Getting Rid of Snails

My daughter had some plants in her tank that she got from the Facebook market place. One day she put a couple of tiny floater plants in my tank. Fast forward several weeks and I see a snail in my tank. Now, I'm not anti-snail and I've heard they quite beneficial to a tank. But I'm not really wanting to have snails if I have a choice. I let them be. Fast forward a couple of months and now I'm seeing 10-20 snails whenever I look in the tank, mostly on the front glass. After a while I got tired of looking at snails. I declared war.

Now, I know snail population can be controlled by better controlling food in the tank. I also know that some people say the only removal method that works is treating with poison. I opted for a different approach, and I'm experimenting with manual removal. I realize I might be doomed from the start just because they could be all through my filter system.

Last week I completely removed everything from the tank save the fish. I manually picked out as many snails as I could see. I did a huge water change, with thorough gravel vacuum. I scrubbed all the sides of the tank, removing tons of snail eggs. Most nights since I've pulled a dozen or so more snails out of the tank. The last couple of night the number of visible snails has dropped to 2-4 per night. I get them mostly when they climb up the glass. Now there might be a few tiny ones left in the visible portions of the tank.

At the very least I've slowed them down a bit. I am leaving all of the rock, wood, etc out of the tank until the great experiment is concluded. It's all gotten a thorough scrubbing with hot water.

Anyone else ever tried manual removal of snails? Any tips, or suggestions?

I understand if you don't like snails, you don't want them. But in all truth, they are a valuable component of a healthy aquarium. They eat algae (before it becomes a problem (though "problem" algae will still appear if light/nutrients are not in balance for live plants) and keep plant leaves and surfaces clean. Excess fish food obviously, and any dead plant or animal matter. They will reproduce to the level supported by the food they can find, so that is a good guide for you. Too many and you may have a problem somewhere.

What snails? I'm assuming the little pesky bladder snails, but if they are any other type you can try putting them on FB marketplace. I know nerites and apple/mystery snails are popular.

You can blanche a cucumber and fork it. Put it in the tank and wait until they climb on to feed. Won’t take long. Pick up the fork. Done.

Like advised above…I like snails for their purpose too. Hope you consider this method to keep the population in check but know it’s not necessary to remove spic and span and possibly cause an imbalance if the snail’s booming population that was keeping it in check for you. Try to not feed heavy for a bit after you remove since you won’t have snails as abundant to help like usual. Good luck. Sorry you are exhausted by this. Hope you get back to enjoying the hobby. Just take the snails to a local fish store that may be willing to help you and take it off your hands.

As Byron points out, snails are very beneficial in a natural aquarium as they are, or can be, a valuable part of the clean-up crew. See Mulm and Algae, and Snails - Oh My! and Are you Overfeeding your Fish?.
As pointed out the snail population is largely relative to the available food. Overfeeding is often the cause of exploding snail populations. It's natures way of achieving balance. As suggested, you can bait, catch, and remove snails, but resolving the root cause is the best solution.

I'm used to using a snail trap, made out of a plastic bottle.
The excess snails were then crushed and fed back to the fish.

Nowadays, I don't have excess snails...in fact, I see very, very, VERY few snails that aren't my nerites.
Anyway, I discovered Rachel O'Leary also makes a plastic-bottle trap and she went to the trouble of making a video of it. You can see that here.

I remove only a partial small increments when and if I need to..not sure if it would help to disclose…I have them taking care of my fry tanks…as my fry grows to certain stages I start to remove bc mine will go around to start annilatimg snails and to be a step ahead of my frys growing up I do this. I keep pea puffers so I’m well aware of how I feed them and how much to give and how they are an aggressive species that may go on a hunt rampage if I have too many snails in there at one given time I can impact my water quality. Having them help me gage my feedings and water parameters. So I understand when there’s a time to remove or thin out the population slowly like acclimation and when not to. I hope this helps you understand. I also understand the frustration of needing to remove when there’s too many and it’s not necessary to bust up your entire aquarium.

Yes, I heard about the snail trap..I haven’t tried. Seem some videos looks nice.

My fish loves to eat snails too so I just feed them to the others. If not, I’d have to go buy some for my peas.

Ooh I follow her too she’s awesome …I studied her water too she has well water…so interesting break down

Thanks for the responses regarding manual removal methods. I'll check out the 'trap' method and the cucumber food lure, and see how those work for me.

Pretty sure a couple of people just read the title of the thread. I know snails can be beneficial, and you can control their population by controlling the feeding more rigidly. I mentioned both of those things in my opening post. That's just not the purpose of this thread. It's an experiment for me. I'm just trying to see what works in terms of manual removal. If I don't get rid of the snails, I'm okay with that. If I do get rid of them, first I'll be shocked, then pleased.

Did my weekly water change yesterday, and another good gravel vac. So much easier when the tank isn't full of rocks and wood. I think I found another 4-5 snails. Today I see two very small ones. Each night I wait til the lights dim and the snails climb the glass toward the top of the water. Then I pluck them out. I've definitely reduced their population and slowed their growth. Now I'm really very curious whether a couple of weeks of vigilant manual removal can actually get rid of them. At least until I re-do my tank... when I'm planning to add some actual living plants and probably some snails too.

ITViking said:

Thanks for the responses regarding manual removal methods. I'll check out the 'trap' method and the cucumber food lure, and see how those work for me.

Pretty sure a couple of people just read the title of the thread. I know snails can be beneficial, and you can control their population by controlling the feeding more rigidly. I mentioned both of those things in my opening post. That's just not the purpose of this thread. It's an experiment for me. I'm just trying to see what works in terms of manual removal. If I don't get rid of the snails, I'm okay with that. If I do get rid of them, first I'll be shocked, then pleased.

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You might have to give it a few nights to see if it's working for you.
I have two tanks running, both with nerite snails.
I've dropped a piece of courgette/zucchini in each tank, weighted down.
In the one tank, the snails have been all over it.
In the second...not a sausage!

Too bad these guys don't eat snails.... it's my 'star' tank resident for now.

ITViking said:

Too bad these guys don't eat snails.... it's my 'star' tank resident for now.


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They'll eat snail eggs.

Is that a green phantom