Trap Door Snails good or bad idea?

[campingcreecher]

I purchased some snails for my pond, thinking they would help keep the algae in check. Now I'm really worried about parasites from them. I've never lost a fish in my pond due to bad water quality, parasites, fungus or bacterial until now. Shortly after I introduced these things to my pond. I started noticing changes in my fishes behaviors. Now several things were going on. Spring always bring spawning and algae blooms (which for me, in my pond was causing wide ph swing) and I know that causes added stress on the fish. We had also brought in some new plants (which can carry, who knows what), also purchases some new koi (no gasping please), I did quarantine the new fish for 3 weeks in my quarantine tank, in a product call de-los and then, put them in the pond. I lost 4 koi, clearly due to fungus and bacteria problems. Its been 3 weeks sense all this started, all fish look great with no visual signs of health issues. The (reaper has gone) lol. We fed the fish with koi fix in their food and treated the pond with Nitrofuracin Green as recommended for our pond size. Then have sense followed up with 2 treatments of Potassium Permanganate and hydrogen peroxide.

My question is, should I put the Trap Door snails back in my pond?


Advise from the guy who advised us on the potassium and hydrogen peroxide treatments said, "pray for death to my snails" they carry parasites that just can't be killed and will reek havoc on the health of my fish. I remove the snails from my pond before we started treatments because I was worried the meds would kill them.

Is he correct telling me this?
I'm wondering if the snails could have been what caused all this?

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[crsublette]

Snails are carriers of many parasites. Also, most bacterial infections are the result of a parasitic attack or the fish might have flashed against an object too hard causes a scrape.

I know also that snails can be a carrier of the liver fluke, which can be transmitted to warm blood creatures (i.e., humans, dogs, cats, coyotes, etc)

To be honest, I don't know... I'm not a big fan of using snails... I've never seen them being effective at reducing algae.

 

[campingcreecher]

Snails are carriers of many parasites. Also, most bacterial infections are the result of a parasitic attack or the fish might have flashed against an object too hard causes a scrape.

I know also that snails can be a carrier of the liver fluke, which can be transmitted to warm blood creatures (i.e., humans, dogs, cats, coyotes, etc)

To be honest, I don't know... I'm not a big fan of using snails... I've never seen them being effective at reducing algae.

 

[campingcreecher]

Hello my friend,
I sure hope you are not up at 3:11 am responding to this. Though, I knew I could count on you for an opinion. I have a stream down behind my house, that runs through the woods. I might introduce them to living in the wild if you know what I mean. Sure won't be the first time I've wasted a few dollars. The cost of losing loved koi and seeing what bacterial and fungal infections can do was horrible and is certainly not worth having them. We took swabs of the infections to send off to a lab but we couldn't fine anyone local that could diagnose the sample with out sending it to the west coast. These infections were quick and we had no time to waste on waiting for the results that could take 2 -3 weeks. My fish were dying and had to get started on meds ASAP. Bottom line, eviction time!

 

[Nepen]

I have many many snails that came by themselves. I dont know how they show up, just one day I saw one and hundred the next. I dont have any problem with my fish yet. And hoping not because I dont know how i'd get rid of the snail as they came by themselves.

 

[campingcreecher]

I have many many snails that came by themselves. I dont know how they show up, just one day I saw one and hundred the next. I dont have any problem with my fish yet. And hoping not because I dont know how i'd get rid of the snail as they came by themselves.

I have always had the tiny black snails, but I purchased 50 of the large golf ball size Japanese trap door snails about two weeks before having this problem. Never ever had fungus or bacterial infections before in my 10 years of having a koi pond. Not saying it came from them the snails, but it has me wondering do trap door snails carry parasites and bacteria's that could have caused this? and should I put these snails back in with my now healthy fish?

 

[Nepen]

I wouldn't risk it for now. Better be safe than sorry.

 

[campingcreecher]

I wouldn't risk it for now. Better be safe than sorry.

I'm thinking about taking a walk to the stream below my house. In the 3 weeks I've had them in the tank they've had about 30 tiny babies. Hate to see them go.

 

[Nepen]

sell them. I'm not sure you should put them in the nature stream.. I have no idea if they are native or not but if not, they can be invasive and not good for the balance of your ecosystem.

 

[campingcreecher]

sell them. I'm not sure you should put them in the nature stream.. I have no idea if they are native or not but if not, they can be invasive and not good for the balance of your ecosystem.

Yeah I worry about that too. My neighbor has a shubbie pond with a few koi I had given her last year. She and I both went in together and bought 100 snails and divided them out. She did find a couple of fish dead but they did not appear to have the funguses and bacterial infection that I had. I may just give them to her. She isn't as particular with her pond as I am and I don't mean that in a bad way.

 

[Nepen]

post it on craigslist I'm about to have to give away 30+ guppies too and will have to do a craigslist ad now.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

I have many many snails that came by themselves. I dont know how they show up, just one day I saw one and hundred the next. I dont have any problem with my fish yet. And hoping not because I dont know how i'd get rid of the snail as they came by themselves.

nepen you may have introduced pond snails with the addition of live plants.

 

[Mmathis]

I have trapdoor snails, however I ABSOLUTELY remove any RAMS HORN snails I find. Rams horns are part of the life-cycle of a trematode ["yellow grub"]. I have had several fish infected [infested?] with this trematode -- I don't know if the fish already had the larval thing in them when I got the fish, or if they came from snails in the pond......but rams horns GO!

 

[Mmathis]

BTW, you shouldn't release any animal or plant into the environment. Either rehome them or.....well, turn them into fertilizer or something.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

I agree, please don't turn them loose. And I wish you would kill them either. I would take them off your hands if I lived closer. How about your neighbor? Maybe they will take them?