Snail Invasion

[supagran]

Can anyone advise me please. I have a nice stocked tank which has been overrun by hundreds of little snails, they look like tiny catherine wheels. I presume they must have come in on plants but I cant get rid of them. I cannot use one of the proprietary snail killers as I also have trumpets, apples and nerite snails in there.

[stonecutter]

ive heard that u have to completely clean out the tank..take everything out and wash it with bleach or vinegar...

[FishEggs]

The only thing i could suggest for getting rid of one type of snail out of several kinds is to put a piece of lettuce or other green leaf veggie and at night when they all come out to feed just pick off the snails that you dont want. Every time you see one of those snails just keep plucking them out. eventually you will be ahead of them breeding and see less and less of them. It will probably be next to impossible to rid the tank entirely of them.

[supagran]

thanks stonecutter. I really dont want to do this as i have quite a large tank and some very pregnant fish. i suppose i was just looking for an easy way out.

[stonecutter]

you could do the leaf thing...but i was suggesting that becuz its the fastest way to get it done

[neilanh]

agreed, the leaf thing is the easiest way to go without the use of meds, which I don't recommend.

They're pond snails. They breed very prolifically, but will limit themselves based on available food. Make sure that you're not overfeeding. The abundance of food will have them continuing to breed excessively. If they're short on food, they'll scale themselves back.

[supagran]

Thankyou all. It looks like I am going to have to try the leaf thing doesn't it.

[CompMage]

There is one other option depending on how aggressive / passive your tank is. Or if you can move fish to another tank for a while.

Dwarf Puffers! They eat snails, love snails. I had a simular problem and refused to use chemicals or break down a heavly planted 20g-Long tank.

The single dwarf worked out good with the neons in there and I've been able to add plants whenever I want without the fear of snail explosion.

For me a single dwarf puffer did the job in about a month. And it never bothered any of my other fish. After it swims with the neons now.... it's the strangest thing I've seen in some time but eh.

As always, this is a LONG term solution to the problem and should be given the same thought you give to any fish purchase.

But you will need to remember one major thing. You will need to clean out the dead snail shells. They will screw your water up something nasty! Also they will attack ANY snail you put in the tank. Even larger snails have been known to be killed. I've never had that problem as I don't have any snails in that tank.

Dwarf Puffers : Home
THat's a great site for more info.

[FishEggs]

the idea was to get rid of one type of snail and keep the others. You could ask the dwarf puffer to only eat the one type and not the others but he might not listen and just go schmorgusborg on all of them.

[pitt420dude]

Originally Posted by FishEggs

You could ask the dwarf puffer to only eat the one type and not the others but he might not listen...

Ha, LMAO!

Loaches eat snails too, but then you have the same indiscriminate tastes problem as the FDP.