Snails....AHHHHHHHh

[josh7282]

Hello,
So.... I have a freshwater 90 gallon aquarium that I am going to make into a planted aquarium.. Currently all I have inside the tank is a large piece of driftwood and one fish with 150 pounds of sea chem fluorite. Anyways I have small snails (about the size of the tip of a needle) all over the driftwood and bottom/back of my tank.. It started with some like 5 larger snails that I saw about a week ago, I quickly scooped them out with the net. Days later more were back so I removed them...Now its an epidemic..I have little ones everywhere and like 20 or so large ones....I tried removing them but that is PITA.....they multiply way to fast too keep up with removing them with a net! So basically I have a tank that is full of nothing but snails and don't know what to do as this has never happened to me before. The small snails are grayish in color where as the larger ones are a brownish tan color... What can I do to get the nasty things out of my tank so I can get to planting and getting more fish?????? Any help would be much appreciated as I am tired of looking at all of these snails... Thank you

 

[fort384]

My advice - get a couple of Botia Stratias (Zebra Loaches).

I have one 29G tank with a botia stratia in it, and never see more than 1 snail at a time. The loach eats them all.

I have another 5G tank (no loaches in it obviously) and I have to remove snails 2-3 times a week to keep it in check. Because I transfer plants in and out of both tanks all the time, the discerning factor is the loach -- and it seems to do the trick. That would be my recommendation.

BTW other species of loaches are known to eat snails, but I chose the botia stratia because it is a little smaller than other loaches, and very cool looking in my opinion. I can't say for sure how effective the other species are at eating snails, but the botia stratia kicks snail butt.

 

[Smitty]

I have a freshwater flounder that only gets 2-3" and I caught him eating snails too I was SOOO happy when I saw that! I don't have any loaches but don't have a big snail problem either.

I also have play sand on the bottom, don't know how much the flounder would like the fluorite.

 

[josh7282]

Thanks guys......I am going to start looking for a couple loaches... Does anyone know if loaches will bother a discus because those are the fishes I will keep for the long run????

 

[Quartz92]

What about snails in a 10g? How would I stop them from multiplying!

 

[mgamer20o0]

try assassin snails. i wouldnt add fish to control a snail problem.

 

[Quartz92]

Do those eat the other snails? I would really prefer to keep the snail population to a minimum. Since I haven't gotten my plants, is there anything I could do before putting them in the tank?

 

[mgamer20o0]

yes they do. they dont breed like crazy also. they can cut down the population in no time. new plants you can bleach dip to kill off any snail or eggs on them.

 

[Quartz92]

O okay, so how many mm? I guess per water?

 

[mgamer20o0]

20 to 1. there are also other types of dips you can do. i put a extra bit of prime water and dip them in there to make sure it breaks down the bleach that might be left over.

 

[Quartz92]

What is prime water?

 

[kangster]

prime is the water conditioner people use...by seachem

 

[Quartz92]

oo okay, thanks I guess I could use any water conditioner then!

 

[Quartz92]

How long should I keep the plants in the bleach and water?

 

[Quartz92]

Just to make sure I don't kill my plants it's 1mL bleach per 20mL of water.

 

[mgamer20o0]

a couple min dip.

 

[happygirl65]

Also yes you can keep loaches with discus just make sure to at those loaches before mixing them