Ahhh help! Snail problem.

[britt190]

I have just noticed all these snails pop up today. How on earth did they get there. Iv added no new plants, decor or fish recently and the last I heard snails don't just fly. There's about 20 of them that I can easily spot. There prob only about 2mm max. I cleaned my pump 2 days ago and did a 40% water change and didn't notice anything then and did nothing other than the norm. I do have one nitrite zebra snail in there but I thought they could only breed in brackish water. And he's been on his own for years. I do have 2 clown loaches and 2 Pakistani yoyo loaches so would of thought they would of gobbled them right up. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't really want to use chemicals to get rid of them as I'm wary of using anything with my scaleless fish Iv attached a pic in the hope someone may be able to tell me what they are and if there a pest or not. Thanks folks.

 

[ArtistGardener]

If you don't want them in there, they are a pest. They look like common pond snails, but I'm no snail expert. You could try throwing a slice of blanched zucchini in the tank. They may gather on it and you can dispose of them that way. I've used that trick on ramshorns snails in the past.

 

[Raleighfishnerd]

If you see 20 you probably have a 100 but the loaches should keep them in check if you don't over feed

 

[Stacyz]

Sorry... but there cute... lol

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[MonkeyMonk86]

If you are willing to take your fish out and your favorite snail out, then you can gas all the snails. Go to this link, scroll all the way down to VINEGAR & BAKING SODA GENERATOR and play the video. If you like the idea, then you can read all the info.
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/care-sheets/57367-building-using-co2-generator.html

If u do the zucchini trick, I've heard to put the zucchini in a clean empty baby food jar.

BTW Are any of your fish new? A LFS guy told me fish can poop snails from what they ate. I guess he meant if they had eaten snail eggs.

 

[britt190]

Thanks for that guys. I'll go down the cucumber / zucchini rout and try get them out humanely before I go causing the fish stress and taking them out. I shall however bear it in mind if I can't get rid of them that way. Right the loaches are not having bloodworm for a few days until they eat these little buggers. I will admit they are cute but like everything, they get bigger and not so cute anymore. If the loaches don't sort it I'll go buy a decent size assassin snail and that should sort it. The last fish I bought was probably about 6 weeks ago and I think snail egg gestation is only something crazy like 2 weeks so I'm a bit stumped really.
Thanks again for the help guys. I really appreciate it

 

[Raleighfishnerd]

The mts(Malaysian trumpet snail) babies will usually stay in the substrate for weeks if not months till they are bigger or need to look elsewhere for food. I've had tanks were I didn't add anything new for six months and then boom out of nowhere tons of snails.

 

[venymae]

Not overfeeding should keep them in check, at least it's worked for me. I have pond snail, MTS and ramshorns and have never had a population boom, it stays pretty constant.

 

[nessybehr]

Assassin snails keep mantience on my pond snail issue by eating them lol. And they barely reproduce

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[Caliban07]

Assassin snails keep mantience on my pond snail issue by eating them lol. And they barely reproduce

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+1 on assassin snails. By far the best method for removing snails IMO. May need more than one though.

 

[nessybehr]

I have about 11 in my 35 gallon

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[britt190]

Ok cool. So assassins it is. So how many do you guys recon I'd need in my 190L tank. I think that's about 50gal converted. I don't want a huge amount of snails. And a bit of a dumb question, but will they eat my zebra nerite. I don't tend to deal much with snails. Only ever had 2 diff species. The other was an apple snail but he died a long time ago.

 

[Brookster123]

Ok cool. So assassins it is. So how many do you guys recon I'd need in my 190L tank. I think that's about 50gal converted. I don't want a huge amount of snails. And a bit of a dumb question, but will they eat my zebra nerite. I don't tend to deal much with snails. Only ever had 2 diff species. The other was an apple snail but he died a long time ago.

they will probably go after your neriti, can you move it for a couple months while the assassins do their thing??

 

[britt190]

He is quite a large snail. Probably about the size of a 10p piece. Iv read that they tend to stick to snails about there own size or smaller. I could re home him with my sister in law for a while. Do you think 4 would be a sufficient number to just get the problem in check.

 

[Brookster123]

I'm not familiar with a 10p?? I've seen mine work together to take down a ramshorm snail the size of a US quarter.. They will kill anything they can if they're hungry..4 would be a good start!

 

[KTpoopenstein]

Assassins will go after nerites...I was told repeatedly that they wouldn't, but even with an ample supply of ramshorns and bladder snails they took out one of my nerites within a couple of days. I relocated mine to a small tank until the assassins did their job.

 

[britt190]

Sorry, 10p is roughly the same size as a quarter. Oh dear so they are quite savage then. I'll put my nerite out of the way for a while then. I'd just feel mean though moving people around just to do a job but it's all for the greater good at the end of the day. Thanks for the help. I appreciate it

 

[nessybehr]

It's so funny because my own snail battle still continue s a year later. I can't wait to remove some gravel lol

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