So I have a 20-gallon tank with mollie fish and an ever-increasing number of ramshorn snails I need a predator that will get along with the mollies but help control the snail population. Right now it's under control but they are growing in numbers rapidly and will become a problem.
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Need predator to control Ramhornsnail population
- Thread starter entropian
- Start date
Time to strap on your space lizard suit and become a predator. No fish will do it., or at least not one that would be easy to work into the average tank.
PewPewChris
Fish Fanatic
Assassin snail...or buy a second nano tank and get a pea puffer and feed them to him...I do both in my fish room lol
Agree. Please, never look for a fish to do something like this. Most won't, and any that might will not work in this tank.
Also understand that the snail population is directly due to there being food available. When you feed your mollies, if any food gets down to the substrate, the snails will eat it. There is obviously plenty of natural food, like algae (yes, they eat this, but not "problem" algae), microscopic this and that, etc. But a large proportion will be the food you put in the tank, so keep the fish fed minimally.
Also understand that the snail population is directly due to there being food available. When you feed your mollies, if any food gets down to the substrate, the snails will eat it. There is obviously plenty of natural food, like algae (yes, they eat this, but not "problem" algae), microscopic this and that, etc. But a large proportion will be the food you put in the tank, so keep the fish fed minimally.
Any fish I can think of that would eat snails would either be too big for a 20, need to be in a shoal that would be too many for a 20, and/or would be highly terrorial and aggressive.
WhistlingBadger
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Assassin snails. I'd offer to send you some if it weren't too cold to ship them.
Assassin snails! I had a major bladder snail outbreak and got two of them. I didn’t think they were doing anything at all until I started emptying out all the empty shells during water changes. Four weeks later there are no bladder snails left and now I’m planning on returning the assassins so they don’t starve
PewPewChris
Fish Fanatic
Yup, same here in my 40 gallon breeder...donzo!
Botias, assassin snails or puffers will do the job...
The assassin snails will start to eat fish food so you don't have to return them.
PewPewChris
Fish Fanatic
Or any additional snails that hop a ride with a new plant, etc.
I've had three extended (weeks long) snail outbreaks in a 10g, 40g and 100g. Things that didn't work for me were feeding less, or manually killing them / trapping them / extracting them. I just can't bring myself to feed fish a lean diet... But assassin snails have worked for me every single time. It can take a while, but you will know it's working when you start to see empty snail shells on the substrate. Once the problem is under control, it never comes back as long as you have one assassin in the tank.
DoubleDutch
Fish Gatherer
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