Want to get rid of snails

[IvanMike]

even though we've gone WAY OT at this point - I think part of the key is that not all of the water will be that hot - water is a terrible conductor of heat. A swimming pool can run up to 85 degrees, but it has water circulation - a pond may have areas of cold water refuge.

 

[MetalHeadX343]

I would find a walmart that sells the green spotted puffers and they will devour your snails in a couple of days. I am not an advocate of certain places selling fish but you can pick them up there for like $4 a piece. Problem solved. since its that large of a tank you can get two of them in there. They don't get agressive till they get to be like 4"

they get extremely aggressive real quick. My parents bought me two of them from walmart about a year or two ago and they killed two dragons, 4 rainbow sharks, and 2 bala sharks in one week. I have my snail problem under control. I got a goldfish that's too big for my catfish to eat (though he tried constantly yesterday when I got the goldfish and through the night) it ate 5 in the first 5 minutes of being in my aquarium.

 

[MetalHeadX343]

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't even think about buying fish from walmart...

Yea, I'm never ever ever buying fish from walmart. Every single time I have ALL my fish in my aquarium get some stupid disease. Then I have to go out and buy more medicine (really expensive medicine) and they barely have a chance at living and most of them die and I really hate killing or harming any animals, yes even fish.

 

[IvanMike]

I flushed the puffer fish down the toilet.

You did WHAT????

 

[Lowryder]

You should never buy a fish to take care of a prroblem in your tank.

 

[MetalHeadX343]

What's wrong with buying a fish that I like to eat snails

 

[redruckus]

Question #1 how big is yur tank? Question #2 what do you have in this tank? Question #3 Do you want to have a cool looking permanent solution so you never have snails in that tank again? Once answering all those questions just go buy 2 or 3 small clown loaches 2-3" no more snails in a week untill they die for some reason and you get new plants for the tank that have snails in them..... PROBLEM SOLVED!

 

[MetalHeadX343]

Hey the answers to all your questions are in my first post and if you look on page two you'll see that i solved the problem with a goldfish. I was gonna get loaches but they are all too small at petsmart and I can't find them any bigger online either. By the way thepetplace.com is an awesome website where you can buy a HUGE variety of fish

 

[Tigroscr]

Personally I've found aquarium salt works the best to control snails it has always worked good for me, but it will kill all of them probably and I'm not sure if that's what you want. I found this out when I was a newb about 3 yrs ago and when I would use aquarium salt in my tanks snails would always die and it took me awhile to figure it out, lol! So I kept going out and buying more, but now I know not to use it in tanks with snails obviously!

 

[MetalHeadX343]

Yea I know salt kills snails but won't that kill all my fish? And I want all the snails gone.

 

[maxwellag]

Yea I know salt kills snails but won't that kill all my fish? And I want all the snails gone.

Im not sure this is true, but I read somewhere that salt can hurt fish without scales, like corys. I doubt that's true though because green puffers live in freshwater for a while, then brackish, then saltwater. They don't have scales.

 

[MetalHeadX343]

Does the average pleco eat plants? I want rid of the snails cause I bought a plant. But my pleco eats on it for about 10 seconds. And I know that some goldfish will eat plants... so I'm guessing that my plants screwed

 

[Tigroscr]

Yea I know salt kills snails but won't that kill all my fish? And I want all the snails gone.

No it won't hurt your other fish but don't put it in there if you have any shrimp because it will kill them too! I know putting salt in your tanks is a very controversial subject I've always used it in my tanks and my fish never get any diseases like ick, fin rot, velvet or anything! Actually though I'm not sure about your shrimp maybe they would be ok? Idk for sure about them I've never had any. Also I have Cory cats and Cory doras and they do fine with the salt have had some of them for years now. I'm a firm believer in aquarium salt just follow directions and you should be fine!

 

[Batt4Christ]

Assassin snails do a great job of controlling rogue infestations. A couple can make a good dent.

One thing to keep in mind is that a sudden explosion of snails is often caused by over feeding.

 

[Tigroscr]

One thing though to keep in mind is unlike water conditioners like prime which you should IME add with each pwc, you don't need to do this with the salt because it takes a lot longer to break down so I only add a little once a month or so once your tanks are well established.

 

[Tigroscr]

I'm just not a big fan of snails sorry to those of you who like them, but I've always had them eat all my plants in my tanks to nothing no matter what I put in there for them to eat, whether it be algae wafers or whatever they always chose my plants to chow on, lol! But they're cute little critters!

 

[Wary]

For smaller snails, I've discovered that kuhli loaches eat those things like popcorn.

I had a explosion of snails, that must have hitchhiked on plant. I introduced four kuhli loaches not long after, and those snails became nothing more than little decorative shells within a week and a half.

 

[Ozydego]

Ok, after dealing with this issue in the past, I would like to voice an opinion as well. With my snails, I would pull out 20 a day and still not get rid of them, it was a never ending battle. Some suggested salt, some suggested different animals that would eat snails. All could work, but then someone set me straight. They told me this:

Do Not use salt, Do Not introduce animals for a purpose that is temporary that you may not want in your tank other than that purpose, not even assassin snails, they eat 1 snail a day, they will not fix the problem unless you have an over abundance of them as well, then what after the pond snails are gone... This is how you get rid of them, STOP overfeeding your fish, do a good gravel cleaning to get rid of all the excess food that is already down there. That's it!

So I did that, now instead of 500 in my 55 gallon, I have 20, I am fine with that, I can pull those out if I ever decide to, but I like them there to clean up "MY" mess of overfeeding, I still do it sometimes, I saw the population creep back up again once, so I followed the advice once again, and it worked a 2nd time. Oh, and they don't seem to eat anything but the biofilm and detritus in this tank, no plants for me,
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/Ozydego/55 gal freshwater hightech/fts101411.jpg