The Puffer Forum

Just a general question: can snails transfer IPs? Can they act as a host for them?
After several outbreaks of IPs in my tanks, I've decided to deworm them all. It's my shared water change equipment that brings the IPs from tank to tank. So now it's time for an all around deworming. But I've got some snails in some of the tanks that I don't want to kill (applesnails and ramshorns). So I will have to remove them to another (fishless) tank while medicating the tanks. But can they act as a host, and then bring back the IPs when I put them back in the tank where they belong? If there's a danger, how long should the snails be on their own before I put them back, or is there something I can do to remove the problem from them?
How long can IPs live without a host (thinking about how long I must store equipment I can't desinfect)?

Yes, snails and other shellfish are intermediary hosts for a species of tapeworm

What can I do to both save my snails and make sure they don't bring back any nasty parasites?

Nothing....Pretty much just worm your fish every 2-3 months like you would a cat or a dog. That's what my teacher from my "Animal Care Aide" course told me. She's a Vetrinary assistant.

Pandora114 wrote:Yes, snails and other shellfish are intermediary hosts for a species of tapeworm

* many species of tapeworm and other nasties.
During my parasitology class I found it amazing how common it was for parasites to have a mollusk intermediate host. No wonder puffers are so IP prone

Pandora114 wrote:Nothing....Pretty much just worm your fish every 2-3 months like you would a cat or a dog.

With 25 tanks, that is not an option. I wish there was a wormer that was snail safe.

You could use gel-tek or prazipro. Soak the snail in it for about 15min. That should be long enough, then feed the snail to the puffers. Do this for 3 days in a row. It's easier than treating the whole tank. If the puffers are still eating that's the best way. If they are not eating then you have to treat the whole tank.

Would the snails survive treating a tank with PraziPro? I want my snails back in the tanks they live now. The applesnail is my algae eater in one of my corydoras tanks. My ramshorns are the same, together with being food for puffers, of course.

If your puffer is eating I wouldn't treat the whole tank. More than likely it will kill the snails.
I would soak the snails or food that you will feed the puffers in a cup or bowl with gel-tek or prazipro, then feed the snail to the puffers.

I'm still using my snails as algae eaters in my corydoras tanks, and I don't want to lose them. So I'm looking for a way to treat the snails, without killing them. They are not only puffer food.
I also still need an aswer for this question: "How long can IPs live without a host (thinking about how long I must store equipment I can't desinfect)?"

Tapeworm Proglottids can live FOREVER without a host. I mean..literally forever.

Lifecycle of tapeworm in a nutshell:

Proglottid (egg carrying body segment) is shed in fish feces

Snail/shrimp/whatever eats fish feces

Eggs hatch in gut of invert.

Invert acts as a nursery for juvinile tapeworms

Fish eats invert

Juvinile tapeworms find way to intestine, latch on and start to mature. Each segment produced contains male and female reproductive organs. Self fertilize. Worm produces more proglottids as it gets older, absorbing nutrients from the fish through it's skin. When the "oldest" proglottid reaches the end of the digestive tract of the fish, it drops off into the feces...to..perpetuate the species. It can live forever sans host in this little time capsule, where it gets re-ingested and on and on we go.

I need to look up the lifecycle of fishie roundworm/anchorworm/hookworm/whipworm...but that's the life cycle of the Tapeworm that infects fishies. WHICH BY THE WAY IS ZOONOTIC, which means, you can get it too if you aren't careful.

The IP's will not harm your snails. They won't. They are juviniles. It's when they hit adult and infect the fish, that's when you have a problem.

So...your best bet is to treat your fish every 3 months with gel-tek, or eliminate the intermediary host, which is the snail.

This is maybe a stupid question, but can the snails still transfer the IPs if they are not eaten? Like the applesnails I keep as clean up crew in some non puffer tanks?

Troender wrote:This is maybe a stupid question, but can the snails still transfer the IPs if they are not eaten? Like the applesnails I keep as clean up crew in some non puffer tanks?

Nope, they have to be eaten.

Ah! That was good news. Most of the snails I don't want to kill are not food, but algae eaters.