Controlling pest snails - can I outcompete them for food?

[BetterWithBettas]

My 4ft is starting to have a pest snail problem and I want to try and get them under control asap! They are ramshorns I think.

The tank is home to my betta and he is the only fish in the tank, meaning I can't really feed less, which is the most common suggestion I have read to do online, because I only feed enough for my betta and it never reaches the bottom of the tank floor! The other inhabitants are the clean up crew (1 MS and 10 algea eating shrimp) and I don't feed them often as the tank is heavily planted and provides ample food for them.

I do a weekly 20% wc with a gravel vac - should I increase these water changes per week to try and get extra detritus out?

So far this is what I have done:
- Snail traps: I have the sera snail trap and also a diy one I use daily. The snails are really small at the moment, and I don't have much success with these for some reason.
- Remove them manually as I see them
- And more recently, added 2 extra mystery snails, 1 Singapore Spiral snail and 6 nerite snails to try and outcompete them for food.. which relates to my title: Can these little critters outcompete pest snails for food? Would I need more of each to do this?

I was also thinking of perhaps getting a school of otos(?) to help with the algea - there is a fair amount on the plants, particularly the anubiases though.

If anyone has any other suggestions on how to control or remove their population, the latter preferred, please let me know! I'm not keen to use any snail-kill type chemicals or adding any of the snail eating fish that I've read about (mostly read about loaches) because I don't think my betta would tolerate them!

Sorry for the novel of post but thanks for taking the time to read!

 

[Retired Viking]

I agree,I would not use chemicals for the health of the fish and it would probably kill your shrimp and your snails too. I have a 55 gallon tank which is also 4 foot long. I ended up catching them when they would go up the side of the tank for air. I had well over 100 to 200 pond snails. I put them in my RES turtle tank. It took awhile but now I have very few show up. I also have nerite snails in the tank. Now I see just a few and leave them alone as long as their numbers stay low.

 

[Colin_T]

The safest way to control snails is to physically catch them out. Every time you see one, scoop it out. If you see any snail eggs (they look like small clumps of clear jelly with spots in), scrape them off the ornaments, plants, glass and chuck them in the garden to dry out.

The quickest way to control snails is to kill them with copper. However, that will also kill your shrimp and the snails you want to keep.

 

[BetterWithBettas]

I agree,I would not use chemicals for the health of the fish and it would probably kill your shrimp and your snails too. I have a 55 gallon tank which is also 4 foot long. I ended up catching them when they would go up the side of the tank for air. I had well over 100 to 200 pond snails. I put them in my RES turtle tank. It took awhile but now I have very few show up. I also have nerite snails in the tank. Now I see just a few and leave them alone as long as their numbers stay low.

Yes that was my thoughts too, and plus I have read that it can also mess with the balance of the water as well. And that is great to know, there's not that many in my tank at this stage so I am trying to get on top of it now. I suppose I will have to keep manually removing them for now

 

[Retired Viking]

Yes that was my thoughts too, and plus I have read that it can also mess with the balance of the water as well. And that is great to know, there's not that many in my tank at this stage so I am trying to get on top of it now. I suppose I will have to keep manually removing them for now

Good luck, At first it seemed to me that it was a never ending invasion with so many showing up.