How do you get rid of snails?

[DeadlyAlliance]

I have a lot of snails and i have never had them before. So i was wondering how do you get rid of snails. Thax

 

[maddie]

I had the same problem and was advised to get some clown loaches.
It worked they eat any they can fit in their mouth. They will go for all the tiny ones and work their way up in size.
You may still have to pick out the large ones until they are all culled and any new plants you introduce will need to be washed first to remove any eggs attached to them.
Good luck hope this is of some help

 

[Torrean]

Clown loaches need a really big tank when they get older don't they. I say go to the invertabrates forum and look in the pinned topics. The is one about dealing with pest snails. I have some pond snails in one of my tanks and I will be getting rid of most of them with the lettuce trick when the babies get a little bigger. You can try to limit there numbers in the first place by not over feeding and squishing any egg goo trails that you see. I personally like my snails, as long as I can control there population. When they are little babies they like to sit at the water line so you can squish them while they are there.

 

[FrAnK3333]

Clown loaches need a 75 gallon when they get older. I would not get them unless you plan for this size tank, in the future, depending on the size, maybe the near future. I would go for a smaller loach, mostly all botia species love to eat snails. Check out loaches.com if your interested in loaches, and find a species that can live a lifetime in your tank. Other methods include putting a peice of lettuce in the tank for a couple days and the snail problem should be cured.

 

[LoachLover]

I put the snails in my snail eater aka my Botia loaches

 

[maddie]

Frank & Torrean had some great advice - I will also take notice of it. Thanks guys
How big is your tank that you are having snail problem with?

 

[newland]

A point i think is worth mentioning too is to wash your plants as i did not and not only did i get some snales i also little bits that fell of one furn i had. It made a big mess all over the bottom of my tank and took ages to clean.

Always wash your plants first it saves lots of hassel.

 

[Torrean]

I agree that you should always wash your plants but I have found that ghost shrimp and for that matter, a lot of other fish, love to eat the little bits that don't come off during rinsing. Don't know if I am not rinsing good enough but the fish aren't complaining.

 

[rdd1952]

A point i think is worth mentioning too is to wash your plants as i did not and not only did i get some snales i also little bits that fell of one furn i had. It made a big mess all over the bottom of my tank and took ages to clean.

Always wash your plants first it saves lots of hassel.

I second that. I lightly rinsed my plants but still ended up with a lot of loose leaves that decayed and rotted. I still haven't gotten them all cleaned up as the tank is so heavily planted, I can't get the vac back in the plants. And snails, I've probalby only got a few hundred. I really don't want anything as large as a clown loach even though this is a 75 gallon tank but it is tempting to try to get rid of these things. Is there anything else that will eat them that doesn't get more than about 6" long? Will angels eat them?

 

[Torrean]

frank. If you don't remove the lettuce then won't that simply feed the snails? I thought you put the lettuce in overnight and removed it in the morning with the snails in tow.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

snails well for me they are a love hate thing
certain species of snails are good for your tank BUT they must be kept in tabs
but other species of snails are just a pain in the a**

what i do to keep my snail poopulation low
-whenever i see a snail that is quite large or adult already i remove it, anything a bit smaller i just crush on the side of my tank ,
-i try not to overfeed because snails will multiply depending on the food available
- the lettuce trick never worked for me

hope this helps