Dealing with pest snails!

[TylerFerretLord]

You've got hydra, which are freshwater anemone-like organisms. http/www.offwell.free-online.co.uk/hydra.htm

 

[Shandy]

Oh! Are they bad? To have in a tank I mean. I completely washed off that plant (actually ended up throwing it out today after I found two snail egg packs on it) and as of now there aren't really any in the tank, but I'm sure they'll show up again.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

Not unless you have very small fry. They feed mainly on tiny crustaceans and worms in the tank.

 

[Shandy]

Thanks for the link! It was very interesting, heh. I haven't seen many since I let go of that one plant, but there were a few blood worms swimmin around in there. I used to have a puffer and some blood worms got lost in the gravel. Maybe they're all gone now!

 

[pammy172]

We have snails and I want rid. I have some Kusuri Wormer Plus which is Flubendazole 50mg/g. It says to dose as follows for worms - 0.3g per 30 gallons. Is this the same dose for ridding us of the snails or should we use a different dose?

 

[Saracirce]

This is a great thread. I had a big population boom of snails then they all kind of died off. Now I have several empty snail shells in my tank. I don't like them but it's hard to pick them up without crushing the shell. Will the empty shells harm my tank? Also, I do now the lettuce trick works well because I've done it before.

Does the "Kusuri Wormer Plus" harm catfish? I have 5 otocinclus catfish so I'm hesitant at putting anything all in my tank for fear they'll go belly up on me (I'm pretty sure they're not getting the proper care as it is)

 

[Asp]

NA map turtles, particularly the females, become particularly snail hungry as they reach maturity. They specialise in snail and shellfish eating in the wild, some females even develope oversized heads to cope with snails.

I'm not advocating you getting map turtles to cure your snail problems - they're very strong swimmers that thrive in currents as their natural habitats are rivers and ideally need huge tanks or pond setups, but its still interesting.

And I'll have as many snails as people will send me for my pair!

 

[alex.wardle]

if you dont mind the look of them(i think they are really cool) get your self some assassin. They will hunt down and kill all of your pest snails. Think of them as little pest snail heat seeking missiles. i have just watched one chase one the hold length of both sides and the front of my tank rip it of of the side and take it to the floor. Pest snails 0 assassins snail 1. Around 4 per 70 litters should do the trick no matter how bad your infestation.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I think we should start an assassin snail trading operation for those who don't want to keep them. The only problem would be the first person who has to buy one, but then again maybe there's someone out there who has one that they no longer want. Send it to someone who wants it then pay it forward. Takes care of the pest snail problem and then you find a new home for the assassin.

 

[saltynay]

assassin snails don't eat the eggs and aren't an effective solution I bought mine because they were beautiful and I could feed them not because I had a problem with what they were feeding on. I had a tank intentionally "infested with pest snails" and I had 4 assassins which then bred giving me 16 (7 months later) I still did not run out of ramshorns, MTS and pond snails. 1 assassin eats 1 snail every 2 days on average in my experience which won't stop a population increase. You need to figure out the root cause of the population increase before introducing the assassins to wipe out a population.

 

[hil26]

this one grew from new live plant (forgot to wash it before placingn plant in tank) now got hundreds of egggs and a few "babies" knocking about.
Dont want to do cfhemical as apple snail in the tank as well.

 

[cory mccabe]

Clown loaches are the way forward and so funny

 

[hil26]

Clown loaches are the way forward and so funny

Zebra Loach did the trick - regards

 

[KristineNote]

What about black kuhli loaches? (they only grow to about 5 cm)

 

[Clarousel]

Had my tank for a month and suddenly a snail appeared. Didn't mind at first but now there's another one! I plan to use the cucumber/lettuce leaf method if I have to but I'm worried my tiger barbs would end up eating it instead They really eat anything...