Snail infestation

[merangue]

I have a corner temperate tank with no fresh plant, but it has suddenly become infested with snails. I bought the tank complete with gravel almost a year ago, but can only assume the snails were dormant in the gravel. Any advice how to get rid of them without having to resort to emptying the tank and sterilising as I have a lot of fish in there and nowhere to put them. Advice appreciated.

 

[shadow-snails]

If you don't have any pet snails (ex. mystery snails) in your tank, I've found that adding in some sort of copper snail killer helps kill them off. It takes a bit of time, but they do eventually stop emerging from the gravel; plus, it's normally safe for the fish. That, or just squishing them with your hand or tweezers if they're small enough.
Also, unless they're damaging the tank environment, I think it would be alright if you just squished them for a little while (again, only if possible) then just left them alone.

 

[C.w.deegan]

Assassin snails work pretty well to remove pest snails I have assassins in 3 different tanks and they cleaned out the pond snails I had in my tanks. The assassin snails don't reproduce like crazy and once they clear out the pest snail issue they will start eating left over food that floats to the bottom of the tank

 

[Autumnsky]

A problem with copper treatment can stay in your tank even though water changes are done and future attempts to keep shrimps or snails of a non invasive type because copper is toxic to invertebrates.

There are tests and media which can help absorb it (for future information). Cuprisorb & Poly-filter pad.