Pest Snail help

[MrMeekel]

Hi, apologies if this is in the wrong place but I could do with some advice. I have a 75l tank with a mix of small fish guppys, tetras etc. The tank currently has an issue with snails! A rogue one turned up on a plant I bought and now I have 100s! I've bought 5 assassin snails and they've helped a little but they're still a problem. Is there a recommended amount of assassin snails based on tank size? Should I buy more or is there another route I can take?

 

[Koglin]

Hi, apologies if this is in the wrong place but I could do with some advice. I have a 75l tank with a mix of small fish guppys, tetras etc. The tank currently has an issue with snails! A rogue one turned up on a plant I bought and now I have 100s! I've bought 5 assassin snails and they've helped a little but they're still a problem. Is there a recommended amount of assassin snails based on tank size? Should I buy more or is there another route I can take?

They're brown looking.. pond snails maybe? Assassin snails will also reproduce don't forget.

Do you know what kind of pest snails they are? You could try a couple pieces of leaf lettuce, spinach, or cucumber even on the bottom overnight to gather them up. The pest snails will gather in groups, and then you pull the "bait" out and throw away in the trash can.

Don't put them into a water source like the toilet or drain - as they may thrive in sewers (depending on what they are - better safe than sorry with pest snail disposal).

 

[MrMeekel]

They're brown looking.. pond snails maybe? Assassin snails will also reproduce don't forget.

Do you know what kind of pest snails they are? You could try a couple pieces of leaf lettuce, spinach, or cucumber even on the bottom overnight to gather them up. The pest snails will gather in groups, and then you pull the "bait" out and throw away in the trash can.

Don't put them into a water source like the toilet or drain - as they may thrive in sewers (depending on what they are - better safe than sorry with pest snail disposal).

I'm not sure they're pretty tiny here's a picture if that helps.

 

[Koglin]

I'm not sure they're pretty tiny here's a picture if that helps. View attachment 121735

Huh. Kind of looks like bladder snails AND pond snails, since some look solid brownish and some are darker with light spots. Could be the lighting though, I know for sure there are some bladder snails.

I'd definitely try some of the baiting techniques you can find info. on through your preferred search engine.

I use a piece of lettuce (not sure what kind, I just grab one out of the mixed salad bag) when my bladder-snail only nano tank overpopulates.

 

[Retired Viking]

cut back on how much food you feed your fish, this will also help keep their numbers under control.

 

[Koglin]

That's a really good point too, overfeeding makes them overpopulate.

Remove as many egg clutches as you can find during maintenance too - bladder snails lay a clutch of clear gel and you'll see the eggs in them (ranging from clear with a brown dot to foggy white colored, the more solid white they get the closer they are hatching).

 

[itiwhetu]

I wrap a couple of algae discs in a piece of cloth and put it on the bottom of the tank, they collect on that and it is easy to remove.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Wow, that's an impressive collection!

The assassin snails take some time to work. In the mean time, squash 'em! The fish will probably enjoy the snack. If there are too many for that (which depends on how many fish you have) just pick them out by hand and throw them away.

Or see if someone will lend you a yoyo loach for a few days.

 

[Colin_T]

Lymnaea pond snails. Collect them out and squash them. Check plants for small jelly like blobs and remove these because they are the eggs.

If worst comes to worse, you can use copper to kill snails. However, copper will kill all snails and shrimp so you will need to remove any you want to keep before treating the tank. Then do a few big water changes after treating to remove the copper.

 

[itiwhetu]

Be careful using copper. If you kill all those snails in your tank and don't get the bodies out you will get an ammonia spike.