Snail Infestation!

[Snick]

i put one snail in like 3 months ago and now there is an amazing amount of little ones... i have taken some out manually but they just keep on popping out! What can I do?

 

[tttnjfttt]

put a piece of lettuce in your tank over night, come morning it will be covered in snails to remove.

 

[OscarsRule]

Put some Loaches in the tank.

 

[Native American]

What kind of snails are they?

v/r N-A

 

[atmmachine816]

if the lettuce doesnt work i know a way to remove them but it takes a coulpe weeks and is a long process but works it worked for mine if u want it let me know

 

[morgan]

Hi, sorry to butt in! I would like to know too. I was wondering is there any smallish fish (apart from Loaches which I don't like) which will eat snails? I have a largish tank (65 ukgals) but thanks to my 11" Pleco and my umpteen Molly fry I am nearly fully stocked until the Mollies are big enough to go to lfs. Thanks. I also have a Golden Apple Snail so hence no treatments, as far as I know.

 

[atmmachine816]

like i said before if u want to remove them completyl let me know i know how to do it but puffers eat snails and ther fw

 

[tttnjfttt]

I wouldn't go for puffers, they are highly agressive and do best in a species specific tank, and can bully a community tank.

 

[Snick]

ok im going to try the lettuce... i also heard that slices of cucumbers works as well, just as effectively... so any other suggestions before I turn my aquarium into a salad bar?

 

[tidytourniquet]

Atmmachine, why dont you just tell your other way? If they didn't want to know how to get rid of them then they wouldn't of asked in the first place

Snick, I think mostly any veggie would work so just use something that you have

 

[PeterM]

DONT get puffers to clear a snail infestation.

Yes, your snails will all be gone probably in a matter of hours, but then so will your other fish. Even "non aggressive" species of puffer like South American puffers are aggressive and will at least fin nip to the point of serious harm to other fish.

Dont be fooled by those cute little Dwarf Puffers either. They do not school when they mature and are incredibly territorial and aggressive. I had three in a 15 gallon tank and followed all the guidelines for planting and ornamentation... now I have one. Puffers dont get allong well with any other fish.

As for the snails... contact your LFS and see if they will give you anything for a piece of lettuice covered in them. Snails are perfect puffer food and can be quite hard to find a reliable source of! Hard to believe, but its true... Puffer keepers who dont have a snail colony going are quite eager to feed their fish the snails they need to keep their tooth short enough to eat with.

 

[csjasona]

Nasty critters, aren't they? Clown loach are great at burrowing for these things, but if you don't like clown loaches (!!!!!!) then there are now a variety of snail traps available. They are pretty much like the basic 'veggie bit in the tank overnight' remedie, but are easier to place and remove and have the added advantage that the snails find it very hard to get out of the trap once they are inside it. It's very easy for them to slide off a bit of carrot after they've fed

There are also liquid solutions that you can add to the water. There are two variations on this. The first simply 'knocks out' the snails so that they more-easily fall off plants, rocks, etc. You can then vacuum them off the substrate when doing a tank clean/water change. this has to be done very soon after adding the solution, though, as many of the snails will recover after a few hours.

The second variation is a solution that actually kills the snails and their eggs. Again, you then hoover then up when you're doing a tank clean.

You should go to your LFS and carefully read the instructions/warnings on this type of product before you use it, though. Some solutions will contain copper derivatives which can be very harmful to certain fish and to most crabs, etc.

 

[PeterM]

I forgot about those things! I know that Sera do an apparantly quite good snail-b-gone solution, although Ive never used it myself (owning pufers, snails are free food )

 

[tttnjfttt]

First of all - please don't consider getting clown loaches unless you have a tank that will meet their needs. Clown loaches grow to 12", and definately aren't suited for a 10 gallon tank.

Also, you probably don't want to use anti-snail chemicals. Besides that it is best to keep chemicals to a minimum, this will leave a bunch of dead snails in your tank. Go for the veggies or the snail trap. Veggies like lettuce will not mess up your water quality, i feed them all the time in my tank without problem. Heck, i've even fed a bit of banana to my clown loaches and my water was fine.

 

[csjasona]

Did your CLs like the banana? What else do they really like?