Helena is a predatory aquarium snail. Helena snail: a bright decoration and a cunning predator at the same time

Not all snails are equally beneficial for aquarium. In a spawning aquarium, snails have nothing to do at all; they eat eggs and fish larvae. There are hordes in the common aquarium snails can completely destroy aquatic plants. The most common problem for the aquarist is the rapid reproduction of the red horned coil or red phys. You need to get rid of them periodically.

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You will need

• -banana peel;
• - lettuce leaves;
• -bleaching powder;
• -battery 9-12 V;
• -wires;
• -copper wire:
• -predator fish: common macropod, tetradont and others.

Instructions

1. There are several ways to get rid of snails. Large snails, such as ampularia, can be collected by hand and transferred to another aquarium. The juveniles of these snails are also quite large, and the eggs are laid under the cover glass of the aquarium. The clutch, similar to raspberries, is located above the water. Remove it and throw it away.

2. Snails can be caught using bait. Use banana peels and lettuce leaves as bait. Place bait on the bottom of the aquarium. When the snails gather on the bait, they are removed along with the peel or leaves. This procedure must be done several times at intervals of 3-4 days to remove not only large snails, but also those that have recently hatched from eggs. In this case, it is not necessary to remove fish and plants from the aquarium.

3. Exists electrical method removing snails. Take 2 stranded copper wires. On one side, strip the ends in the form of panicles by 3-5 cm. Connect the other ends to a 9-12 V battery. Dip the stripped ends into water with opposite sides aquarium for 2-3 minutes. The snails die. This method, despite its speed, has its drawbacks. Firstly, many plants cannot tolerate copper ions and may die. Secondly, it is not known for certain how this procedure affects fish, although some aquarists claim that it is harmless. Thirdly, dead snails will still have to be removed from the aquarium manually. As they decompose, they will spoil the water.

4. A radical method of fighting snails is to remove all fish and plants from the aquarium. Destroy the plants. Replace the soil completely or boil it and then rinse it. Disinfect the aquarium with bleach, rinse thoroughly and dry. Refill the aquarium with water. This method can only be used in small aquariums, where biological equilibrium is quickly established and there are no valuable plants.

5. The most effective and environmentally friendly method of snail control is biological. Place them in a snail-infested aquarium natural enemies. These are hungry adult macropods, large cichlids. Specialized mollusc eaters - tetradonts - cope with this task better than others. Snail eggs are very well destroyed by ancistrus. A pair of spawning cichlases or cancers completely destroys all snails in a 100-liter aquarium in 2 days.

Helpful advice

Some aquarists specifically stock snails in the aquarium. Before you do this, you need to think about whether you need them and how you are going to deal with them later.

How to get rid of snails in an aquarium: all working methods

Any experienced aquarist eventually develops an ambivalent attitude towards the snails that live in his glass houses. On the one hand, they seem to be useful - they eat up leftover food that has fallen to the bottom, and (some) clean the glass of aquariums from growth. On the other hand, most species stain these very glasses, and sometimes mollusks reproduce so “excessively” that they destroy green spaces, turning a cozy oasis into some kind of water desert. The melania snail is especially disliked by fish owners. How to get rid of a creature that reproduces with escape velocity? Moreover, she is also viviparous, so her cubs immediately join the enemy ranks. Other species are not so fertile and give time to find a way to get rid of snails in the aquarium. But probably all owners of “swimming pools” have to deal with this problem.

Causes of the snail problem

With your own hands

Snail baits

Snail traps

Electric method

Chemistry to help

Biological method: fish against snails

Biological method: shellfish against snails

Melania snail in an aquarium: contents, photo-video review

MELANIA SNAIL contents, photo-video review
Melanie's homeland is Africa, Asia and Australia.

This is a viviparous mollusk that lives in the ground. The soil is their habitat, a refuge, a place where they feed and reproduce.

The Melania snail has a characteristic shell in the form of a narrow cone up to 3-4 centimeters long. This shell structure is associated with the need to bury itself in the ground. The color of the shell is variable. The mollusk has a cover at the mouth of the shell, which is necessary for protection from aggressors and for waiting out unfavorable conditions.

Comfortable water parameters for a snail: temperature 22-28° C, mollusks are indifferent to hardness, active reaction, and other chemical parameters of water. Aeration is needed in the aquarium, since these snails breathe only through gills.

As already mentioned, this snail, unlike many others, is viviparous. The juvenile snail is tiny, about a millimeter long, and hides in the roots of plants. It grows slowly.

Melania snails do not need personal feeding in a common aquarium, because... they feed on all kinds of leftovers aquarium life.

You can control the number of melania or simply get rid of them simply by “cutting off their oxygen.”

Here's another way to remove the melania snail or control its population?

1. Buy a banana at the market.

2. Eat a banana.

3. Leave the banana peel in the sun or radiator until it turns completely black.

4. At night, throw the rotten banana peel into an aquarium with melania snails.

5. And in the morning... voila!!! All snails are on banana peels. All you have to do is remove and shake the snails from the banana peel into the trash bin.

P.S. In 2 nights and 2 bananas, I completely rid my aquarium of snails.

Well, in general, pet stores sell a bunch of special preparations for breeding snails.

And yet, banana peels are not chemicals for you (you do not risk disturbing the aquarium ecosystem), in addition, special. the drug costs money.

Photo review of the melania snail

How to wash plants from an aquarium:: disinfection of aquarium plants:: Aquarium fish

Plants in an aquarium have a beneficial effect on its inhabitants great importance, because they enrich the water with oxygen and absorb the carbon dioxide released by the fish. However, it must be remembered that excess aquatic plants may cause the death of aquarium inhabitants. In order for the plants to grow well and not harm the fish, you should adhere to certain rules to care for them.

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You will need

• - solution of potassium permanganate;
• - hydrogen peroxide solution;
• - methylene blue solution;
• - warm water;
• - container for washing plants.

Instructions

1. It is necessary to equip the aquarium with a water filter. It needs to be washed and disinfected regularly (once every 2-3 weeks). In addition, a necessary condition is the presence of lighting.

2. When treating an aquarium, you need to wash not only the soil and other decorative elements, but also the plants, and it is also advisable to pre-disinfect them.

3. A solution of potassium permanganate is suitable for disinfection. To do this, dissolve 10 milligrams of dry crystalline substance in 1 liter warm water. The resulting solution should be pale pink. Soak the plant in it for 30 minutes, then rinse under running water.

4. You can also use a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution. You can buy it at the pharmacy. In this case, pour 10 milligrams of the solution into a container with 1 liter of water. It is enough to immerse the plant for 5 minutes, then also rinse in running water.

5. Another disinfection method: use a methylene blue solution. You need to take 0.5 grams of dry preparation and dissolve in 1 liter hot water. The solution should have a pale blue color. Cool it to room temperature. Then place the plants in the solution and soak for 10 minutes. After this, rinse in warm water.

6. In specialized stores you can buy a ready-made disinfectant for plants and aquarium accessories and follow the instructions written on the package. Then you also need to rinse the plants thoroughly in warm water.

7. After this, the plants need to be carefully inspected, dead and damaged leaves and other parts must be removed. Too large bushes need to be divided, very long roots should be trimmed. This stimulates their growth and gives decorative look aquarium.

Video on the topic

note

Helpful advice

If you brought a plant from a natural body of water, be especially careful about disinfection, because your pets may die from the introduced infection.

Many novice aquarists often have a problem with the appearance of large quantity small snails in the aquarium, such as, coils, melania. And two questions immediately arise: how to get rid of snails and where did they all come from?

So, if you yourself did not introduce these snails into your aquarium, then they could get into it along with purchased plants, on the leaves of which they lay eggs. As is known, many species of snails are hermaphrodites, and when good nutrition just one snail can produce a thousand like it in a couple of months. Moreover, you will not see young snails; they usually hide in the ground at first, and when they mature, they begin to crawl out in a heap.

I have found quite a few ways to get rid of snails that have taken over your aquarium. And now I will describe them to you, starting with the most simple methods and ending with quite unusual ones.

Nutrition

The easiest way to reduce snail populations is to simply monitor the fish's diet. There is no need to overfeed the fish; the fish should eat all the food within 5 minutes; if they don’t have time, reduce the amount of food. This method will not allow you to completely get rid of snails, but only allows you to control their numbers.

Catching

To completely get rid of snails, you can catch them by hand. Melania, for example, sometimes rise to the surface for air. This is where you can easily catch them. The rest of the snails can be caught with bait, in the form of a cabbage or lettuce leaf placed on the bottom of the aquarium, previously scalded with boiling water. The snails really like this delicacy and after a while they will gather for this treat. All you have to do is carefully remove the sheet with snails. This procedure, done several times, will help you get rid of snails. Repeat the procedure a month later, since the first time you only got rid of adult snails, but now the young snails have grown up, and it’s time to catch them too.

Predators

You can also get rid of snails with the help of fish. Fish such as Macropods, Cichlids, Geophagus, Botia (Macracantha, Clown) love to hunt snails. Dwarf tetradons also like to eat snails, but they may be attracted to other fish.

Not only fish, but also crustaceans and even other snails can help you get rid of snails. For example, the Macrobrachium shrimp will eat all the snails quite quickly. However, if they do not have enough food, they will attack weak and slow fish.

Snail (Clea helena) can also be used to get rid of other types of snails. They have a kind of trunk, which they use to lure the prey out of the shell and then eat it.

Chemistry

You can get rid of snails in an aquarium using chemicals. In pet stores you can choose special preparations that quickly destroy snails. But at the same time, the fish must be resettled. And still, the chemistry will deal a serious blow to the biobalance of the aquarium.

Flushing

There is an even more labor-intensive way to get rid of snails - this is by completely washing the aquarium, plants and boiling the soil. And if you do not miss a single clutch of snail eggs on the plants, then this method can be considered the most reliable.

One more left unusual way to get rid of snails - electrolysis. Place two copper wires connected to a battery into the water from different sides of the aquarium. After a few minutes of passing current through the water, all the snails will die.

Now you know all the ways to get rid of snails in an aquarium, choose the one that suits you best!

In some cases, the “population” of the aquarium is reduced naturally biologically. An example of an event is Operation Helena the Snail. During it one biological species snails are destroyed by other, small, weak ones. Action brings benefits. Watching the process is fascinating. The main thing is that the action helps regulate the number of multiplying living creatures (coil snails).

general characteristics

Aquarium life is characterized by self-regulation. Helena the predatory snail leads unusual image life. Features of food: relatives, smaller in size. Helena is a native South-East Asia. In nature, it inhabits lakes and ponds. Prefers running water to stagnant, cloudy mixtures.

The native home is sandy, silty substrates. An adult snail likes to burrow into the ground and wait daytime. Parental instinct implements a similar tactic: when babies mature, they remain in a buried state.

Aquarium life began recently, a decade ago. Helena managed to gain popularity. The ability to safely clean the aquarium of multiplied coils within 2-3 months is a valuable individual feature.

The appearance of the predator is attractive. The size of the shell does not exceed 20 mm, the color is considered bright, flashy - yellow range alternating with dark brown, amber stripes running in a spiral. Often the design is decorated with black dots, making the appearance attractive. Interesting appearance complemented by the conical shape of the shell.

The body of the snail itself is gray-green, similar to the appearance of classical species, and can be invisible in photos and videos.

The difference between snails is their ability to move quickly. It is necessary to catch up with the prey when hunting, you cannot fall behind in the thickets of vegetation, and overcome obstacles caused by design elements.

Life home aquarium Helena developed a number of habits:

1. Soft water is not advisable (it harms the strength of the sink);
2. loves fresh water, able to adapt to conditions with added salt;
3. The soil prefers soft, loose (fine gravel, sand), with a consistency close to its native element. Doesn’t make it difficult to do your favorite activity – spending time inside the ground;
4. Stagnant water is the key to an uncomfortable stay for Helena. It is better to observe the shift schedule and monitor cleanliness.

It is optimal to place the couple in a 20-liter aquarium.

Life expectancy ranges from one to three years, depending on the conditions created.

The optimal water temperature is 21-23 o C, but fluctuations of 2-3 o C are easily tolerated. A decrease in water temperature below 18 o C will provoke Helena to refuse to eat.

About nutritional features

Living in natural conditions, Helena picks up “snail carrion”, eats it, and lives on it. Can eat fish if they are dead and unable to move.

From the moment she turned gray in the aquarium, her diet included live snails (physa, melania, coils, ampullaria). Having a special device (a tube at the end with a mouth opening), Helena directs it into the shell of a live snail and sucks it all out internal content, leaving behind a pacifier - a shell, which over time acquires a lifeless gray color.

Helena does not hunt large snails, but the red-brown “small things” can be eaten almost completely by her.

If there is no “live food” in the aquarium, you can feed the predatory Helena with any food used for fish, including live, plant-based, dry and frozen. You don’t have to worry about shrimp – they are not suitable as food for carnivorous helens.

It is worth thinking in advance what Helen’s “children” will eat if you purchase them at an early age and put them in a community aquarium. They will not be able to find food for themselves and will die before reaching adulthood. Therefore, in aquarium farming there is a rule: Helena snails must grow to the size of mature individuals in a separate aquarium, with special food available. In this case, bloodworms, chopped frozen shrimp, and catfish food are suitable.

Reproduction of one's own kind

Having adapted to aquarium life, helenas can reproduce successfully. To do this, they must reach the age of six months.

Unlike coil snails, Helena snails are not hermaphrodites; they are divided according to gender. When you look closely, they become noticeable external differences female and male individuals.

The Helena snail reproduces by mating. It is slow, often involving not only a certain pair of “parents”, but a whole group of snails sticking together.

Even the stage of preparation for reproduction itself is interesting. A pair of “parents” who have chosen each other begin to have close contact. They spend their days practically clinging to each other, taking turns climbing on each other’s backs, as if they were riding horses. It is better to place such a couple in another aquarium in order to provide them with peace at the time of laying eggs.

As fertilization progresses, the female lays a single egg, which she tries to place on a stone, driftwood, or simply a hard surface. Considering that one egg is produced at a time, and even that is not a guarantee of its final development, the reproduction of Helena is a long-term issue.

An egg is a small square bubble with an egg inside. yellow color. For ripening, a period of at least 2-4 weeks is required.

Preferring such aquarium inhabitants and being interested in breeding them, aquarists always buy Helen’s company and expect offspring from them.

When the egg reaches the stage of maturation, a young snail hatches from it and immediately buries itself in the ground. Staying there for several months, she further extends the process of obtaining snail offspring. When the size of the snail baby reaches 5-8 mm, it comes to the surface of the bottom and begins an independent life.

What is the best neighborhood?

Keeping Helen involves determining in advance their possible proximity. Compatibility with fish, even very small ones, does not pose a danger to anyone. If you see a scene where a snail eats a fish, then most likely it has already died or become seriously ill. Helena will not catch live moving fish, like shrimp, and she will not even try. She will find something to eat elsewhere.

She can eat fish and shrimp eggs if she finds them and can reach them. Young fish, moving quickly and hiding from danger, are also not of interest. Objective assessment the degree of benefit or harm from its maintenance is possible with careful monitoring of the number of individuals inhabiting the aquarium and the quality of their life.

About some features

Organizing proper care behind a water house inhabited by snails, aquarists often wonder: will they damage the plants, will they bite young shoots or strong formed leaves?

Such questions arise for a reason. Many types of snails are capable of replacing it with plant food when there is a lack of animal food. They gnaw (if the soft chewing apparatus of their mouth can be called that) available twigs. More often this happens with outdated, rotting leaves. For this reason, debates continue among aquarists: are snails harmful to the plant world?

Regarding Helens, there is a clear opinion: they are not interested in vegetation. They will not replace animal feed with it. This explains the possibility of regulating the number of snails naturally: if there is a lot of food for them, they multiply intensively and quickly increase their numbers. If there is not enough food, they stop laying eggs and reproducing their own kind.

A special feature is night image the lives of such residents. They are active in the evening and at night. They sleep during the day and are practically invisible even at the bottom. At this time they gain strength for night hunting.

The Helena snail is a peculiar, original resident of the water house. This is a predator that devours its own creatures, having adapted to get them even from hard calcified shelters. But this is also a bright character, decorating the water landscape, bringing benefits in its content. Whether to start it or not is a matter of taste, but it will not harm anyone. That's for sure!

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the storm of all coils, physical and melania

The size of Helena snails is 0.5 - 1 cm. The body of the mollusk is elongated, the head and legs have a trunk-like shape In addition to their decorative properties, Helena snails have very interesting feature - They are predators and feed on animal (protein foods). Unlike many other freshwater snails, they do not eat plant organic matter. This amazing property of Helen is perfectly used in the fight against small snails such as: melania, coils, physicals , acroluxes. The Helens attack and destroy them. Thus, we can naturally, biologically control the number of small snails that breed like rabbits. Yes, this process is not as fast as using chemicals against snails, but it is natural. In addition, almost all snail repellents contain copper, which is dangerous - poisonous to fish and disrupts the biobalance of the aquarium. In addition, a sudden death of snails from chemicals leads to the same sharp pollution of the aquarium, the growth of dead organic matter, etc. After using such preparations, you need to carefully clean (siphon) the aquarium, filter the water well, and it is advisable to use aquarium charcoal and zeolite. At the same time, it must be said that helens are absolutely harmless to other aquatic organisms: fish, shrimp, crayfish, plants and even large snails such as ampullaria. They don't attack them because they can't catch up. In a relationship ampularia, only small - young individuals can be attacked; adult ampullaria are out of reach of Helena. When the horde of coils, milania, phys is completely destroyed, there is no need to worry about the fate and diet of Helen. These snails perfectly eat any other proteinaceous organic matter that has fallen to the bottom. In this regard, they can be said to be the orderlies of the aquarium - they eat leftover food and “recycle” dead organisms. Reproduction and breeding of the Helena snail These snails reproduce quite quickly in a year; a pair of helens can produce 250-300 offspring, which depends on water parameters. There is no difficulty in breeding Helena; in fact, it happens independently. These snails are of different sexes; it is not possible to determine who is male and who is female until the moment of mating. Therefore, if you want to breed these snails, then buy them in a small group from the pet store - 4-5 pieces. They cost Helena, by the way, it’s not expensive, 1 USD. a piece. Helen's reproductive process begins with a joint walk around the aquarium; after mating, the female lays eggs on solid objects in the aquarium. The incubation period of eggs is 25-30 days. After this line, the young Helena will fall and burrow into the soil, from which it will not emerge until it reaches 2-3 mm. size. Sexual maturity of a young Helena occurs at six months. It is worth noting that by placing a small group of helenas in your aquarium, you will not see immediate results. Only after time has passed, when the Helen colony grows, will the result be visible. More effective in this regard is rotten banana skin, which is dropped into the aquarium overnight and taken out with bunches of snails in the morning. Well, also, these little coil and melania snails are not so bad. They are also beneficial, the reels are excellent at handling dead plant organic matter, they can be fed to fish, especially cichlids. And melania, for example, quite successfully loosens aquarium soil, which ensures the absence of oxygen-free zones in it. All of the above is just the fruit of observing this type of snail and collecting various information from owners and breeders. We would like to share with visitors not only information, but also with live emotions, allowing you to penetrate the world of aquariums more fully and subtly. Register on, participate in discussions on the forum, create profile topics where you will talk about your pets in the first person and first-hand, describe their habits, behavior and content, share with us your successes and joys, share and learn from experience others. We are interested in every bit of your experience, every second of your joy, every awareness of a mistake, which makes it possible for your comrades to avoid the same mistake. The more of us there are, the more pure and transparent drops of goodness there are in the life and everyday life of our seven billion society. Beautiful photos of Helena snail