Parasites / Snail looking things

Question
Hello,

I recently noticed a small looking snail like parasite that I did not introduce to my 30 gallon fresh water tank. I had a sucker fish that recently died, right after these snail looking parasites (not sure parasite is the correct terminology), but they seem to be multiplying rapidly. Many of them live under the rocks, and I see approximately 3 to 8 on the upper inch to 2 inches of glass of the tank every other day or so. They are about 1/16" to 1/8" in size an look like a small hermit crab shell with snail looking inside. I am not sure what they are and I am not sure what to do!

Any help would be great!

Thanks,
James

Answer
It sounds like you have a snail infestation. Have you introduced plants or the like to your tank recently? When you buy plants, snails can sometimes hitch a ride in the gravel they come in and/or on the plant itself. If you have introduced new fish recently as well, the snail could have easily have been in the water that came in the bag with the fish.

You have a couple of options get rid of snails:
1. Drain the entire tank and pick them out and then boil the gravel to get rid of any eggs.
2. Add a chemical product into your tank that will kill the snails.
3.Add some Clown Loaches as they love snails and will demolish your population (but I wouldn't suggest this option for you because your tank isn't big enough to house a Clown Loach)
4.If you have another tank you could transfer your fish to for a small amount of time, you could turn the temp up in your 30g to around 30 for 24 hours or so, what this does is force all the snails out of their hiding places and into the top half of the tank where you can easily pick them all out BUT I wouldn't suggest doing this with fish in the tank because the high temp would kill them.