Okay, so about a month and a half ago I added some new plants from Petsmart to my tank. I rinsed them super well with water before adding to try and remove all pest snail eggs. about a week after adding them I was looking at my tank and noticed movement in my coral, it was a pest snail. I removed it and continued to took for more, I found one more and removed it as well. they looked so similar to my substrate that I figured there was no way those were the only two. its a month or so after I removed them and I havent seen one since. do you think there was only two snails in my whole 55 gal and I picked them out or do they live in places I cant see?

If they laid eggs before removal,then you will notice more pretty soon.It takes a week or so to hatch and then they are pretty small.

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

Good luck with that. The more times you add plants, the more chance you have of getting them. You can't keep it from happening.

right. I've only accidentally got rid of all snails in my tank. I actually liked the trumpet snails 'cause they moved the substrate around... But I think my pleco ate them or something because they're not only gone, even the shells are gone.

I found a recipe for a dip for the plants that is totally safe. You add 3 tbsp of Alum to a gallon of water and soak the plants for 2-3 hours and it will kill any snail eggs that may have snuck in. I'd ordered a bunch of plants from Aquariumplants.com, and from feedback I noticed that they have a persistant problem with snail eggs. Plants are gorgeous though. I tried the Alum dip and got no snails.

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20 gallon long:Amazon Swords, Ruffle Swords, Red Flame Swords, Fanwort, Wisteria,8 Lemon tetras,
6 otos, 11 Amano shrimp, 3 mystery snails, 3 Bolivian Rams, 3 black skirt tetra and 2-3 lemon tetra fry
10 gallon: 30 lemon tetra fry, give or take...1 gallon Anubias, Fish: 1 betta

JACK DEMPSEYS love snails!

I used to be PARANOID about pest snails and even got some Assassin Snails to eat the pest ones in my 20g. With my 36g tank, I looked over all the plants soooo carefully before adding them - rinsed them as well - and still ended up with pest snails. So, I figured 'what the heck' and didn't bother checking any more new plants for snails. Just gave 'em a quick rinse and put them in the tank.

The pest snails aren't eating the plants or anything, just the algae and left over food so I'm not too worried about them. I also take a bunch of the babies I see on the glass and toss them into the 20g to feed the Assassin Snails every once in a while too. Kinda' got my own "Snail Farm" going on, lol.

Honestly though, don't worry about them - more often than not they aren't hurting anything but are actually helping. (And, they're kinda' cute too!)

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20g Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981
36g Bow Front Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981

A good PP dip will take care of that. ;o)

But, if you catch them early as in the OPs case, you will have things well under control. All it takes is good daily observation. See a snail...Pluck a snail. I've removed them completely from most of my tanks that way. However, I keep a few around for some reason in other tanks.