Snail Invasion

[Scooterlindy]

Hello, I'm looking for advice on a snail explosion in a 10 gallon planted tank with dwarf shrimp and dwarf Rasboras. My background - I've kept aquariums for 7ish years, planted for the past 2 years. I currently have 4 tanks, all planted. A 40 gallon with mollies, Rasboras and tetras. It's my original planted tank and it's well planted and established - it has assassin snails and ramshorn. I have a 10 gallon beta tank with a few nitrile snails and a few ramshorn snails. Both those tanks the snail population is controlled. My last tank is at my office and is planted but no fish yet, as it just finished cycling. So I'd call myself a semi experienced but definitely still learning hobbyist. My tank that is the problem has been set up for 6ish months. I cycled it and got the plants established- I still use easy/beginner plants as I'm not ready for a complicated setup. I failed to dip my plants correctly when I ordered them and a few pond snails set up camp in the tank. I allowed them to stay, as the numbers stayed under control. I added dwarf shrimp and dwarf Rasboras and everything was going well. I went away for vacation and my well meaning friend (over)fed my tanks. And a few weeks later boom snails everywhere in this tank. And i cannot get it under control. Daily the sides of my tank are covered with snails and the substrate looks like its moving with all the snails crawling around. I'm so frustrated, I don't know what to do to get the population back down. When I see eggs on the glass, I remove them, but they are all through the plants in the tank. I don't mind snails but this is too much - I can't enjoy the shrimp and Rasboras because the snails are so thick on the glass. I'm almost ready to pull the fish and shrimp, put them in my tank I just cycled at my office and start this 10 gallon over. I've tried the lettuce trick, I've tried capturing them in a trap (but I catch shrimp too and then end up loosing the caught snails attempting to move the shrimp out of the trap), I've tried just hand picking the snails out. I'm worried I'm stressing my shrimp by disturbing them so frequently. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I also end up overfeeding the tank because the snails attack the shrimp food so quickly, my shrimp don't stand a chance at getting any. And all food is cleaned up quickly, but I know I'm just feeding the snails so they can make more! Thank you in advance!!!

 

[Sgooosh]

clean the tank thoroughly and control feeding
clean up and trim plants and wipe algae too

 

[Scooterlindy]

clean the tank thoroughly and control feeding
clean up and trim plants and wipe algae too

I don't have any algea, none of my plants have dead areas- I keep them trimmed and tidy. I did a thorough cleaning when I first noticed the problem and it didn't reduce the snails, if anything I ended up with more. I'm not sure how else to control feeding - if I feed every other day, the snails are "starving" and attack the shrimp food so quickly, the shrimp get nothing. I only feed once a day, the fish food is all cleaned up within 2ish minutes, the shrimp food is gone within an hour to hour and half. I'm worried I'll harm the shrimp if I feed less.

 

[Circus]

First manually remove as many snails as possible. Then you can simply drop a piece of vegetable (cucumber, lettuce, broccoli etc) on a fork or skewer, wait 30 min or until covered, then remove it. You can wipe them into the trash or toss the whole piece of veg. Rinse, repeat. Or make a snail trap, or buy a snail trap. Do not feed for a couple days while you do this. The fish and shrimp will do fine without food for a few days. Then only lightly feed two or three days a week while you get things under control.

 

[Sgooosh]

First manually remove as many snails as possible. Then you can simply drop a piece of vegetable (cucumber, lettuce, broccoli etc) on a fork or skewer, wait 30 min or until covered, then remove it. You can wipe them into the trash or toss the whole piece of veg. Rinse, repeat. Or make a snail trap, or buy a snail trap. Do not feed for a couple days while you do this. The fish and shrimp will do fine without food for a few days. Then only lightly feed two or three days a week while you get things under control.

yeah and the shrimp will probably eat food in the trap anyways, but they can run away when you take it out

 

[imw]

syphon them out.

 

[Sgooosh]

syphon them out.

i guess you can syphon if the substrate is not too small

 

[Salt]

I know you said you tried traps before. I put a few pieces of celery (nuked for about 5 seconds then cooled off) in mine and make sure I pick something with a smaller mouth than the rest of the body. This is a probiotic drink bottle. I don't know anything about shrimp concern, but I just thought I'd show you the setup I use just in case it would help. The ramshorns like celery better than carrots. I also take a literal spatula to the sides of my glass to scrape off the snail eggs that I can visually see on it. I'm in a terrible snail battle, too.
Good luck!

 

[Sgooosh]

View attachment 152256
I know you said you tried traps before. I put a few pieces of celery (nuked for about 5 seconds then cooled off) in mine and make sure I pick something with a smaller mouth than the rest of the body. This is a probiotic drink bottle. I don't know anything about shrimp concern, but I just thought I'd show you the setup I use just in case it would help. The ramshorns like celery better than carrots. I also take a literal spatula to the sides of my glass to scrape off the snail eggs that I can visually see on it. I'm in a terrible snail battle, too.
Good luck!

nice! if theres a shrimp problem just scare away the shrimp and the snails will stay i guess

 

[Scooterlindy]

i guess you can syphon if the substrate is not too small

Substrate goes right with them. I hand picked out a bunch tonight. I have some shrimp kabobs that they love so I put two in the tank and they accumulated on them. Same idea as the vegetable. I'll just keep doing that and hopefully I can get them under control. If I can get the eggs before they hatch, I'll have a better chance of keeping them under control.

 

[Scooterlindy]

View attachment 152256
I know you said you tried traps before. I put a few pieces of celery (nuked for about 5 seconds then cooled off) in mine and make sure I pick something with a smaller mouth than the rest of the body. This is a probiotic drink bottle. I don't know anything about shrimp concern, but I just thought I'd show you the setup I use just in case it would help. The ramshorns like celery better than carrots. I also take a literal spatula to the sides of my glass to scrape off the snail eggs that I can visually see on it. I'm in a terrible snail battle, too.
Good luck!

I use a small coke bottle as a trap. My problem is my shrimp go in, then don't come out when I pick it up. So I end up twisting the bottle around trying to get the shrimp out and lose a good portion of the snails I catch.

 

[Salt]

I use a small coke bottle as a trap. My problem is my shrimp go in, then don't come out when I pick it up. So I end up twisting the bottle around trying to get the shrimp out and lose a good portion of the snails I catch.

Poor shrimp! They probably don't appreciate that at all.
Maybe you could run a piece of fishing line through just the vegetable and drop it in the water? You lose some snails raising it but at least none of the poor shrimp would be trapped.
The other thought I had was the big suctioning might not work but what about targeted suctioning with a turkey baster just to suck up the snail? I'm spitballing over here, like I said I'm in the middle of this battle too.

 

[Scooterlindy]

Poor shrimp! They probably don't appreciate that at all.
Maybe you could run a piece of fishing line through just the vegetable and drop it in the water? You lose some snails raising it but at least none of the poor shrimp would be trapped.
The other thought I had was the big suctioning might not work but what about targeted suctioning with a turkey baster just to suck up the snail? I'm spitballing over here, like I said I'm in the middle of this battle too.

I'm seriously considering putting the fish and shrimp in the tank i just cycled and then fighting the problem. I feel like every time I mess with the tank, I stress the poor shrimp. Hopefully by scraping the eggs and hand picking out the snails, I can get in control of these beasts! The last time I had such an issue, it was with my bristlenose plecs and they bred like crazy! I was new to the hobby and overwhelmed very quickly!!! I'm better prepared experience wise but just as frustrated!

 

[Salt]

I'm seriously considering putting the fish and shrimp in the tank i just cycled and then fighting the problem. I feel like every time I mess with the tank, I stress the poor shrimp. Hopefully by scraping the eggs and hand picking out the snails, I can get in control of these beasts! The last time I had such an issue, it was with my bristlenose plecs and they bred like crazy! I was new to the hobby and overwhelmed very quickly!!! I'm better prepared experience wise but just as frustrated!

I only raise guppies, so I really feel the breeding like crazy comment
I think moving them to other other tank sounds optimal. Let us know how it goes!

 

[Sgooosh]

I use a small coke bottle as a trap. My problem is my shrimp go in, then don't come out when I pick it up. So I end up twisting the bottle around trying to get the shrimp out and lose a good portion of the snails I catch.

here;s a tip
get a bucket of water and put the bottle in the water, make the shrimp swim out and the snails will stay