Killing Snails With Heat?

[vgames33]

Shortly after finding that my tank has cycled, I also found that I missed an egg or two while adding my plants. I'm completely overrun with snail eggs. I don't mind the snails, but their eggs are everywhere, my substrate is coated in slime, and they appear to be hurting my plants (they looked fine for the three weeks before the snails arrived). I want to get rid of them, but I'd rather not dose my tank with some poison from the LFS. I have no fish in the tank at this time. I was wondering if the snails would die if I cranked up the heater (to say 90+), and would it hurt my plants? I have some java ferns, swords, and some "mondo grass," if that matters.

 

[Kay1123]

To my knowledge heat won't kill them. Though I could be wrong... plus I'm not sure but I don't think the plants would like it.

You can try lettuce or cucumber sink it to the bottom at night before bed and in the morning they might be all over it and you can pull it out. If those don't work (they didn't for me) try getting some weekend feeders for fish. They are little stone like things and just drop one in at night and in the morning they will be all over it for sure.

 

[Pimp]

drop in pennies into the tank.. cooper is lethal to snails.when snails are gone, remove pennies

 

[buttercupbabe078]

Or some fish medication with copper in. Isn't cold water bad for snails?

 

[vgames33]

Any idea how long the pennies will take? And will they hurt my biological filter?

 

[Apolloefc]

Clown Loaches will eat them

 

[lilfishie]

Clown Loaches will eat them

but they grow large and need to be in groups alternatively there are other loaches that will eat them, think yo yo's do

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Pennies won't hurt your biological filter, but be forewarned that if you treat your tank with copper you may have difficulty ever keeping invertebrates in the future. Copper has a nasty habit of being absorbed into the silicone seals of a tank and slowly leeching back out over time.

 

[Kay1123]

Copper will most likely kill your plants also. Depends on the type. That's why most meds say something about "may kill sensitive plants."

 

[BigC]

A very very low pH will eradicate snails

 

[Musho3210]

soft water, use like 75% RO water and 25% tap water, if it still isnt helping make it like 90% RO 10% tap etc. Make sure you do more water changes than nessicary to keep the buffers up so there wont be a pH crash.

Stay far away from copper in the tank. It has like a 99% chance of causing permanent damage (killing plants, may kill fish, silicone leeching, cant have inverts and cant make it a reef tank, plus you will have a hard time selling a copper tank)

 

[Fishpool]

I bought a clown loach (wanted 2 but they only had one) to eat my snails but so far no luck. He may need a pal to relax him. The problem with using weekend feeders is that they rely on chalk dissolving so in fact you are creating the best water conditions for snails. They use the calcium to grow their shells and they multiply much quicker as a result.

 

[-SPB-]

I've got a problem with snails, and i am in the same mind as you about putting chemicals in the tank, so i posted a topic.

The-Wolf gave me this good adviceMy tank with the snail problem is 2.5ft 100l)

botias suitable for your tank are
Botia rostrata, Botia dario, Botia histrionica & Botia striata
also look for Yasuhikotakia nigrolineata & Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki
both of which were in the botia genus but moved recently by some scientific numpty.

any of those will be fine in a group of 4-6 in that sized tank and will decimate any snail population

Also he said that flubenol15 is a good med to eradicate snails, completely wipes them out. This is if all else fails.

I also have a 4ft with 3 clown loaches and i've never seen a snail in there. (Obvously if you have a small ank, that is out of the question).

 

[loachman]

Yeah, whatever you do, DO NOT get clown loaches to control snails. They're waaaay to big for it.

The best (generally) for it are botia striata, and Y. nigrolineata, and Y. sidthimunki as they're the smallest. You need 3+ for them to feel safe and get more natural behavior.

Flubenol may also be a good bet. It shouldn't do any harm to anything else in the tank and IIRC is used for internal parasite treatment in fish as well. Personally, if I didn't want loaches I'd go that route.

 

[xptweakerntn]

I could be wrong...but I once had two snails, forget what kinds, I sorta overdid it on the salt, and they died. Not sure if it was the aquarium salt that killed them, or something else. But you've heard of putting salt on slugs, right. I suppose a snail is just about a slug with a shell. Try putting a some salt in there (aquarium salt) and see what happens. However..I believe it too can be harmfull to plants.