What do i do with this snail problem?

[Impulse09]

 

[Mrc8858]

Put a piece of lettuce in at night and remove it every morning. After a few nights you should get the majority of them out.

 

[Impulse09]

I tried that all my fish ate it.

 

[Samzter]

Starvation? That is known to work. Maybe reduce feeding? Can you pick the majority out?

 

[azmodan]

Assassin snails.

 

[hellaasian]

Get a loach they are snail eaters

 

[Samzter]

Get a loach they are snail eaters

It depends what size tank.

 

[Impulse09]

I am pretty much stocked, I might sworn my 29 gallon for a 37 gallon it is the same footprint and I will switch my substrate. Will a light substrate look good with a black background or should I get dark

 

[Impulse09]

Here is my tank.

 

[Wroberson]

Really nice tank. You can net any snail on the glass easily.

 

[Impulse09]

I think there are like hundreds of snails

 

[Rivercats]

Those are Malaysian Trumpet Snails that are actually considered good snails. They live in the substrate, moving, eating, and areating it and usually come out at night. The more food available to them the faster they multiply. You might need to reduce your feeding. Also, if the fish eat the bait I have seen alot of DIY snail traps on line that appear super easy to make. Then when you put bait in them the fish can't get to it. I actually recently found a huge breeding colony of MTS's in my Fluval 406 and they are keeping the sponges so clean I didn't even need to clean them. I also have smaller substrate that allows them to be buried all day so I only see them mostly at night.

I like dark substrate. Plus also of fish like dark substrate and show better coloring with it. Light or dark works with the background color so basically it's a matter of what you like best, since your the one who is going to be looking at it.

 

[Serpaer]

There's a great loach out there that doesn't get too big.(5") its called a marble loach, but goes by other names too. I had thirty small snails that I hated, so I got some assassin snails. They ate each other before I got home, so I bought a marble loach. Now I have a snail population of 3 and a cool looking bottom feeder.

 

[Aetherbound]

I've never tried it but a couple of the algae removing tablets I've seen say not to use them with invertebrates like snails. Also not to use them with live plants. Might kill em, not sure but it's an idea. I've ordered an Assasin snail to clean up some of mine, though I don't mind them cause they keep things kinda clean.

 

[aqua_chem]

You will usually start getting snail population issues when you are over feeding. Cut back feeding to every other day or so, and keep manually removing the snails. Snails are a fact of life much of the time in aquaria, but they are rarely a problem unless you are creating an environment that heavily favors them, ie, excess food and detritus.


I also don't recommend loaches. Many loach species will need a small school to stay happy, and there are very few that belong in a tank that size, unfortunately.

 

[M1k3y_gumi]

I wouldn't really consider the snails a problem as they do nothing but clean your tank airate your substrate. what might be a problem though is if you are over feeding or haven't been cleaning your substrate enough. This would cause you to get more snails. Just taking em out won't do anything if you don't fix the acctual problem(which would be over feeding or etc. ... Not the snails themselves).

 

[pcdebb]

yea, you're overfeeding.

I tried loaches but they never ate mine

 

[Samzter]

Okay I think they get the point on the snails now.

 

[hpiguy]

Assassin snails.

Agreed. Get a few assassin snails from the Classifieds here and they'll help keep the population in check along with reduced feedings.

 

[Impulse09]

Thank you all!!