Appearance of snails??!!

[chadders]

Hi folks I seem to have acquired a number of squatters !! in the way of trumpets snails. At the moment it's not to bad they are all pretty small. However I don't want to encourage them. What are my options to keep them under control? I was thinking of an assassin snail? would that work in my Malawi set up? The fish are healthy and happy so don't want to upset their environment. Or should I net them out every now and then to keep the population down.
Cheers Guys and Gals!

 

[Colin_T]

Short of adding copper sulphate to the tank the only thing you can do is net the snails out every time you see them. They are most active after dark and during the day you don't normally see them unless there are lots of them.

Some people set up snail traps or put food in the tank after dark and wait for the snails to swarm over the food, then net them out.

Copper sulphate will kill any crustaceans (shrimp, crabs, etc) in the tank and should only be used as a last resort.

 

[Byron]

Malaysian Livebearing Snails are beneficial. They can burrow throughout the substrate eating organics. Fish excrement, some algae, and any other organic matter will bee eaten, breaking it down faster so the various bacteria can then deal with it.

Obviously the amount you feed your fish will be the prime source of their food; the more you feed the more waste for the snails to eat and they will multiply accordingly. So control the fish feeding so it is not beyond what the fish require to remain healthy.

I never worry about removing the snails no matter how many I may see because I understand they are there to deal with the organics and that is a good thing. Reducing the fish load along with the amount the fish are fed is how you control them.

Never use any chemicals to kill snails. This does impact fish as any additive to the water gets inside the fish and that is only detrimental regardless of what it may do.