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Snails Breeding Like Mad

feed less- there a sign of over feeding
add some veg to the tank over night leave it then pull it out and bin..
squash on site...
suck out any you can with a syphon
 
gforce17 said:
Have I made it worse by squashing them and thus releasing eggs?
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No. Squishing is a good tactic, but it is limited. Mike provided good solutions. You are providing too much food for them to be breeding so much. Cut down your feeding by about 50% and use the removal methods mentioned above and the numbers will dwindle.
 
they also will hide in decorations and such. What I did was took out all my artificial decorations and put them in boiling water. It killed the snails and then rinsed them with tank water. There were about 30+ snails hiding in my decor. If you have live plants, you may take the plants out and give them a good rinse with tank water to get the snails off. Short or stripping your tank down, this method along with feeding less and squishing them should help cut numbers back significantly.
 
It's unlikely you'll get rid of all of them completely unless you use some kind of treatment, which I don't recommend.
 
My snails don't bother me so what I do is just squish them whenever I see them and those that live live, but the majority are squished within 2 weeks of birth. I seem to have 2-3 in there now. It all started thanks to an LFS. Hmmph. 1 accidental snail in the bag, turns out to have eggs, infestation begins. I recommend the methods listed above. Just thought about it and my LFS seems to get a lot of little things accidentally in my bag. I've had 3 fry 1 snail and a shrimp. All accidents and all free.
 
i had a problem with snails a few years ago and i bought a pair of clown loaches and they did the work for me after 1 week no snails
 
unless your tank is 75 gallons+ I would NOT do clowns. Maybe a smaller loach species, such as the yo-yo, or pakistani, loach. They get much smaller and I believe are almost the same.
 
gforce17 said:
cczhubby said:
i had a problem with snails a few years ago and i bought a pair of clown loaches and they did the work for me after 1 week no snails
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Thanks. That's a consideration for my next fish purchase.
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Buying a fish to deal with a snail issue is not usually a good idea. Clown loaches need to be in groups of 6+ and grow up to more than a foot long. They need long tanks for their swimming space.


If you are going to add an animal to deal with these snails, assassin snails are a much better option (although they are snails themselves). Another option is a BN pleco. The pleco will eat small invertebrates (baby snails) and snail eggs. Also, they can outcompete the snails for algae. I got one and the amount of snails in my tank has dropped to the point that I have a hard time finding them when I look for them.
 
+1 on no clown loaches. Even a 75g can be a bit tight for adult clowns. They are a true commitment as they live for ages and are huge!! But if you have 75+ and really like them, then go for clowns. But only because you like them. Never to cure a snail problem.

If you do like loaches, there are other SMALL loaches that eat snails. Someone mentioned them to me as they only get 3-4 inches. But once again, do not get them to cure the problem.
 
Get some assassin snails. A somewhat ironic solution, but they'll slowly eat their way through your pest snails.
 
I've found that assassin snails are the best solution. While they munch their way through the less desirable snails, they themselves reproduce very slowly. They are attractive and small and I've yet to hear anyone complain that they were troublesome.

Assassin snail 4 5-12-10.JPG
 
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