Snail infestation

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aridiar

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Apr 20, 2004
Messages
59
Location
West Virginia or New York, depends if school is in
*see signature for tank description*

I plan on giving the Pleco to my sister for her Cichlid Tank.
Anyway, I need some way of getting rid of all the snails and their eggs without hurting the fry.
I asked about loaches at one of the LFS but they said anything that would eat the snails would eat the fry, and I did not want to treat the tank with chemicals.

Some of the fry are big enough for me to sex them based on generally chubbiness (that's the best way I can describe the female look) and the fins, and the 2 larger ones from her last batch are a bit bigger than the neon tetras at the LFS but I have seen neons that are the same size.

Is there anything I could add to my tank to get rid of the snails (or at least restrict them to the tubes of my UGF and gravel in my tank) that would not pollute my tank as much as the Pleco (which is 2.5-3" long) and will not eat the babies???
 
Could someone, anyone PLEASE help me.

I've tried crushing the snails to let the fish eat them, but they sink to quickly and the mollies don't seem to pay any attention to them.
I asked at the LFS, they said anything that would eat the snails would eat the babies
Tomorrow I'm taking my Pleco and the two bigger babies into the LFS (I under stated their size, they are closer to the size of Fancy Guppies actually, tho they haven't developed the Lyre shaped tail yet, they are really pretty)
 
You could try sticking a leaf of lettuce in there and just take it out when a bunch of snails are on it. I just don't know how effective that would be because I don't know how quickly the snails reproduce (but it seems like it's *really* quick). :)

I would say it's also almost next to impossible to get all of the snails without a treatment. One option might be to move the fish to a temporary location, then boil the rocks and decorations. Not sure what to do about the plants though...that's how snails usually get introduced to tanks that previously had no snails.

Buena suerte!

-j
 
The fish store is rights, what will eat snails, will eat fry. Your best bet would be to use hisc1ay's method and stick a peice or a bunch of peices of a lettuce in there, then when all the snails collect there, take it out.
 
Agreed with previous responses. And also like hisc1ay said, adding live plants, brings in snails. Often times you can't even see them, but a plant is invested with hundreds of baby snails. That is how they get introduced. Your choices are either seperate the fry, and put in a fish that eats snails (my green spotted puffer cleared out my entire tank in 1 night), or just treat it and hope for the best.

-brent
 
Thanks guys, but that's not gonna do much. I already take out as many snail as I can (usign Algea Wafers and one a breeder thing or just using a net to scrape them off the glass) and throw them in with my sisters messed up little dwarfed Jellybean Parrot, I must've put almost 50 in the little 1 gallon with that bugger.....there are still more than I can count, I can't even imagine how many must be in the gravel.....
I can't get another tank tho, otherwise I would have already for the fry, which are getting bigger now anyways :D
I might be able to get the LFS to take them b4 I have to move out in 2 weeks :)
 
Buy the smallest skunk loach you can find at the lfs. I haven't seen them bother with guppy fry (but I'd have so many guppy fry that the skunks may not have been able to eat very many). A skunk will usually clean out the tank pretty fast. Yo-yo loaches don't seem to be as good at eating snails...and other small loaches are usually pretty aggressive. They have really small mouths...but I didn't really have the guppy fry and skunks mixed up in the same tank very often either.
 
My daughter has guppies and clown loaches. The clown loaches eat the snails but don't mess with anything else...... The clowns were affective in cleaning the tank of the small snails but did not mess with the large one.
 
WTH...this is insane!!!! My filter quit working earlier today so I went to clean it, and the rotor/fan was covered in SNAILS! And for some reason my sponge is RED I can't figure out why......The only thing I've treated my tank with is salt, and Prima/Mela Fix....I tried rinsing it in hot water but the coloration didn't change, anyone know why? (I have an AquaClear 150 btw)
 
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