Snail popualation explosion

[jasonmusick1]

Snail population explosion

Hi there everyone, I need some advice. I have a problem with snails in my aquarium, this started after I had bought a live plant and added it to my tank. The salesperson told me there were no snails on the plant and of course I could not visibly see any but I had noticed some in the tank at the store. Anyway to get to the point I now have a unwanted snail problem and I am wanting to eliminate them in my 30 gallon tank. I want a fish or other aminal to help me clean this problem up. Can anyone empathize with me and give some advice on a good idea. Thank you, Jason

 

[Aquarium1]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f20/diy-pond-snail-trap-126550.html This might help

 

[dkpate]

Clown loaches eat snails. You can also try putting a piece of lettuce in there to lure them out overnight.

 

[Aquarium1]

If you just put in some lettuce they could crawl right off it. But if you put some lettuce in the trap (which it could be used in place of shrimp pellets) they won't [easily] get away lol.

 

[dkpate]

Well, either you have to be slow, or your snails are faster than normal. I can drop an algae wafer in my tank, and within 20 minutes, there is a giant dogpile of snails on it, and I can easily catch them.

 

[Aquarium1]

Or I'm forgettable. I would put it in for overnight and by the next afternoon (once i remembered about it) most of them left. That's why I devised that trap lol.

 

[mfdrookie516]

its never a good idea to get a fish specifically for a problem like snails or algae. what do you do with the fish after the snails are gone? Your best bet is to do something like aquarium1 said and make a trap or try dkpates idea with the lettuce. One note about clown loaches, they need a 55g or larger tank

 

[sieski]

Hi there everyone, I need some advice. I have a problem with snails in my aquarium, this started after I had bought a live plant and added it to my tank. The salesperson told me there were no snails on the plant and of course I could not visibly see any but I had noticed some in the tank at the store. Anyway to get to the point I now have a unwanted snail problem and I am wanting to eliminate them in my 30 gallon tank. I want a fish or other aminal to help me clean this problem up. Can anyone empathize with me and give some advice on a good idea. Thank you, Jason

#

what size is your aquarium?

mfdrookie516 its never a good idea to get a fish specifically for a problem like snails or algae. what do you do with the fish after the snails are gone?

Easy I brought yo yo(pakistani) loaches for my snails. after they ate them i now feed them sinking pellets veg and frozen BW an BS. I tried the trap ideas of varied methods and had no luck.

 

[mfdrookie516]

a yoyo loach would be ok, but what im saying is that we should buy fish that we want, not just to take care of a problem. Like algae, plecos are algae eaters of course, but should not be purchased because there is an algae problem. The same goes for snails. Snails can be taken care of by watching feedings. Snails only get out of control if there is a food source for them (i.e. overfeeding)... And what i meant by "what do you do with the fish after the snails are gone?" was that if you only buy the fish because you have snails, once they are gone are you still going to want it? If so, then great, get it. If not, dont get it.

 

[Halthe]

I agree with mfdrookie! That's why I inherited two tanks!

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

a yoyo loach would be ok, but what im saying is that we should buy fish that we want, not just to take care of a problem. Like algae, plecos are algae eaters of course, but should not be purchased because there is an algae problem. The same goes for snails. Snails can be taken care of by watching feedings. Snails only get out of control if there is a food source for them (i.e. overfeeding)... And what i meant by "what do you do with the fish after the snails are gone?" was that if you only buy the fish because you have snails, once they are gone are you still going to want it? If so, then great, get it. If not, dont get it.

Couldn't agree more. All to often people at chain store will say just get another fish and then you end up overpopulated and sad when your die because of it. Go the route of A1 or dpkate who are experianced with ways other than throwing fish at the situation.

Side note: I just wait for the snails to get up on the glass then I snatch them with a net

 

[meegosh]

Snail populations booms are usually caused by overfeeding tanks. The more leftover food, the more the snails will reproduce. I agree with mfd also, don't buy a fish to take care of a problem. Buy a fish because YOU want to keep it.

A note about clown loaches and snails- I have a clown loach in my 30g long that is about 2.5" long and it will not touch any snail bigger than a pea. I'm not sure why, maybe it can't eat one that big?

When I changed substrates in my 30g long I put the clown loach in my 10g while I was working on the other tank. In about an hours time he had eaten every single snail, except for the three large dime sized ones. He must have eaten at least 12+ small snails.

 

[sieski]

a yoyo loach would be ok, but what im saying is that we should buy fish that we want, not just to take care of a problem. Like algae, plecos are algae eaters of course, but should not be purchased because there is an algae problem. The same goes for snails. Snails can be taken care of by watching feedings. Snails only get out of control if there is a food source for them (i.e. overfeeding)... And what i meant by "what do you do with the fish after the snails are gone?" was that if you only buy the fish because you have snails, once they are gone are you still going to want it? If so, then great, get it. If not, dont get it.

oh I wanted the yo-yo's lol i had a huge snail population due to buying a large amount plants in one go. when i noticed the snails (was hard not to lol) i cut feeding to once every 2 days for a week. the snails got worse! i always wanted a loach so decided now was the time to look around i got yoyo's because of size looks and peoples expiriences of how active they were