Pest Snail Problem

[smithw14]

Okay -

In my 20g planted community tank I started having a pest snail problem. They aren't out of control, but they are still there.

I opted to do the old fashion method of plucking each one I see. Well, I started 5 weeks ago and I do believe its a loosing battle.

I am not going to use chemicals because I have 3 lovely apple snails. So picking and plucking wasn't the biggest problem, it was just annoying. Recently I got 4 apple snail egg sacks and so I have about 1-3 weeks to eradicate the pest snails, or I'm going to be taken over by them because I imagine I will not be able to tell baby apple snail from baby pest snail.

Ugh. What to do?

As always, thanks!

-William

 

[CaptnIgnit]

throw a leaf of lettuce in there and let it sit overnight, pull it out in the morning with all the snails on it.

repeat until you have no more snails.

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

Edit: beat me to it.

 

[talloulou]

The capture method works well. Also stop overfeeding your tank. The snails wouldn't be thriving if there weren't so much food available to them.

 

[7Enigma]

Agreed, snails are the visual problem, but overfeeding most likely is the underlying cause. Also make sure you are keeping good maintainance of your plants. Detrius that is on the bottom or stuck in the filter will supply food as well.