Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi guys,

New member here. I’m hoping to get help regarding a problem in one of my systems. This shell appeared a few months ago (tons of them), and with it a lot of tiny clear sticky sacs. The shells clog my pump and I’ve suffered unusual fish loss. For starters, can anyone identify what this is? Thank you for your help! There’s also a ton of live worms in the pump housing every time I clean it. In the past few weeks, I’ve had theee large fish float belly up so I hope this community can help.

Mahalo,

Jordan

Just from the description sounds like it could be aquatic snails and snail eggs perhaps?

Whoops! Look like my photos didn't post.

Here’s a photo!

Looks like a snail shell...

I'm not 100% positive and I'm not an expert but it looks like this could be a Ramshorn snail which is an invasive introduced species in Hawaii. I don't know how common it is there but it was apparently introduced by people dumping the contents of aquariums into local waters. The sticky sacs are probably snail eggs (You may want to look at pics of egg sacs from red wrigglers as well as aquarium snails since I'm not sure where you're seeing these and how large they are)

Sounds like you might have a pump with a filter in it. I had an underwater pump that I used to circulate water within a tank and it always had earth worms (not sure what type but about the size of red wrigglers) in the sponge portion of the filter. I never had any problems that were caused by the worms getting into this.

If the pump stopped because of the snails then the fish deaths could just be due to aeration problems. I don't know what kind of fish you have but some fish will eat the snails and that would help control the snail population. I have bluegill in my tanks and that keeps the snails under control but they still reside in the filter and the other areas the fish can't get to. In late summer (when they are at their worst) I have to clean out the Solids Lifting Overflow (SLO) from the fish tank because there are enough of them to back the water up. I have found that keeping their food supply under control helps - reduce overfeeding (clean out any extra) and keep algae to a minimum otherwise the population can really take off.

You're not likely to totally eliminate them from what I've seen but it may be possible

Thank you scotty435 for your help!

Couple of other comments. Most people remove the filter from the pump they use to pump water to the grow beds. If you're using media beds then the grow beds usually provide enough filtration assuming you sized them right. I know you have a small setup so this next comment might not be an option - Basically some pond pumps are designed to be able to pump solids up to a certain size (usually the larger the pump the larger the size it can handle. I have one of these and have never had a pump block to the point that it stops because of snails.

It does look like a Ramshorn snail and the "sticky sacks" are eggs. The type of eggs would further point to Ramshorn snails.

As for the worms in the pump housing . . . I have no idea. Are they earthworms somehow finding their way in there, or are they some sort of other worm?