Loaches Online Forum

Folks,
I'm sure this has been asked before, but couldn't find in the archives:

Do/can snails carry Ich?
If so, I'm thinking a couple of scoops of salt and jack-up temperature to 31C for a week, then dose 'em in Lavamasol for 5 more days. I notice that the Malechite (sp) blue/green tends to kill 'em, so am trying to avoid.

A buddy manages a lake that is literally coated with 3-5 species of snails: rams-horns, pond, and local and invasive trumpets. Literally- one scoop with the dip-net yields a pint of live snails. Happy loaches, if I can get them from the lake to the tank without unwanted "guests"....

I don't worry too much in the summer, as the tank temp is over 29C from May through Oct, but this time of year I am very careful. No Ich for 3 years now, so, touch-wood, it's working.

A

Snails can carry other parasites that live their life in several phases, a different host for each stage.

Snails are not hosts for Ich, and cannot carry it directly.

They can carry it accidentally.

Such as...
Snails kept in a tank with common filter with other tanks. One (or more) of the other tanks has fish with Ich. Ich theronts will be swimming in the water that is common to all the tanks, including the snail tank.
When you buy these snails they come with some water that has Ich in it.

To prevent this Ich from getting into your fish tanks a short quarantine will be enough. Just long enough for the theronts to die. Absolutely no fish in the snail quarantine tank, of course. Theronts cannot live for more than a few days without a host, so a week or so of quarantine ought to be plenty. 2 weeks is way more than enough. No medication needed. The poor little babies starve to death.