My Ramshorn snails have had babies but my tank isnt big enough to support them. My friend says she just squashes her baby snails but i cant bring myself to do that. If my lfs wont take them and I cant find homes for them, what would be the best and kindest way to cull them?

Really, there is no nice way to kill snails that are aleady born. I have heard of people boiling their baby/adult snails to kill them, but I would only do that with the actual eggs.

Do ramshorn snails lay eggs like apple snails? If so, be on the look out next time for eggs so you can kill them before they hatch.

I would say that squishing the babies would be the fastest way as long as you make it quick and get them the first time. It would be hard for you to do yes, but you need to think about them right now. The faster and least painful way is the best.

Maybe someone else has a better way of doing it. In the meantime, take a look at this site, they may have some info for you:

http://applesnail.net/

Thanks for your reply Florissa.I went to my local petshop and they suggested "Snail Rid". You treat some water in a bucket and then put the snails in and it kills them. Would they suffer with this method. Is squashing better?

When mine laid eggs I took a bunch of them out and just let them dry. But now that the ones I let go are now hatched I'm gonna soon put them in the tank with the fish and let nature take its coarse. And if your fish are anything like my fish I doubt there will be many left.

Is it safe to feed them to my godfish? I worry about diseases? I know I'm probably just mega paranoid but I love my goldfish soo much. I dont mind if I can feed them to my goldfish. I think that's a fairly quick way to go to the snailgod in the sky

Nip over to applesnail.net and offer them for the price of posting someone there will take them off you..and just flush the eggs before they hatch it doesnt seem as bad then..Linda

do you have a garbage disposal on your sink? i know that sounds nuts, but that's the same as squishing them, right? it's an instant death at least. letting them dry or using "had a snail" products seems like a prolonged death to me.

i don't see a problem with letting your goldies eat them. i didn't even notice i had ramshorns for the longest time, b/c my goldies were keeping the population down so well. it wasn't until i found a few snails in my filter and seperated them that i had such a huge amount of babies...i should have left them in the tank! now i have about 40 tiny babies, that are too big for me to kill...

I would never just take them out and let them dry once they were hatched or even once you can see the baby snails in the eggs. I took the eggs out and let them dry as soon as I saw the snail lay them, so I didn't think that was bad. I just had to clarify that so no one thought I was being cruel or anything.

I didnt think you were being cruel silver8328 Culling is cruel in general and it's hard to find a method that i feel comfortable with. I think the little snails are so cute but I cant afford to have a tank just for my ramshorn snails. Breeding them as goldfish food is an option I'm seriously considering as it gives them a sense of purpose. They die to benefit another animal and wont die for nothing .............I hope i dont sound like a tweeb

I personally find the best way is to transport them to another tank (goldfish tank) and they will take care of them.
You should just really go onto Applesnails.com and go onto the message board and post into trade or sell forum and im sure someone will gladly take them off of you.
I can't cull an of my snails....

yes i agree with all above posts... its not that inhumane if you think about it.. killing them before they beguin to form or feeding them to ur goldfish is nature's cycle

by the way.. not to be rude or anything

why is everyone saying "cull" do you mean "kill" or is cull another word????



Thanks

Ramy

Culling means to kill animals in order to control populations. In Australia we cull Kangaroos and Cockatoos because in some areas there numbers get too big and they damage farmers crops. I think I explained "Culling" correctly.

If anyone has a more definate explanation of the word please post

Cockatoos are now endagered because of culling....

I didnt know that. Which species? Where I live there are hundreds of different types of cockatoos flying around in flocks, but we dont cull them here in Ballarat.