Evil Little Snails

[Meggie :)]

i have sand

 

[This Old Spouse]

Excellent! Assassins love to bury themselves and just leave their little periscope-looking trunks poking out looking for their next meal. I really appreciate mine.

 

[Meggie :)]

awesome! are they hard to find because I know my lfs doesn't carry them...none of them do.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I ordered mine online. They're fairly easy to find here, just not in the LFSs! I ordered mine from pondcandy ([email protected]) off ebay in February.

 

[Meggie :)]

are they expensive? and how many do you suggest I buy for a ten gallon?

 

[Million]

Have a look on eBay, looks like they go for approx £2 each plus postage. I'm hoping to deal with the same problem so it's interesting to see this method suggested, and they're really cool looking little guys. One question, as I used to have a nerite snail, which I loved, but he made a mess of the wood by laying loads of ultra-sticky white eggs on it. Do these do anything similar? Can you see their eggs?

 

[This Old Spouse]

I haven't seen their eggs at all. And I paid $3.99 each plus postage, but I ordered 3 snails and he sent me 9!

 

[mtbdean]

Assasins are excellent for keeping the snail population down, except for mine at the moment (family member fed fish when on hols...and fed too much)

I purchased 6 for my 140ltr and 4 for my 60ltr, and I rarely see a snail. And mine are breeding too (Little Square eggs), seen a few, but you dont really see them until they are 5mm in size as they bury theirselves.

Cost me a tenner for 10

 

[Neo8223]

Clown loaches all the way. The only thing is if its in your bedroom then you will be constantly woken up by the satisfying sound of the snail shells crushing, followed by singing "Another one bites the dust!"

10 gall tank however..., you might want to get baby ones as they like big tanks. (and an outgrow tank for later) Also about the bioload, which everyone seemed to talk so negatively about. I honestly believe it depends on sooo many factors and not just the amount of fish. I mean sure, no one wants to see a mini-salmon farm in a tank, but it also depends on the rating of your filter, denity and type of plants and even lighting/CO2 to an extent. (which have an effect on how well plants take in nutrients) So you can be theoretically overstocked, but still have happy, healthy fish! - and snail shell bits everywhere

 

[Meggie :)]

So how many do you suggest I buy?

 

[Caprichoso]

So how many do you suggest I buy?

For a 10 gallon tank, 1-3 assassin snails will be sufficient. They will eat certain snails and fish food. They don't eat every kind of snail just to warn you. Their faves are trumpet and ramshorn IME. In addition to the assassin snails, you can bait the snails with lettuce at night, then before it gets light out, turn on the light and remove the lettuce(it will be covered in snails). Also, cut back on your feeding and do a good vac on your substrate.

 

[Meggie :)]

I tried the lettuce method, there were ZERO snails on it the next morning...And I think what I have are pond snails...will assassins eat those?

 

[This Old Spouse]

Yes, they'll eat pond snails happily. And I'd get at least 3.

 

[Meggie :)]

and they shouldn't go after my 2 month old balloon molly fry or shrimp or anything?

 

[Dieses Madchen]

I would go with assassin snails as well. When I was really new and dumb at this(not saying newbies are dumb lol) I bought a couple of clown loaches to help. Well I went to a fish store and saw an adult clown loach and though GEEZ that is a big boy. Well, I do not have a tank to accomadate that much fish, so even though I enjoyed those loaches, as they were really neat to watch, I had to rehome them. They were only about 2 inches long at the time I rehomed them, but long story short, I bought fish to solve a problem and ended up with more that I would be able to handle in the future. If you cannot get assasin snails, I finally got rid of the problem when I moved tanks. I was able to rinse everything out and let it dry, so of course the snails died and problem was solved.

Now please someone correct me if I am wrong with this advise. If your tank is cycled completely, what you could potentially do is put some of your current tank water in a large bucket with the filter, and empty your tank. Rinse the gravel really with hot water to rid of snail eggs, (you may want to rinse out your filter but take your media out first so the warm tap water doesnt kill your bioload.) and rinse all of your ornaments and the tank itself. This should kill all snail and when you readd water and dechlorinate, your still have your media so your tank will be cycled, and your problem will be solved. The only thing I am think though, is that is a 100% water change almost and I may be thinking way out in left field on this idea. Unless you have a bucket to accomadate 50% of your tank water.....


Please someone correct me if this is bad advice.

Have a look on eBay, looks like they go for approx £2 each plus postage. I'm hoping to deal with the same problem so it's interesting to see this method suggested, and they're really cool looking little guys. One question, as I used to have a nerite snail, which I loved, but he made a mess of the wood by laying loads of ultra-sticky white eggs on it. Do these do anything similar? Can you see their eggs?

I know this is off subject, but what kind of fish is that in your picture? The red tailed one.....that is an absolutely grgeous fish