Most tank inhabitants other than the live plants and fish are undesirable, except the useful snail. Most snails are helpful to the aquatic system, eating the dead plants, algae, and uneaten food left by our fish. The Malaysian Trumpet (Melanoides tuberculata) snail is a great creature for stirring and airing the substrate. The ramshorn snail (Planorbis corneus) is a beautiful snail; especially the red ramshorn and they do little damage to plants.

Aquarium-bred snails, are free from diseases that wild caught snails may carry and pose little threat to the aquarist. We aquarist, often use snails to feed our puffers and the loach family. This is often done by collecting the snails and feeding directly to the fish or by crushing them and then feeding them to a variety of fish. What of the ones we don't use for fish food? Soon over population occurs and then we must take drastic measures to correct this problem.

There are many cures for over population: Clean the whole tank including all tank decorations. Use a snail remedy, which I will not do due to fear of harming my fish or plants. Try trapping them with different food techniques and the least desirable measure is to reach inside of the aquarium and SMASH the snail bare fingered. Works great, fish love the free food and there is one less snail to worry about. However, unknown to the hobbyist, this is one of the most dangerous methods, we can use to rid an aquarium tank of snails.

How do I know this? I keep and raise snails to trade to other hobbyist and as a cleaning crew. They are great for all fry tanks. Not only do they help build infusior for fry, but eat all uneaten food that is left behind from the fry. Once an awhile I find snails in my breeding tanks as they are great hitchhikers. Arriving on fish, plants, and fishnets, just about anything they can attach themselves to. So what do I do when I find the hitchhiker and I am pressed for time? I reach inside the tank and with my well-known snail finger: SMASH the vagabond.

The five years I have spent in this wonderful hobby, saw me smashing hundreds of snails with this technique until January of 2002. One evening as I changed the tank water in my Panda Cory tank. I spotted a lone ramshorn snail, making his way up the front glass. Afraid this snail would eat all the eggs I anticipated from a Cory spawn, I reached inside the tank and smashed the snail against the glass with my trusted snail finger. OUCH! I suddenly jerked my finger out of the tank, just in time to prevent the spurting blood from entering the tank and possibly fouling the new tank water. I immediately recognized the need for first aid on my renowned smasher. I quickly retrieved my first aid equipment and began treatment. As soon as the blood flow slowed, I could see this was one nasty cut. It appeared to be a deep puncture wound. Size was around a centimeter in length on the right side of my index finger on my left hand. This was bad, as I am left-handed. I thoroughly cleaned the wound and with great confidence returned to my fish chores.

All was well the next morning as I removed Panda Cory eggs from the Java Moss. My finger was definitely sore, but I had great confidence all would end well. By the end of the week, my finger was showing slight infection. On went the Band-aid and the antibiotic cream. Another few days found me resuming my aquarium chores. One morning, I noticed the soreness was returning in my finger. The evening before, I had bumped my finger as I was loading the dishwasher and wondered if this had caused the soreness.

By nightfall, the finger was swollen and inflamed. Definitely an infection was forming. I soaked my hand in salt water: An old time remedy for infection. The next day my finger felt much better. I was relieved. Two days later, the redness was beginning to get worse and late in the evening I sat down to work at my computer. As I was typing, I felt a burning sensation travel up my arm. I glanced down and saw several large blisters on my forearm. A good 14 inches from the cut. What was happening? I went in search of my husband and showed him my arm. He was concerned and spoke of phoning my doctor. I had an upcoming appointment in two days and hoped this would be ok until then. By the next morning a red streak was running from my finger up to the blisters. Definitely spelling trouble. Lucky for me the doctor's office called to remind me of my upcoming appointment the next day. From my computer room, I heard my husband telling the receptionist what was going on with my arm. Orders were given: GET HER HERE NOW!

When I arrived, my doctor took one look and pointed across the street. I would be residing there for the next few days. I asked to go home first and pack a few clothes; there was no way I was going to the hospital without my laptop computer. I just had to have communication with my fellow hobbyist friends from the UniQuaria newsgroup. I entered the hospital and began a regime of intravenous antibiotic treatment. I was informed the infection had reached a dangerous level. The next few days found me consuming large amounts of antibiotics, steroids, and whirlpool treatments began in hopes this would curtail the infection. On the second day, the infection appeared to be slowing. I still had quite an ordeal ahead. The major concern was the danger of losing my hand and arm from the damage that was occurring from the infection as I was told this was one bad dude. The other concern was, from my having Multiple Sclerosis. My muscles do not function well if I do not use them and lying in bed is a disadvantage to them. By the third day, I was having problems from being in bed at long intervals. My doctor announced she was letting me go home if I would agree to have my husband give me the intravenous antibiotic treatments for five days. It was going to be a battle to get the insurance company to agree to this. At that moment in time, I would have agreed to anything just to go home.

I am one of those people who does not make a good patient in any circumstance. My wonderful husband just did not know what a lousy patient he was going to be working with. I returned home, where the heart is: I was missing my family, and my two cockatiels, my cat, my dog, and all my fish. Finally, a day of insurance paperwork was accomplished and the nurse came to teach my husband how to do an intravenous IV. I was definitely worried! Here was a man who is cool, calm, and collect when an emergency arises, but was this a little too much to ask from a spouse. In sickness and health: The vows speak. A true test to see how much weight these vows carry.

I watched as the nurse showed my husband all the proper steps needed to do a successful IV treatment. First he would need to flush the catheter with a saline solution, then hook-up the antibiotic needle, when this was finished, flush again with saline solution, and last a needle with Heparin. This would keep clots from forming in the catheter. I watched as he followed her instructions. He was doing great. His loving hands never faltered as the needle was driven into the catheter. I was the one who trembled. I hate needles, with a passion. Here I would be wearing a needle plunged in a vein for 5 days. Warning was given: Don't do anything strenuous, which will dislodge the catheter. It had taken eleven tries before a vein was found. I certainly did not want to go through this again. My right arm was black and blue from all these attempts.

How was I ever going to get through this ordeal, each treatment would take up to fifty-five minutes? This would happen three times each day until the five-day period had ended. My nerves were raw from just thinking about this, as the nurse would only put in an appearance once a day. I felt little consolation as she gave us her phone number and spoke of only being a phone call away if trouble began.

The night ended when the last treatment was given at two in the morning. We would only sleep five hours until the next one began. By the third day we were exhausted, but the hand and arm was looking much better. We were winning the war on infection. This was a great relief; for during my stay in the hospital there was great concern. This infection was not known. The symptoms were strange and later may give a clue to what it was. I was becoming every nurse's nightmare. I wanted to be up and taking care of my fish. I did manage to keep up the basic care and with my 32 tanks and with all being well planted with live aquarium plants. The fish were doing great. My poor husband was becoming exhausted from loss of sleep. We decided to sleep a few hours each day in hopes we could make up for losing sleep during the night, this helped a little. What we needed was a good night's sleep uninterrupted by needles.

The fifth day arrived and none to soon; I was cranky and my husband exhausted. The nurse would arrive around 4:00 pm and remove the catheter and if all went well, no more IV treatment. My husband gave the last treatment around 3:00 in the afternoon. This one burned in my vein as if someone had poured hot water instead of an antibiotic. I had noticed this had happened during the treatment before, not quite as bad. Just as it was all most gone the nurse arrived. She looked at my arm and it was beginning to puff from swelling and the decision was made to stop the treatment and remove the catheter. I was so happy. I had made it through this ordeal and my husband had been an excellent caregiver. The infection was residing and things were looking great. Just maybe I would win.

The next morning my arm was so sore where the catheter had been removed. After showering, I noticed the bruise had grown from the catheter site on up to my armpit. No wonder the IV treatment was burning. This vein had reached the point of no more needles. Two days after the last IV treatment I returned to see my doctor. The infection was slowly leaving but an other problem occurred. The vein in my hand and arm was badly damaged from the infection. The appearance of this type of damage is seen when from certain IV treatments of an antibiotic and since no catheter had been implanted and no antibiotics given in my left arm. This was a mystery. The vein was sore, all the way up to my elbow and you could feel the injury in the vein. It was just like a varicose vein and the knots were extremely sore. Would this heal or would I have to deal with this from now on? Time would tell. My doctor decided to continue whirlpool treatments for another 15 days at home. This felt sooo good! The knots had recessed and my arm hurt less. Fifteen days passed and the knots were still present. My finger had healed quite a bit, but I was told this would never heal completely. This wound was compared to a poison spider bite. The surrounding tissue was damaged and the vein also. My arm pain may lessen in time, but would never go completely away.

Six months has passed, the finger has still not healed properly, the knotted vein still hurts and if I lift anything heavy, the pain is almost unbearable. The knots tighten and the pain reigns. I try not to lift anything heavy, but once an awhile I forget and pay later. To this day, the type of infection has been a mystery. The doctor has considered the possibility that I may have came in contact with skin anthrax. Especially since the infection started at the time our country was dealing with terrorism and I was receiving packages from parts of the country in which anthrax was found. Did the open wound from smashing the snail, allow this ugly germ to enter? Or did the snail carry an unknown host. We will never know for sure. I now realize, smashing an aquarium snail with your "Smasher" is not the thing to consider. I have reformed my technique since that fatal day. I now remove the snails and feed to my clown loaches and others. Every once an awhile I catch my thoughts running toward the "Smasher" and I stop and rethink what I was about to do.