I haven't added anything new to my tank in over a month. This morning, I saw nothing out of the ordinary in my tank, but when I went to feed my betta tonight, I saw a ton of dead snails just floating at the top of my tank. I haven't bought any snails. His only tankmates are 3 oto catfish. Where did these come from? Is this a bad sign- should I get an assassin snail or something? Or are these harmless? Tank parameters are good, only thing that changed recently was a 50% water change I performed yesterday due to my filter getting gunked up.
Posted by Sensitive-Secret-321
5 Comments
They look like ramshorn snails, which in my opinion are harmless and help clean up the tank. They are usually introduced to tanks as eggs on plants. However, if you overfeed, their population will grow to plague proportions.
I’m not sure why they died, especially if the fish are fine and so are the parameters. The betta may have been hunting them. (I’ve never kept bettas, but I assume that’s something they might do.)
Are you 100% sure they’re dead? My ramshorn frequently skim the surface of the tank just like in your picture. I believe they’re eating biofilm from the surface of the water.
Did you do a sniff test on those snails? A dead snail has a truly unmistakable smell. Like just a truly awful sewage smell. If they don’t smell like anything or just smell like your fish tank then they’re likely still alive
Bladder snails. They hitchhike on plants and breed like rabbits. Not dangerous and not dead. They get their name from this exact behaviour. They float and skim the water to eat biofilm and algae.
Those are ramshorn snails. Make sure they are dead first. They could be r/parasnailing
They’re not dead. Snails float on purpose, put them back.