Snail invasion = fish relocation (HELP!)

[Livelyyyyyyyyyyy]

I recently bought some hair grass from my local fish store, and like a fool I didn't quarantine for snails. The hairgrass went into 2 separate tanks, a 5 gallon with nerite snails and a 20 gallon with some gouramis, guppiee, and cory catfish. I didn't realize anything was wrong until a few weeks to late when I noticed the babies in the five gallon. I'm not worried about that. What I'm worried about is the ones in my 20 gallon which is much harder to clean. My game plan is to do an alum soak for a few days (with fish removed!) But that leaves the issue of where do I keep the fish... I have a 3.5 gallon with a betta where i could probably put a cory catfish for 2 days max. But that only leaves me with the 5 gallon tank and a 5 gallon bucket. I have some spare heaters, but I dont know if the bucket would be large enough for 2 young dwarf gouramis and 3 guppies (plus 1 one catfish.) Should I go buy a second, larger plastic container? What do I do??? Help!!!

 

[JuiceBox52]

Snails are actually beneficial to an aquarium. There is no need to remove the fish, just pick the snails out when you see them if you dont want them in there

 

[Byron]

I agree. First off, absolutely never use any chemicals to deal with snails, algae, or anything else. These are all detrimental to fish and not worth the risk. The only way to deal with natural "problems" is to deal with the source.

Small snails are beneficial, extremely so. They eat organics, which means the fish excrement, any dead plant/animal matter, excess fish food, and in some cases algae. They will reproduce to the level sustainable by their food availability.