Eliminating Snails

[Aroc2226]

As does happen there must have been some freeloaders on some plants I ordered when I set up my aquarium a few months ago.

As does happen I now have a crapload of the annoying little critters.

So a couple of things.

I got a couple of Kuhli Loaches to help eliminate them but they just aren’t doing it. I didn’t want a large loach as I only have a 29 gallon tank.

I ordered a handful of Assassin Snails hoping that will do the trick.

Any other ideas? I don’t want to use chemicals.

Also how do I get rid of the shells of the ones that die naturally. I have a dark substrate and the shells really show up.

 

[jaylach]

The shells on the substrate should be fairly easy to remove when doing a water change.

As to gettig of the snails I have just the opposite issue as I'd like to have some but my Smiling Dwarf Cichlids (Laetacara araguaiae) eat bladder/pond snails like popcorn.

 

[Byron]

Never acquire any fish to solve a problem. You mention kuhlii loaches...they are not avid snail eaters as you've seen. And any loach must have a group, 7+, as they are highly social fish and fewer will mean stress and sickness. The tank is too small for any of these. There is also the issue again that not all loaches are avid snail eaters. My dwarf loaches never touched them, and some larger species didn't seem all that interested either.

Any chemicals intended to kill anything will inevitably harm the fish and possibly bacteria.

Aside from all that, these snails are your helpmates as they can get everywhere eating organic matter which allows the bacteria to handle it more efficiently. They will reproduce according to the available food, this should tell you something.

 

[Aroc2226]

I just don’t really like the looks of them. There’s a lot of them and their shells are building up. I figured I have enough problems without messing with snails…

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Those assassin snails will take care of it, given time. You can also just squash them, which will also take care of it over time. But I'm with Byron on this one. Any time I find a living thing that actually wants to thrive in my tank, without any help from me? Sign me up.*

*except black brush algae. And duck weed. Those must die, preferably with violence and destruction.

 

[BrianK]

Smashy, Smashy. I started out killing tons (and removing eggs whenever I saw them) but now only very rarely kill a single snail. They are still there I guess but I've gone weeks without seeing any.

 

[otterblue]

The only problem with assassin snails is that you go from tons of bladder snails to a bunch of assassin snails.

 

[powerdyne6]

I had this issue a while back..
I picked out what I could get with my fingers and I went to feeding every 2 or 3 days (sparingly) and the snails disappeared very quickly.

 

[jaylach]

Assuming that you do water changes just use a scraper to 'knock' them off the glass and other smooth surfaces and siphon them out

 

[Latin Mama]

As does happen there must have been some freeloaders on some plants I ordered when I set up my aquarium a few months ago.

As does happen I now have a crapload of the annoying little critters.

So a couple of things.

I got a couple of Kuhli Loaches to help eliminate them but they just aren’t doing it. I didn’t want a large loach as I only have a 29 gallon tank.

I ordered a handful of Assassin Snails hoping that will do the trick.

Any other ideas? I don’t want to use chemicals.

Also how do I get rid of the shells of the ones that die naturally. I have a dark substrate and the shells really show up.

Hi there, I also wound up with an infestation in my 40 gallon tank. I have made it part of my routine to just pick them out by hand. I drop them in a bowl I use just for this purpose. They die within a day and I trash them. This way no shells are left in the tank with little bodies for the rest to feed on. I always miss some of course but they are now under control. You may also be over feeding your fish, that in itself, helps them to breed. These came out of a 10 gallon tank. Went out of town for the weekend and came back to this.

 

[Playsander]

Assassin ftw.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I have a small herd of Assassins in my aquariums that keep a degree of control over the peskies, although they do tend to go on strike or forget what they are meant to be doing and oversleep in the substrate leaving the peskies to literally walk all over them .

However, every water change I still have a cull of the peskies that can be seen and reached easily tween finger & thumb. The Cories & Apistos especially seem to love freshly culled peskies as a treat.