I'd like to get some snails to help clean up the sand and some algae in my tank but I'm reluctant to add them without a quarantine. Does anyone know how to quarantine snails? I plan on holding them in a separate tank for 30 days in case they might be carrying ich. I know not to use copper but I'm not sure what to feed them since the Q tank is bare. Thanks!
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Quarantine snails
- Thread starter Fishbreath
- Start date
While the snail itself may not be a carrier of the Ich parasite, there is nothing to say that its reproductive stage can not be attached to its shell. When this parasite drops off of its host fish to reproduce, its does so by swimming to a "substrate", whos to say that a shell is not a suitable substrate to attach to? Which is why anything and everything from rocks to sand should be quarantined, besides there being alot more pathogens to take guard against as well.
Marine Ich
Chuck
Marine Ich
Chuck
While I would agree with the snails don't ordinarily carry diseases, if these snails are being held in a tank with fish at the LFS they can very easily bring disease into the tank. They are usually stored with the water from the tank, and when you get home unless you can take every droplet of water from the snail inside and out, they might carry disease. I learned this lesson the hardway when I brought home a couple tuxedo urchins.
That being said I probably wouldn't quarantine snails.
That being said I probably wouldn't quarantine snails.
saltwaterdave":1z21gats said:Snails can't carry ick.
No quarantine needed.
Really bad advice fellas. If those snails have been in the same system as a fish anytime in the last few weeks they can indeed carry a number of fish parasites. Unlikely? Yes. Impossible? Not even close. Not to mention a host of other coral, snail, clam, etc. parasites.
Quarantining snails is really, really, easy. Why NOT do it?
Charlesr1958":16awm7td said:While the snail itself may not be a carrier of the Ich parasite, there is nothing to say that its reproductive stage can not be attached to its shell. When this parasite drops off of its host fish to reproduce, its does so by swimming to a "substrate", whos to say that a shell is not a suitable substrate to attach to? Which is why anything and everything from rocks to sand should be quarantined, besides there being alot more pathogens to take guard against as well.
Marine Ich
Chuck
Absolutely. Not to mention flatworms, ciralonid isopods, Acro 'red bugs', montipora eating flatworms, etc. etc.
Matt_Wandell":2r7sthrs said:saltwaterdave":2r7sthrs said:Snails can't carry ick.
No quarantine needed.
Really bad advice fellas. If those snails have been in the same system as a fish anytime in the last few weeks they can indeed carry a number of fish parasites. Unlikely? Yes. Impossible? Not even close. Not to mention a host of other coral, snail, clam, etc. parasites.
Quarantining snails is really, really, easy. Why NOT do it?
"Carry" might have been a bad term to use on my part. Snails can be a vector of the disease.
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