Snail problems

[purplechibi]

I bought some plants for my fishtank and apparently they had snail eggs on them, becuase all these baby snails appeared. I took them out, but apparently not fast enough because now the second generation has hatched.
Does anyone have some helpful advice for me?

 

[morgan]

I am overrun with snails too. I squash them on the glass when I can, being careful not to press too hard. I also have a snailtrap which works well. I had to remove it because one of my small Mollies got itself stuck in there! I am going to put it back in but only in the daytime when the tank lights are off (you are supposed to put the snailtrap in at night - I don't know why)so I can check no fish have gone in. You can get treatments for killing snails but I have not tried this as I have an Apple Snail.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

what kind of fish have you got? there are many varieties suitable for the community aquarium that love to snack on snails and snail eggs.

 

[superjalami30]

get a clown loach, they'll take care of the snails.
Or a dojo (weather loach).
Or, try a yoyo, they eat snails as well.
I spose you could try bala sharks.
Up until last week I never knew they did, actually I dont think they do as a rule, but I observed my 4 bala's eating snails I "purposely" put in my tank as an experiment to see if my weather loach would eat em.

My advice would be to go with a couple clowns or a yoyo loach,.

dont use chem's.

 

[houndour]

If you do have room for fish, but don't have a big tank, botia striata are good at keeping the snail population down. I have 3, they don't grow too big and they look stunning. Altho they do hide a lot.

 

[purplechibi]

The problem is, my tank is small and if I would get something like a clown loach, it would over crowd it. Are snail traps kindof like ant traps, Ive never heard of them?
Is there a problem with the snail killing chemical, do they harm fish or plants?

 

[Torrean]

the problem with chems is that they leave a billion snail corpses in your substrate. All that rotting flesh is not good for you aquarium.

 

[morgan]

I agree with not using chems, I just mentioned it because they are available. I bought my snailtrap from LFS, you just put some fish food inside and in the snails go. I found the trap difficult to submerge at first as the pressure forces the snailtrap apart. I have got the hang of it now. Can't remember what it cost but it was not expensive. I have squashed a few more today but I still have loads!

 

[purplechibi]

Yeah, I was thinking of getting a few more fish, so I might get a zebra loach to take care of them. Ive been taking the snails out, but they just keep coming, Im pretty sure Ive gotten out close to 200 so far, It's annoying. Ill see if they have any snailtraps at the local petstore. Thanks for all the help everyone, any more insight will still be welcome. Ill let uall know what I do.

 

[purplechibi]

Thanks for your help everyone! I am the proud new owner of a small clown loach named Bubba, an early birthday present!

 

[morgan]

That sounds like the best solution. Unfortunately I can't try it as I am almost fully stocked and I have four Molly fry which will eventually make the tank fully stocked. I have put the snailtrap in today so when I put the light on this evening I will see what has been caught.

 

[purplechibi]

Yeah, I'm very happy there are less snails already. The people at the store never heard of snailtraps and the only chemicals they had would also kill the plants. My liittle loach is so cute and comical.

 

[BzztYeow]

My girlfriend has a 1 gallon betta tank (which i made her buy because the coffee cup size she had before made me upset- even if its ok for the fish). We also bought it one small plant and that sucker has spawed about 3 snails so far.

Got the "Had a Snail" treatment since the snails seemed to be tearing the plant apart- and have had no luck. We keep seeing a new snail every few days It's a copper based treatment and have only been using it a few days. I was wondering if anyone had any experience on how long this treatment takes to work?

It's not really possible to throw another fish in so small a tank IMO. I know i could do a light bleach on the plant and tank if i removed the fish and did a total water change, but i was hoping this "treatment" would work so the tank wouldn't need to re-cycle.

 

[Aisha]

Im not an expert but from my experience and what i have been advised get a CLOWN LOACH... it will only ever grow to the size of its environment and will get RID of your snail problem.. have a 11gal tank and the loach loved it, got rid of all the snails except my gravel snails (which i didnt mind because they help maintain my tank!).

The Clown Loach is a great fish... there funni to watch as they get up to and do all sorts! Its a friendly fish which got on with my mollies, platies and neons!

A GREAT addition to a tank!!

I never actually saw him eat a snail but they were all gone..! (i had hundreds of the nasty plant destroyers!)

Dont waste your money on anti-snail treatments... the most they do is stun the snails and fall to the gravel, they can be removed but is time consuming, annoying and a waste of time!! No matter how many you remove you never get them all out and they multiply soooooooooo fast!

 

[Wolfenrook]

I'm sorry but you have been misinformed. Clown loaches DO NOT only grow to the size of their environment, they grow to their normal size. They are unsuitable for long term housing in small tanks, and need re-homing as they get larger and outgrow their tanks.

For small tanks, a far better predator (assuming copper has not been used, and no loaches are present) is the assassin snail. These do not reproduce as quickly as pest snails, and eat snails.

However if snails are reproducing at a high rate this is indicative of another problem, it means that you are overfeeding. If you don't overfeed snails grow and reproduce much more slowly as there is less food for them.

IMO Animals of any sort should only ever be purchased on their own merits, and not for a task they may be seen to perform. They should also be well researched and you should be sure that you will be able to take care of their long term needs including been able to rehouse species that may one day grow too large.

Ade