Too many snails!! How do I get rid of them?

[newfound77951]

I am in the process of setting up a 55 gal planted tank. Things are going along well, I had a minor algae outbreak but am getting it under control with ferts and SAE's. My one big problem is SNAILS...I have zillions of them....they are breeding...help....

They do eat some algae, and I have nothing personal against snails, but they are covering every square inch of my substrate and plants with green snail poo. I don't know what species they are, they are not the "ram's horn" type, they have pointed spiral shells, semi-transparent, the biggest are only about 1/3" long.

Are there fish that will eat them? Something I can add to kill them? (copper? Some plants are sensitive to copper, though) Or should I just keep trying to pick them out? For a supposedly slow critter they are amazingly good at disappearing whenever I stick my hand in the tank to pick them out.

 

[martins]

try to pick them out as much as you can.... Some of snails use awfully lot of oxygen so your fish can get hurt... freshwater angelfish (a.k.a. Pterophyllum Scalare) eats snail eggs

 

[Dark_S2000]

From what I heard, Clown Loaches eat snail eggs and baby snails. I have a couple in my tank at the moment but they are not big enough to eat the snails I have yet.

 

[tropicfishman]

put a piece of cucumber or zucini in the tank and turn the lights out, wake up and pick the snailed covered vegetable out, or buy a clown loach, they eat snail eggs to

 

[OceanMaiden]

Knifefish eat snails. Basically any snail I believe. The bigger the knifefish gets the bigger the snail it will eat. They pick it up in their mouths and slam it against rock or aquarium bottom and bite hard on it till it cracks. They then suck the snail out of whats left of its shell and eat them. The snails you described are most likely the physa species. Small conical shaped shells with points on the end. Hermamphrodites they have both mail and female parts so it only takes one to start overpopulating your tank. I have a small breeding bowl for these myself and use them to feed my knives. As soon as I pop them in the tank the knives grab em and they are seen no more. Only about a biteful to them because they are so small. Another way to help thin out the population is to look for egg clutches. They are transparent and look like a clump of bubbles on the aquarium walls or on your plants. Reach in and scrape em out. They are globby kind of like jelly but with a somewhat gritty texture. Clown loaches eat snails as well. You can keep picking them out by hand too. To make it easier as others have suggested put a piece of zuchinni in the bottom of the tank using a tank weight or clip at night. Then in the morning there should be hordes of snails on it. Just pull it out and voila. An outrageous amount of snails in just one pluck. Lots easier than one at a time.

HTH

 

[Meredith]

Oh yea. I have a snail problem too. The little buggers LOVE to lay eggs on the undersides of plant leaves. When I moved some java fern from one tank to another I went leaf by leaf scraping off globs of eggs. The smaller ones I squish, but I cant bring myself to do that to the bigger ones. I hand pick a lot of snails out of the tank. Thawed broccoli stalk seems to attract them. Keep an eye on your filter as well. They lay eggs in there too. I will consider myself lucky if I can just get them down to a small number. I don't think I will ever be able to get rid of them completely. Good luck.

 

[jim532]

I would do the cucumber thing like the others said, but do it a couple nights in a row to make sure you get as many as you can that way. Also might wanna check your filter too, Its possible some will survive getting sucked up into it and be thriving inside your filter.
Clown loaches will eat any size snail, I had a snail that was almost as big as a tennis ball and while away from home for 3 day the clown loaches feasted on Escarogt.

 

[gfink]

loaches eat ponds snails and probably others as well.

 

[newfound77951]

Thanks for all the advice everyone! I have been picking out the eggs when I see them but will try the zucchini and clown loach methods as well.

 

[Peregrine]

I just bought a Tiger Loach to nip my small snail problem in the bud before it gets bad. Tiger and Clowns and yo-yo's all enjoy snails apparently. We'll see.

I love Aquarium Adventure. Every time I call them for the fish that are hard to find, they have them.

Will I ever see it again?!? It's been under the gravel ever since I brought it home.

 

[LydiaGreen]

I had the same problem in my daughter's 10 gallon tank. Asked for advice on a forum and it turned out we were overfeeding the tank. A tiny bit of extra food for a fish turns into a smorgasboard for snails and you end up with thousands of them. Keep scooping them out of the tank... but also try reducing the amount of fish food you use and see if that helps. I haven't had a snail problem since.

Dojo loaches are supposed to be voracious snail eaters but, I didn't want to attempt it since mine are fully grown and in a 55.... they'd beat themselves silly trying to swim in a 10 gallon tank.

 

[mrspughster]

Love the clown loach I got. He cleaned up the bunches of snails I had and is a joy to watch hang with the other fish. He is my favorite fish now. Really adds color to the tank as well.

 

[JodiMartin2003]

I would be careful using loaches as snail clean up. I have heard of cases where the loaches became impacted and died because they ate too many snails. I had an ID shark that ate my mystery snail and died from eating too much(he was very bloated and floating upside down). I would use the veggie method first and then use the loaches(if necessary) after the majority of the snails are gone.

 

[severum mama]

Although clown loaches are slow growers, they are schoolers and a school will eventually outgrow a 55 gallon tank. If properly cared for, they can get huge. I had a terrible snail problem in my 20 gallon a while back, so I added a couple of yo yo loaches, knowing that they stay much smaller than clowns (I always thought they would grow to max 4-5", but I believe it was Toirtis that told me they can get bigger than that). After a couple of months the snails were completely gone, the loaches had grown quite a bit, and it was time to rehome them to my 30 gallon long and get another for a small school. If your tank is not already too heavily stocked, I'm sure you would love to have a school of yo yos, they are very energetic and interesting to watch. But at $10 apiece at my LFS, buying a school would be pretty expensive.

 

[Peregrine]

I paid $20 for my single Tiger Loach. Like I said I love Aquarium Adventure... but they ain't cheap!

 

[jibboo]

i have those same cone snails in my 55 and my 3 yo-yos (or my historonica) aren't doing anything to them. My yo-yos have cleared out the pond snails I used to have, but they aren't doing squat to these guys.

I finally sifted through all of my sand as it seems these guys are always on the bottom or in the sand, so I used one of my larger nets and scooped up lots of sand, let it sift through, then pitch the snails in the net. I've been meaning to try the zucchini trick to get the last few left.

Also, I've had my yo-yos for over 5 years and they aren't any bigger than 4". They appear to have stopped growing a long time ago.

 

[fish_4_all]

My skunk botia loaches eat them every time I give them one, never live more than 12 hours. The current ones I am dealing with sound like the same cone snails and my botias eat them the same as they did mystery snails and ramshorns, small ones anyway, less than 3/4 inch.

Try putting lettace or other greens in a small jar with a small opening just big enough for the snails, leave it overnight on the bottom and then take out the snails and all the next day. Try it a couple of times and this might work if nothing else does.

 

[Peregrine]

I found an empty snail shell when I got home from work today.
Still haven't seen my loach yet. But I can here sifting in the gravel.

 

[IceH2O]

Those are Malaysian Trumpet Snails.

They are great for keeping the sand stirred up and preventing anerobic gas pockets.

If you find that you have to many you could always sell them on aquabid. There are always people looking for them. I've bought some myself to get started.

This is just my opinion and not meant to trash anyone but I find it in bad taste and advice to suggest to a person a certain fish just to fix a problem when there are other alternatives. In this instance a clown loach was suggested. Clowns like to be in groups of 3 or more, one by himself won't be as happy and will be more stressed than 3 are. Not to mention when you suggest fish you should make sure you know the other inhabitants and tank size.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

About the best loach I've seen in the snail-busting business is the Striped (Zebra) Loach. I was over-run i snails, and within a couple days with 2 Striped Loaches, not a snail to be found. And they like the eggs as well.