Snails and snails and more snails

[gadazobe]

Hi all, well I'm back - went away for a couple of weeks and had a great time. Got back and found my community tank infested with 100's of snails . What fish can I put in to get rid of them. I have 2 gobi dragons, a large pleco, a male betta, various platies and mollies and 6 corys. The tank is a heavily planted 180 litre. The only fish I can think of are clown loaches but I'm not sure if they would get on with the other inmates. Advice please

 

[PanthyWanthy]

Join the club lol.. My hubby calls our tank a snail tank not a fish tank

I asked exactly the same question and was told clown loaches was the best to get. Apart from that have u tried the lettuce or cuecumber in the tank overnight?

Im not an expert just someone that's got same problem as you and these are what ive been told

Hope this helps..

Sue

 

[gadazobe]

I've tried the lettuce and cucumber method but it doesn't help. A) it gets eaten by the pleco and others and B) there's so many plants, the snails have enough to eat anyway

 

[PanthyWanthy]

oh dear.. well what about squashing them

 

[ostrow]

The culprit, no doubt, is the plants. When did you last add plants?

See these threads, the first on my infestation:
http/fish.orbust.net/forums/index.php?s=...&hl=snails&st=0

The second on how I treat plants:
http/fish.orbust.net/forums/index.php?ac...4e1dbf3df3dcfac

I had to strip my tank as that was the only way to be sure all the eggs were gotten. so many eggs squishing isn't gonna help.

How big is your tank? If you were to add say 4 or 5 clown loaches, pretty soon you would have things under control. You are gonig to have a lot of waste though, from the shells, etc. So the clean-up is going to be major no matter what. That is what tipped me to stripping and cleaning the tank, boiling the pebbles, etc.

Good luck.

 

[wetwetwet]

could try 2 saucers, (or similar)

one turned upside down ontop of the other with a little food/lettuce in there and propped up just enough to allow snails in. Put in last thing at night b4 lights out and remove in morning - should be full of the little critters

 

[Paul]

How big is your tank, because clown loaches get 12 to 16 inches. A asain bumblebee cat might be more advantagious for getting rid of you snail problem. They only get 7 to 8 inches and love snails. Snails are almost as hard to get rid of as Algae. snailbegone is a good site that might answer your question better than I can.

 

[Alex]

When I got a snail problem I was a bit baffled, I then found out my boyfriend had nicked my banjo cat, I hadn't noticed, 'cos it always hid, anyway bought myself a nice skinny baby one, and now I have no visible snails, just a banjo cat cleverly disguised as a really fat bit of bogwood.

 

[William]

When I got a snail problem I was a bit baffled, I then found out my boyfriend had nicked my banjo cat, I hadn't noticed, 'cos it always hid, anyway bought myself a nice skinny baby one, and now I have no visible snails, just a banjo cat cleverly disguised as a really fat bit of bogwood.

Thats interesting alex, I've never heard of them eating snails, he must have been quite effective! Did you see him eating the snails, I mean he must have done but did he suck them out of their shells?

 

[Orbitorly]

Ahh! Mystery Snails, appear out of no where. Clown loaches are a good way to get rid of them, but loaches get big about a foot long, you'd need a big tank for a school of those.

 

[MarineBiology101]

When i got a snail problem, i tried selling them. It was successful until more snail eggs hatched. After a while i decided to live with the problem and got a redcap oranda. The wierdest thing, i found a bunch of shell pieces on the bottom of my aquarium and found my redcap eating one behind one of an artificial plant. When i had no more snails, it tried to eat the gravel and got it stuck in its throat. so i had to operate.......

 

[Kirstie]

I agree with Orbitorly, Clown Loaches. You could also just pick them out of the tank and give/sell them to your local pet store! : yes :