Snail Prevention (New plants)

[marchmaxima]

I won't call you crazy either. You kept tank(s) for 10 years without getting a single snail in it. That's seriously well done! Take a bow!

Were they planted?

 

[E-cubed]

Yes, but limited species of plants. I had Jungle Val and Corkscrew Val, Java Ferns and a single Sword Plant. I hand scrubbed each leaf under water before placing anything in my tanks to make sure there were no eggs. (It helps to be very, very near sighted and obsessive.)

 

[dskidmore]

They will also head to the surface when you need a water change. They'll eat scum sitting on the surface in still areas.

 

[brutus]

just the thought of them scum sucking snails makes me cringe lol

 

[E-cubed]

just the thought of them scum sucking snails makes me cringe lol

I agree!

 

[JohnPaul]

A nice happy medium is to have a few nerite snails. They are good algae eaters (from what I hear, they will even eat Green Spot Algae, which basically nothing else will) and they won't overrun a tank because they cannot reproduce in freshwater. They can lay eggs but when the eggs hatch, the fry (or whatever you call a newly-hatched snail...larvae, maybe?) need to be in brackish or full salt water to survive. Plus, in a tank with fish, it's unlikely the eggs would ever get to the point of hatching anyways, as most fish would take one look and think to themselves, "Yum, CAVIAR!"

So if you buy 3 nerite snails, you will have 3 nerite snails--no more.

 

[saffikeagan]

ohhh....good advise. Do they eat plants too?

 

[E-cubed]

I have not heard of these Nerite snails. Apple snails are OK too by me, but never do well in my water. Perhaps the water here is too soft for snails? Although the common Ramshorn Snails populate aquariums here quite well.

 

[JohnPaul]

ohhh....good advise. Do they eat plants too?

Nope, nerites are perfectly safe for plants and are one of the preferred snails for a planted tank, especially a tank with larger, slower-growing plants like Anubias which tend to accumulate Green Spot Algae (GSA) on their leaves. You can find nerites on Aquabid sometimes, and usually some of the better LFS' will either stock them or at least be able to order them. Various online sources for nerites also exist (e.g. I just noticed LiveAquaria.com sells them for $2.99 each, I am sure lots of other places sell them too.)

The most common color variant seems to be the Olive nerite, but they also come in brown and (much more rarely) a zebra form.

 

[E-cubed]

I will have to keep my eyes open at my local fish store for these.

 

[bs6749]

I'm getting some plants today and I'm going to do the alum dip. I have to work all day today and tomorrow so I'm going to put them in a 10 gallon tank for the time being until I have time to mess with them on Sunday. I have dwarf baby tears in my order so I'll see how it effects mine.

I don't mind some snails like MTS and ramshorn (especially blue ramshorn if anybody has any they want to give me LOL) but I HATE pond snails with a passion! They have no place in my tank since most of the ones I've had in my tanks have eaten my plants.

 

[E-cubed]

I did an alum did on some Java Moss, Java Fern, Anubias and Dwarf Baby's Tears. Alum utterly destroyed the Dwarf Baby's Tears! I took the melted plants out of my tank and rubbed the clear and dead parts off the root ball. The roots look marginally OK and there appears to be one or two spots of new growth, but I am not sure.

From my experience, I can not recommend an alum dip on this plant unless you want to completely re-grow a plant, that is if it survives. If you want to make sure there are no snails, cut all the leaves off, leaving just the root mass and plant that. From my experience, that is all that might survive after an alum dip anyway... :?

 

[bs6749]

Okay, I think I'll avoid dipping the dwarf baby tears then. Thanks for the heads up! I will have to inspect the pot thoroughly to ensure that I remove all of the snails and eggs on that plant.