to dine on snails. Also, labyrinth fish such as Gourami or Fighting Fish are likely to eat snails, although they are not much experienced in searching for food under the gravel, which is snails’ most favorite hiding place.

Finally, you can also lessen the amount of food you give to the fish. If you reduce the amount of food given to fish, snails also eat less. As a result, they will not be able to reproduce at such a quick pace.

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Snails Have Unexpectedly Become Inland Fish

Roman snails (Helix pomatia) systematically belong to the helicid family, a group of terrestrial snails with spherical shells. These large, air-breathing snails live in south-eastern and central parts of Europe. They favor damp areas with long grass. So far they have been known under many names: Burgundy snails, edible snails, escargots, but no one ever has called them… fish. That detail has changed recently when the European Union reclassified the species as inland fish! Many scientists, biologists and teachers have been shocked as the news was revealed. As the decision of the EU commission reached a wider audience there have been voices of discontent over the bizarre regulation. Some say that even little kids can name at least three distinguishing features that snails and fish do not have in common. Roman snails live on the ground and breathe air, while fish spend their entire life under water and use gills to extract oxygen from their water environment. Roman snails crawl; or rather move by sliding on their single foot, while fish swim using their fins to thrust in the direction they wish to go. Last but not least, land snails have two pairs of tentacles that stick out of their heads and fish manage just with one pair, placed on the upper side of their heads.

The Absurdities of the European Union Directives

The controversial decision by the EU commission was initiated by the  French delegation. The significant change in the classification of snails results in the subsidized breeding of snails in, the same way as fisheries in any other European country. The French government has a powerful farming lobby and the subsidies will help French farmers prosper. Snails, a French delicacy, are bred in any one of France’s two hundred snail farms. The French consume 25,000 tons of snails a year which equals about 700 million individual snails with two-thirds of those snails in the world consumed in France.

The snail reclassification joins the growing list of EU peculiarities. In 2002 the EU issued a directive in which a carrot would be considered a fruit. This was made in favor of the Portuguese, who make a popular carrot jam. The EU directive concerning the composition and labeling of different kinds of jam was defined to cover carrot jam in Portugal.

Image Source – Wikipedia

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Species Details

Adult size: 3″
Origin: South America
Sexing: Females are plumper
Care level: Easy
Diet: Omnivore
Breeding method: Egg-depositor
Breeding potential: Moderately easy

Tank conditions

Minimum tank size: 20 gallons
pH: 6.0-8.0
Temperature: 24-28′C

Description

Bronze Corydoras catfish are the most common Corydoras species in the aquarium trade. They have a brown/grey colored body with a white underbelly with bronze /green iridescent coloring along their flanks. Their down facing mouths have barbels to help them detect food as they swim along the bottom. Corys can live up to ten years if well cared for. One interesting characteristic of corys is their amusing ability of rolling their eyes seeming to wink at you!

Corys are well protected from predators. Instead of scales, they have two rows of scutes along their flanks. Scutes are bony external plates similar to scales. It acts like armour giving corys extra protection from predators. Corydoras are quite capable of defending themselves and actually have sharp barbs on their dorsal and pectoral fins, which can sting other fish if they try to attack.

Corydoras are ideal inhabitants of a community tank. They have a very peaceful temperament and will not bother your other fish. In the wild, they will move in large schools searching the river bed for food and they also need their own kind as company in home aquarium. They should be kept in groups of at least six.

They will get along with all other community fish but it is best that you avoid keeping them with too many other bottom feeding species to prevent competition over food. They will mix best with fish that swim in the middle and upper levels of the aquarium. Rainbowfish, tetras and angelfish are just a few examples of suitable Corydoras tank mates.

Corydoras are a bottom dwelling species. They will root around the bottom burying their barbels into the substrate as they scavenge for leftover food. They must be kept in an aquarium with rounded gravel or sand to prevent their barbels becoming damaged. They should be provided with plenty of natural retreats including planted areas and caves.

They require a well balanced diet and should be fed on sinking foods to enable the food to reach the bottom before being consumed by other fish. Corys will naturally enjoy live and frozen foods like bloodworm but will also appreciate sinking tablet foods and pellets.

Female Corydoras are identified as being plumber than the males, which is more noticeable when looking from above. When kept in relatively large shoals in the aquarium corys will begin to pair off when they are ready to breed. The pairs can then be separated into breeding aquariums ready for spawning. Breeding pairs should be fed on a good diet.

In nature, corys will breed during the rainy season. This can be simulated by making a fifty percent water change using cool water, which can often induce spawning. During spawning the pair will adopt the “T-position”. The pair will lay around one hundred or more eggs and attach them to a submerged surface such as a clay pot cave or plants. When the fry hatch, they should be removed from their parents and fed on baby brine shrimp until they are large enough to accept regular foods.