Question: Spontaneous snail generation? Axolotls pooping snails? WTF

My son is the proud owner of three beautiful, fat, healthy axolotls we got from our very own EmbryH. Their tank is having issues cycling (another post) and they are still living in tubs. We change water daily, without fail, from the tap in the tub. The axolotls eat only pellets from eds fly meat. The past two days when I went to dump the water out of the dirty tub there has been a quarter inch snail in the tub....a live snail.

Where the hell could it have come from? Are they spontaneously generating? Are the axolotls pooping live snails?

The only furniture in the tub is a fake stone arch that has never been in any other tank.

The axolotls did spend a couple of days in the not-fully-cycled aquarium when we went on vacation because I didn't trust the house sitter to move them everyday and the ammonia was cycling pretty well. There are some snails that came with my plants in there. Could they have been eaten by the axolotls and are now being pooped out? Could baby snails have piggy backed?

Incidentally I have found multiple snails in my bathtub where I fill all aquatic tanks and tubs from. Even though there was NO SNAIL when I changed the water. Either snails are able to live in a tub drain for a couple of days before venturing out to scare me during my shower or they are spontaneously generating in the tub too.

Or maybe they can teleport out of the tank?


Scary things,

Yes, snails seem to magically appear from nowhere....

Their eggs are tiny, and can be transferred very easily with plants and axies, on ornaments, or even in water.

I doubt very much whether a snail or egg would survive an axie's digestive system, seeing as axies would eat snails in the wild.

Snails truly are the herpes of the fish tank world. Once you get them, there is no getting rid of them! Litterally anything you put in your tank comes with a risk of contracting snails, they are great little hitch hikers. anything aquatic you get from a pet store will have snail eggs. Anything you find in nature will have snail eggs too.... I think they are just a normal part of having a fresh water tank.

If you want to be 100% snail free, i think the only way to do it is start with a fresh tank, and boil everything you put in there apart from the axie itself. plants, rocks, sand, hides, everything.

Good news is they are totally harmless and kind of cute. If they stay in there for several years they can get quite big though and can be an axie choking hazard, so i just remove the large ones. I take them down to the creek. :happy:

yellowpebble said:

snails truly are the herpes of the fish tank world.

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pmsl!