Snail Treatment Caused Fish Wipe Out

glasgow

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I have an 80L tank with 12 glo-light tertras, a plec, and a stray molly. We had a bit of a snail infestation, so I treated with Interpet Antisnail last night. Followed dosage, waited four hours, performed a 50% waterchange. This morning I came down to 7 dead tertas, and two more looking bad. I've performed another 70% waterchange.

What now?

Should I remove the plec and the remaining fish to my other 80l tank, or is the damage done, and the water now changed enough? Don't want to add more stress.

The only thing I can think of that I did wrong is that our Scottish water may be too soft for the Snail treatment.
 
I should think your water changes would be enough, but I'd do another large one, and run some carbon/charcoal in your filter for a few days if you can.

I'm sorry for your losses, it must have been devastating for you :-(
 
Snail treatments freqently kill other fish and upset the balance of the tank. Also, the water changes required to get rid of the product end up wiping your tank clean, which means it pretty much needs to be re-cycled. In the future, you might want to consider quarantining the fish in a seperate tank before treating the water, or just getting clown loaches, that love eating snails. For now, you might want to consider moving your fish to a secondary tank with new water (you can add tap water conditionner and a cycle product to soften the blow) until your primary tank can be recycled. Also, if the snail infestation is really bad, you will probably have to manually remove the snail carcasses from the gravel;otherwise, they will decompose and upset the water balance.

I know how frustrating snail infestations can be. After years without problems, I recently developped a massive snail infestation in my 50G tank that clogged the filters. I'd clean out the tubes and a few hours later they'd be clogged again. When my fish started dying off, I quarantined the survivors and started the tank over a gain. I tried boiling the gravel to kill the snails and picked nearly 2 full cups of snail carcasses out of only a third of the gravel before calling it quits. In the end, I replaced the gravel and all the plants, boiled the driftwood to kill any eggs, did a compte water change, cleaned the filter, treated the empty tank with a snail-removing product and let the filter run for a week without the charcoal, did a 2nd complete water change and let the filter run for a week with the charcoal, changed the charcoal (to remove any trace of anti-snail product), cleaned the filter again, did a 3rd compete water change and let the tank run for a week before adding plants and a few hardy fish to get it cycling, then starting reintroducing the survivors. This was, however, a radical infestation. Now, I have 3 clown loaches to help keep this from happening again : )

Prevention is the best remedy, so make sure to soak newly purchased plants in some salt water and rinse them thoroughly before introducing them to your tank, and don't add the water from newly purchased fish to your tank (can contain snail eggs). What I do after floating the bag my fish came and gradually filling the bag with tank water to acclimatize the fish, I net the fish one by one and "rinse" them by gently pouring tank water (which by this point they're used to) over them while holding the net over a bowl, then I release them into the tank. It seems to be working.

Best of luck!
 
Snail treatments freqently kill other fish and upset the balance of the tank. Also, the water changes required to get rid of the product end up wiping your tank clean, which means it pretty much needs to be re-cycled. In the future, you might want to consider quarantining the fish in a seperate tank before treating the water, or just getting clown loaches, that love eating snails. For now, you might want to consider moving your fish to a secondary tank with new water (you can add tap water conditionner and a cycle product to soften the blow) until your primary tank can be recycled. Also, if the snail infestation is really bad, you will probably have to manually remove the snail carcasses from the gravel;otherwise, they will decompose and upset the water balance.

I know how frustrating snail infestations can be. After years without problems, I recently developped a massive snail infestation in my 50G tank that clogged the filters. I'd clean out the tubes and a few hours later they'd be clogged again. When my fish started dying off, I quarantined the survivors and started the tank over a gain. I tried boiling the gravel to kill the snails and picked nearly 2 full cups of snail carcasses out of only a third of the gravel before calling it quits. In the end, I replaced the gravel and all the plants, boiled the driftwood to kill any eggs, did a compte water change, cleaned the filter, treated the empty tank with a snail-removing product and let the filter run for a week without the charcoal, did a 2nd complete water change and let the filter run for a week with the charcoal, changed the charcoal (to remove any trace of anti-snail product), cleaned the filter again, did a 3rd compete water change and let the tank run for a week before adding plants and a few hardy fish to get it cycling, then starting reintroducing the survivors. This was, however, a radical infestation. Now, I have 3 clown loaches to help keep this from happening again : )

Prevention is the best remedy, so make sure to soak newly purchased plants in some salt water and rinse them thoroughly before introducing them to your tank, and don't add the water from newly purchased fish to your tank (can contain snail eggs). What I do after floating the bag my fish came and gradually filling the bag with tank water to acclimatize the fish, I net the fish one by one and "rinse" them by gently pouring tank water (which by this point they're used to) over them while holding the net over a bowl, then I release them into the tank. It seems to be working.

Best of luck!

Thanks, I'll certainly not be using a chemical snail treatment again.

My dilemma now is what to do. I've got 5 tetras, a Molly and a plec left in the tank. I've done the water changes indicated above.

Do I remove the fish to my other 80l tank (which has another bunch of tetras in it), do more water changes and recycle the affected tank. Catching the Plc could be a problem. OR do I presume it will be clear after the changes I've made and just monitor Ammonia etc for week or two?
 
I would definitely remove them to a seperate tank if you have one handy, and for catching plecos, I use a clean tea towel. Just let the tea towel drop over him and gingerly scoop him up, using your palms to lightly hold the towel and his back and your fingers to cradle him in the towel from underneath. then place him and and towel a few inches below the water in the naw tank, slowly release the towel, and he will likely swim away on his own in a few seconds. This works wonders on my 12 inch pleco than cannot be netted and thrashes around something mad if I try to catch him in a bowl. He instinctively tucks in his fins and dorsal fan when the towel descends on him,, so it's not damaging either. It's by far the best method I've found. Good luck :)
 
Unfortunately I couldn't catch him. So, I've done another 50% change, and I'll monitor Nitrate and Ammonia over the week or so to ensure the cycle is OK.

Here's hoping all will be well.
 
Snail treatments freqently kill other fish and upset the balance of the tank. Also, the water changes required to get rid of the product end up wiping your tank clean, which means it pretty much needs to be re-cycled. In the future, you might want to consider quarantining the fish in a seperate tank before treating the water, or just getting clown loaches, that love eating snails.

Any sort of treatments can kill and do frequently upset tank balance. This is very true, and is a valuable lesson learned.

Water changes do NOT wipe tanks clean and cause a tank to lose its cycle. Unless the water has not been dechlorinated, this is simply not true. Any amount, up to and including 100%, water changes daily will not affect a tank's biological filtration.

Getting certain fish to solve certain issues in the tank is a dangerous habit. Fish should be obtained because the tank is intended for them. Clown loaches get massive and require company of their own kind. Very few people have the tank space to just go out and get some.

In short, though, you learned a valuable lesson and are a better aquarist for it. We all make mistakes. The trick is to learn from them.

I hope that everything from here on out goes smoothly.
 
^^ Excellent post, and 100% correct.
 
Snail treatments freqently kill other fish and upset the balance of the tank. Also, the water changes required to get rid of the product end up wiping your tank clean, which means it pretty much needs to be re-cycled. In the future, you might want to consider quarantining the fish in a seperate tank before treating the water, or just getting clown loaches, that love eating snails.

Any sort of treatments can kill and do frequently upset tank balance. This is very true, and is a valuable lesson learned.

Water changes do NOT wipe tanks clean and cause a tank to lose its cycle. Unless the water has not been dechlorinated, this is simply not true. Any amount, up to and including 100%, water changes daily will not affect a tank's biological filtration.

Getting certain fish to solve certain issues in the tank is a dangerous habit. Fish should be obtained because the tank is intended for them. Clown loaches get massive and require company of their own kind. Very few people have the tank space to just go out and get some.

In short, though, you learned a valuable lesson and are a better aquarist for it. We all make mistakes. The trick is to learn from them.

I hope that everything from here on out goes smoothly.

Yes, you are correct, I was unclear: water changes alone won't make a tank lose its cycle, but when you combine it with cleaning the filter and repalcing the filter medium - which you usually have to do do get rid of snail eggs in the tubing and filter - it does amount to destroying a cycle. Regarding the addition of predatory fish such as clown loaches, you're right, they shouldn't be added unless the tank can support them. My tank does, but that's not the case for everyone. I personally love my clown loaches and I've never had one grow to more than 5", and that was after years. I've read that clown loaches can reach 16", but I've also read that their growth slows down quite a bit after they reach 3-4" and that they usually don't grow to more than 6" in captivity. Some say that the minimum tank size for clwon loaches is 100G, others say 20. There is a lot of contradictory information out there about them and I don't know what to think. I suppose I'll have to read up more on them. Thanks for the corrections/food for thought and have a great day ( :
 
So many people trying to get rid of pest snails... and yesterday I frowned when I found my first ever pest snail's empty shell. o_O Oh well, got 6 more of his offspring sliding over the walls.
 
I been having snails in my tank for months now. I refuse to add any chemicals to kill them but a few weeks ago i realized i had a problem.
So far i cut on the food for the fish to to see if there's nothing left for the snails, it wont kill them but i read that the more food they have the more they are.
Also every water change i vacuum as much snails as possible out of the tank. And believe me in the first time i did vacuum alot of them.
I see less of them right now but i still see some. But i don't want to restart the tank.And i do have other tanks around so moving the fish and do some treatment might be an option to look at.
I really hate looking at my tank and seeing dozens of snails going up the glass,not even counting with the ones on the rocks,plants and substrate.
I know some people like to keep snails on their tanks but when they are out of control it becomes a pest.
 
I been having snails in my tank for months now. I refuse to add any chemicals to kill them but a few weeks ago i realized i had a problem.
So far i cut on the food for the fish to to see if there's nothing left for the snails, it wont kill them but i read that the more food they have the more they are.
Also every water change i vacuum as much snails as possible out of the tank. And believe me in the first time i did vacuum alot of them.
I see less of them right now but i still see some. But i don't want to restart the tank.And i do have other tanks around so moving the fish and do some treatment might be an option to look at.
I really hate looking at my tank and seeing dozens of snails going up the glass,not even counting with the ones on the rocks,plants and substrate.
I know some people like to keep snails on their tanks but when they are out of control it becomes a pest.
I guess mine aren't really pests lol. They just sit there and happily munch on whatever they find on the ground or tank walls. I have them for 3 months now, and they don't seem to be out of control. I do find some of them inside the filter, but I put them back in the tank. I have 3 in the fry cage, they eat anything that falls on the floor of the cage even though I use a syringe to clean that up every day.
There's very little food available though so even my apple snails are hungry most of the time and I have to feed them separately.
 

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