overrun by snails

[ellymay21]

I bought a 65 gallon tank off of a friend. After about 3 months a found a snail in the tank. I didnt think anything of it. Ive always had fake plants so i didnt know anything about snails. A few days later my tank had snails everywhere. I've got a largemouth bass in the tank and they don't bother him, but they bother me. I don't want them to get stuck in my fliter and break it. I've heard the only way to get rid of them is completely drain the tank and wash everything with white vinegar. Is there anyway I can kill them and not hurt my bass without having to empty all my water. Please help.

 

[mfdrookie516]

Stop overfeeding and they'll stop overpopulating. There will only be as many as the excess food in the tank will feed. Also, a 65g tank is far too small for a largemouth bass, do you have plans to upgrade?

 

[Mrc8858]

Also to help bring down the numbers u can stick leaves of lettuce in overnight and in the morning remove it along with all the snails attached to it

 

[ellymay21]

Yes I am planning to upgrage. We got this fish when he was only a few inches long. He is quickly out growing his tank. I'm in the process of getting him a 150 gallon, and possibly upgrading after that also. The only thing that I feed him is earthworms. There is no over feeding. The worms are always gone before I leave the tank. I only feed him every other day or so. I'll def try the lettuce trick.

 

[mfdrookie516]

You should be feeding it a staple diet, then supplimenting with worms if you want. There must be some that it's not eating... snails have to have a food source, and algae alone isn't enough to let them overpopulate IME

 

[ellymay21]

Idk what it would be. I garentee you that that fish eats them all. Is there anything you reccomend for the diet. We tried flakes but he wouldn't eat them.

 

[Mrc8858]

Try some hikari pellets

 

[mfdrookie516]

Yeah, I'd try a high quality pellet. Omega One or NLS would be my choice, though many people do like some varieties of Hikari.

 

[Ozydego]

how often do you change the water and siphon the detrius, maybe they are eating something in the gravel bed?? Just a thought... Mine were terrible and I am still removing some, cutting down on feeding definitely fixed my issue, I'd say they are 10% of what I used to have... 100 down to 10...