this might seem really silly...

[milba]

how much salt can tropical fish handle? i have a crazy snail infested tank (yet again) ive tried the lettuce feeding them less etc and today i pulled out a monster snail (about 1.5cm diametre) and decided to shove salt down its hole. It immidiately started to bubble and then some red stuff popped out over my hand *yuck*. anyway to my question, would it be wise to take my fish out for a day (i have another tank downstairs that will be able to hold them) and run salt through my system for a while to kill the snails, and afterwards use a series of dilations to get the water back to "non salty?" the only problem with this again is if tropical fish can handle any salt levels..

wow that seemed confusing so ill sum it up

i) can tropical fish survive in minimal salt water?

ii) would this be a good idea?

lol sorry im kinda really new to this

 

[tishygirl]

If I were you, I'd start with listing what kinds of fish you have in the tank...

I'm a newb myself and wont be able to help much ~ But someone here would, It really depends on what kind of fish you have, and I'm not sure if a little salt in the water would kill the snails or not, I believe they can survive in slightly salty water.

 

[milba]

thanks its a 100L tank

i have neons, platies, a red shark, a clown loach, bristlenose, rummy noses and 2 gouramis oh and a mystery snail that im going to move to my other tank

 

[SPLiSH]

I wouldn't risk it... cories and some catfish cannot tolerate salt. It's safer probably to use one of the many snail-ridding meds on the market.

And like tishygirl said, snails can survive in slightly salty water. When I had to salt my old guppy tank (livebearers do better with salt) the snails were fine!

A handy trick is this: put a bit of lettuce a bit above the water level of your tank. The snails will exit the water to get it, usually at night. When a few of them are munching away, remove them and replace the lettuce.

 

[itZme]

Milba,

There are snail killing chemicals on the market if your goal is just to irradicate them from the tank. I have a 10 gallon that I used as a hospital tank for an injured oscar with just salt for treatment. I added the recommended tbs/5gal of Doc Wellfish salt. After it healed I put it back into the main tank and then thought "I am going to put everything from this 5gal into the 10gal." Without thinking I placed all the contents of the 5gal into the 10gal with the salt still in it. I had a few small applesnails in there and 5 neons. They all seemed to be thriving. I remembered the salt the next day and did about a 30% water change. I didn't notice any ill-effects on the snails. So, I am assuming that they can handle a fairly high concentration of salt without dying.

I got a hitchhiker pond snail once and ended up with about 100 tiny snails in the 5gal so I transferred the fish into another tank with the already-matured filter and then cleaned out the infested 5gal and left the gravel out in the sun for a few days hoping if there were any babies in the gravel they would dry up and die. I replaced the gravel with new stuff and then transferred the fish back into the original tank and never saw another snail.

Hope there is some useful info in my ramblings for you.

-- itZme

 

[Ram]

I wouldnt try it.

I dont know much about fish but I do know about osmosis... You might as well put out out in the sun to dry!!!
They may live through it but they sure wont appreciate it!

-ram

 

[yvez9]

a sure way of ridding your tank of snails is to boil your substrate and make sure no snails are left in the tank

not only will it kill off all your snails, it will clean your gravel as well


hmmmmm.... snail soup!

 

[milba]

thanks for all the replies guys

im going on the hunt tomorrow for some snail pellets for fish tanks loal
(btw good thing you guys warned me about the salt, it did sound pretty silly but still these snails are so irratating i was willing to give anything a try)
and if that doesnt work, well its off to the stove for my gravel and snails