Snail Prevention (New plants)

[E-cubed]

OK, so I am sorry if this has been covered before. There are so many threads on snails...

I have set up a new tank and don't want snails! I also have a very small tank I can set up as a 'quarantine" tank, just for plants. What can I put in the water that will kill all snails and eggs? How long would this take? And are there any plants that can't take this treatment? I intend on getting some mosses, liverworts and various rooted plants. Please make some suggestions!

E-cubed

 

[Purrbox]

I suggest reading this page on plant dips/baths. You could also use a copper treatment, but I wouldn't advise this if you're planning on adding the plants to an aquarium with inverts (shrimp, etc.) that you want to keep.

 

[E-cubed]

Thank you once again Joy!

E-cubed

 

[new2betas]

I am trying the alum soak today with my regular weekly maintenance. I will let everyone know how it goes.

 

[E-cubed]

I am doing the same thing Dottie. In fact I started the soak about 15 minutes ago.

About a week ago I got a portion of Needle Leaf Java Fern that looked clean. I put it in a tall 2 qt. jar until I could find an appropriate piece of wood to mount it on. I later found several baby snails on the glass, hence my question. (I also got more Dwarf Baby's Tears and an (unknown to me) Echinodorus, all getting the same treatment.

 

[new2betas]

How funny! We are both doing our soaks at the same time. I can't wait to see how it turns out. I found a bazillion snails in my filter this morning. I do not over feed my fish either, so I don't know why I can't control these things. I vacuumed substrate and am soaking plants in hopes of drastically cutting their population. I will take new pics of my re-scaping this evening.

 

[marchmaxima]

If your tank is large enough, some loaches eat snails.

 

[E-cubed]

If your tank is large enough, some loaches eat snails.

Yes, but my tank is a new small (10 gallon) tank and I am trying my best to not introduce any snails in the first place!

 

[marchmaxima]

in that case, loaches are a bad idea and go with the other suggestions.

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

I have 2 clown loaches in my 29gallon... they dont come out from hiding enough to eat snails lol

edit... going to have a 155 gallon soon.. just letting them stay here for the mean time.

 

[E-cubed]

I planted the treated plants yesterday and most seem OK. The dwarf Baby's Tears look sort of bleached out. I can not tell if the alum bath damaged the plants of if the one planted over a week ago is simply greener because of the nitrogen cycle the tank has been going through. Time will tell I suppose.

I need something red with a finer texture that will do well with 26 watts of 5000K CF light in a 10 gallon tank, no CO2. Suggestions anyone?

Here it the tank this morning.

 

[saffikeagan]

I was really anti-snail too, but then I read that different types of snails can be beneficial in different ways to a tank, so now I'm 'eh' on the matter.

 

[meedo]

Biological treatment is your solution

I had the same problem, when I started my tank I found one snail on one of the plants, I said to myself "OK, no big deal, it is just another form of life, no harm!", it seemed I was mistaken because a month later my tank was heavily infested with snails, they are asexual so they just keep laying eggs, no need for a male and female together to produce babies

I wanted to have chemical treatment but since I have inverts that would harm them too so I decide to go to the biological treatment, bought a Clown Loach, week later only empty snail shells in the bottom And it is such a beautiful and active fish

 

[Taelen]

My yoyo's = instant snail death.

If I knew I could transfer them to my 10g for a few minutes without them eating my betta or cories, I would just to wipe out the snails!

 

[new2betas]

yeah...my tank is also too small for a clown loach or yoyo

 

[dskidmore]

I said to myself "OK, no big deal, it is just another form of life, no harm!", it seemed I was mistaken because a month later my tank was heavily infested with snails,

Snail population is a measure of how much the tank is overfed. Feed less and snails will not overrun the place. If you kill the snails you'll still be overfeeding, you just won't have that indicator, and your glass won't be cleaned for you any more.

My work aquarium is a planted snail tank. I feed 1/4 of an algae tablet, or a tiny pinch of food 3 times a week. This is a lot of food for the size of tank, so I have a very noticable population there.

My home tank has the same two species of snails, but is much larger, and you have to go looking for them.

Why don't you want snails?

An easy way to remove snails is to put sinking food on a plate on the bottom, and in the morning remove the plate and scrape it off into the garbage. You're not likely to get 100% removal that way though.

 

[E-cubed]

Why don't you want snails?

I don't like them and think they are ugly. Slugs with shells, and I hate slugs too.

 

[marchmaxima]

I understand where you are coming from, they're not everyone's cup of tea.

however I'd just like to point out there you might just want to reconsider your thinking on the topic in the context of your fish's environment. MTS snails are actually healthy thing for a tank to have. A tank is (should be) a replacation of a the fish's natural habitat and in most FW environemnts, snails play a very important role. They are good for substrate, in the same way that worms are good for the earth's soil. As much as theyh annoy me, and I don't think much of the look of them, I am definitely pleased to see them in my planted tank.

Just my 2c on the topic.

 

[E-cubed]

Like they say, different strokes for different folks. I had breeding Discus for 10 years without a single snail in any of my tanks. That is the way I like it and the way it will be for me. There will be no snails in any of my tanks. Call me crazy if you wish...

 

[saffikeagan]

I won't call you crazy as I'm faced with a bloom of snails at the moment. However, those same snails are telling me I have WAY too much food in the tank which might be a cause of the finrot that appeared on my betta today.

I've also heard that they are also a GREAT way to tell if you are about to have an Oxygen problem in your tank (esp if you have a betta friendly tank) as they will head to the surface in droves.