Live plants and snails.

[Lindat]

Can someone tell me how to make sure my new live plants don't carry snails into the tank please?

 

[glassfrog]

There is a copper treatment for snails, dose the plants BEFORE and rinse before putting them in your tank. Right now I have a over abundance of snails and I do a overnight treatment which is 1/2 inch slice of Zucchini and slide them on a bamboo skewer and pin them to the bottom. I didn’t realize how many I had until I started getting a dozen on each side of the slice. I use 3-4 slices at a time. Put the remainder in a sandwich bag and refrigerate . Good luck.

 

[Lindat]

There is a copper treatment for snails, dose the plants BEFORE and rinse before putting them in your tank. Right now I have a over abundance of snails and I do a overnight treatment which is 1/2 inch slice of Zucchini and slide them on a bamboo skewer and pin them to the bottom. I didn’t realize how many I had until I started getting a dozen on each side of the slice. I use 3-4 slices at a time. Put the remainder in a sandwich bag and refrigerate . Good luck.

Thanks glassfrog. I do a snail pick every day and usually get 4 or 5 tiny ones and a larger one. Don't want the same thing to happen with my new plants/tank.

 

[Essjay]

Snails are not bad things, they are an important part of a tank's ecosystem. They are only a nuisance when there are too many of them, and they only over populate a tank when they have too much food. If you don't over feed the fish, and make sure to clean the tank of uneaten food and fish poop (deep siphoning the gravel if that's what you have) the numbers should stay under control.

Should you decide to use a copper treatment, remeber that you cannot keep other snails or shrimps in the tank as they snail killer will kill them too.

 

[Lindat]

Snails are not bad things, they are an important part of a tank's ecosystem. They are only a nuisance when there are too many of them, and they only over populate a tank when they have too much food. If you don't over feed the fish, and make sure to clean the tank of uneaten food and fish poop (deep siphoning the gravel if that's what you have) the numbers should stay under control.

Should you decide to use a copper treatment, remeber that you cannot keep other snails or shrimps in the tank as they snail killer will kill them too.

Ok essjay. What do you think about rinsing the plants in potassium (pink) before planting?

 

[Essjay]

Potassium permanganate?
If you intend never to keep shrimps or any of the snail species you have to pay for, then treating the plants should be OK. But not if you do intend to keep shrimps or other snails.

Personally, I never treat plants and I make sure that any plants I buy have never been treated with a snail killer. But I have shrimps and nerite snails I want to keep. I would rather have 'pest' snails than not have shrimps or nerites. I hardly ever see the 'pest' snails - both the tiny ramshorns and physid snails - though I know I have both.

 

[Retired Viking]

I have an infestation problem with snails but like @essjay I have nerites snails and shrimp too and agree with him. I simply catch the problem snails as they go up the side of my tanks for air and remove them to a separate tank I have until I decide what to do with them. I have captured 80-100 of them so far. I am down to 3-4 at most a day showing up. I also cut back on how much I feed my fish and feed them several times a day in small amouts so they eat most of it.

 

[Naughts]

I buy Tropica plants which are grown in a vacuum. Last time I couldn't get Tropica so I put my that batch of plants in a quarantine tub with a heater. Each day I checked for snails and removed them. I got about 5. I left the plants in quarantine for 2 weeks. No snails got into my tank.

 

[Byron]

A planted tank author that wrote monthly columns for TFH used to advise that any chemical dip actually strong enough to kill snails or algae would without question harm the plants. There are always better remedies than these. And the copper will harm fish too; fish have a much lower tolerance for copper than humans, and there are cases where new copper pipes in a home have wiped out the fish. Here again, chemical or natural eradicators are really not ever "safe."

 

[snailaquarium]

I have an infestation problem with snails but like @essjay I have nerites snails and shrimp too and agree with him. I simply catch the problem snails as they go up the side of my tanks for air and remove them to a separate tank I have until I decide what to do with them. I have captured 80-100 of them so far. I am down to 3-4 at most a day showing up. I also cut back on how much I feed my fish and feed them several times a day in small amouts so they eat most of it.

Sell them on ebay...

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Snails aren’t bad for your tank. They are actually very beneficial contrary to popular belief. I have MTS, BRH and Nerite snails in my tanks.

As said above, I do not suggest copper to kill snails.

 

[Agus]

This is the method I used for quarantining plants to remove unwanted snails:
Prepare a bowl or bucket of water and add non-iodized salt (aquarium salt) in the ratio of 1 tablespoon per gallon. Mix it thoroughly. Then dip the new plants in that container for 10 mins. After that, rinse the plants thoroughly in fresh water. This will kill any snails or snail eggs.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

This is the method I used for quarantining plants to remove unwanted snails:
Prepare a bowl or bucket of water and add non-iodized salt (aquarium salt) in the ratio of 1 tablespoon per gallon. Mix it thoroughly. Then dip the new plants in that container for 10 mins. After that, rinse the plants thoroughly in fresh water. This will kill any snails or snail eggs.

Interesting, I would have never thought that aquarium salt could skill snails, I learn something every day!

 

[Colin_T]

Interesting, I would have never thought that aquarium salt could skill snails, I learn something every day!

Your telling me you have never sprinkled salt on snails and slugs in the backyard?
I use to go out at night with a torch and bucket or super saline water. I would collect snails and slugs and drop them in the salt water and watch them melt.

 

[utahfish]

Your telling me you have never sprinkled salt on snails and slugs in the backyard?
I use to go out at night with a torch and bucket or super saline water. I would collect snails and slugs and drop them in the salt water and watch them melt.

Ewwww...i did this to slugs as a kid also, now i just use beer to keep em out of my garden