Can i get on top of snails

[Country joe]

After putting in live plants from my local Aquarium shop I am catching roughly about 10 very small snail's every day since the 23rd of March, I have never seen any adults, getting rid of this ammout daily, will I eradicate this problem, I know they can be good, but I don't want them.

 

[TNG]

Manual removal will keep it under control but won’t eradicate it. Aquariums containing fish like Malawi cichlids or gouramis are free of snails.

 

[Essjay]

You'll never get rid of them completely but they are not a bad thing as long as their numbers don't get out of control. Some members hate all snails (yes Colin, I'm talking about you ) but read this

"Nuisance" snails, the facts

The topic of "hitch-hiker" snails and how to control/eliminate them arises frequently on TFF. In one such thread yesterday, I was questioned with respect to my views on the matter, so I thought it was advisable to confer with my friend Neale Monks. I now have a much more accurate understanding...

www.fishforums.net

'Pest' snails multiply fast if they have a lot of food. This means left over fish food, bits of dead plant and other debris left in the tank which should be removed during a water change. I have two species of 'pest' snails in both my tanks but they are not a problem as I remove dead bits of plant when I see them and I do not over feed the fish.
Fish need a lot less food than you'd think. We use most of our food to maintain our body temperature but fish get their body temperature from the water so they don't need food to do this.


If you really want to get rid of them you could try a snail trap. All you need is an empty jar with a screw top lid and a piece of lettuce. Punch holes in the lid from the outside so the spikes around the hole point into the jar. The holes should be big enough to allow a snal through but small enough so that fish can't get in. Last thing at night put lettuce into the jar, submerge it to fill it with tank water then lay it on its side on the bottom of the tank. Remove the contents next morning.


You will find recommendations to buy this fish or that fish to eat snails. Most of these fish are not suitable for a Rio 125, and it's always a bad idea to buy fish just to solve a problem as it often creates more problems down the line.

 

[MaloK]

Well, I must be a stubborn guy, because I ridden tanks manually from them more than once.

I bait them with cucumber and I blitz the tank everyday until none is seen, then the next weeks I take off all appearances immediately.

It includes dismantling and cleaning the whole filtration system from them a couple times during the process.

And one beautiful day... They stop returning.

 

[Essjay]

I must be lucky, but then I don't mind a few snails. But if I did have a lot of them I would do something about them.

 

[gwand]

When I discovered my recent shipment of fish had worms I was forced to treat the tank with flubenzadole. Solved my worm problem and as a bonus killed all my invasive snails.

 

[Lcc86]

I don't mind a few of them but agree that the best option is to reduce feeding. The less that's lying around the less there is for snails to munch on!

 

[sharkweek178]

Snails can be a great addition. They make for a great little cleanup crew. The break down organic matter and can get to places we can't reach.
And I think pest snails can be a good bellwether. The can overpopulate but only if they have a food supply for it. Overfeeding is the big one. Algae is the other. Control those and you shouldn't have too much of a snail problem. And also prune any dead plants or leaves. The way I see it, if snails are overpopulating, that probably means there's an issue independent of them that needs addressed.

 

[Anubias Banana]

Depending on how much space you have in your tank you could get smaller species loaches or assassins to eat them but there is pros and cons to either.

We have been debating what to do when they show up again in our tank as we have our new tank also with live plants and we remember the outbreaks in tanks in the past. Back then we could never have had loaches, not even the smaller species, as the old tanks were much smaller than our current one, but even now we are undecided between getting some small loach species, or going with assassin snails again. We do like the Assassins the way they look so if they eventually breed and become the doninant snail it's not so bad, plus we can always hand any excess to a LFS, but then again if anything should happen like it did in one of our smaller tanks back in the day it made copper treatments a lot more risky and hard work.

 

[Colin_T]

Picture of the snails so we can ID them?
Some snails are easier to deal with than others.

 

[FishyD]

They are stubborn. I left a 60G sit for two years with water. Just topped it off now and then. No fish so no food. No filtration and only ambient room light. There were a few small plants originally they melted away 98%. When I broke it it down for a deep clean there were probably 50 bladder and rams horn snails left, so about what they started with over two years earlier. They seem to be gone now, but they will find a way back through a plant if I am not extremely careful. Manual removal controls them well enough but it's about an everyday project.

 

[Fishfunn]

Clown loaches should do the trick.

 

[sharkweek178]

Clown loaches should do the trick.

Clown loaches can grow to a foot long and should be kept in groups of 6 or more.

 

[Fishfunn]

Clown loaches can grow to a foot long and should be kept in groups of 6 or more.

It depends on the size of the tank and they grow but going from a baby to a foot takes a long time. Yeah, I kept one with no problems, but yes, you are right, they are more active when kept in a school.

 

[Sir Guppy]

Strange..my old tank had a snail problem, but my once I redid the tank their population is stable.
My old tank had gravel, and some people I know with a overpopulation with snails have gravel, a planted substrate or a rocky substrate.
Once I redid the tank I filled it with sand.
Its very well possible substrate has something to do with this.
I keep dead plant matter around for the shrimp and plecos. No snail explosion.
However, I have no algae.