Snails out of control

[wulfin]

I have a huge snail problem going on. One hitch-hiked in on a plant and my tank has been a snail haven ever since. I remove all the eggs i find (usually several clumps a day) but there is no way to find them all in the dense plants.

I've tried baiting them, but they have absolutely zero interest in the bait since they have all the wonderful algae to snack on.

Is there any other way to get rid of them (other than baiting)? It's only a 20gal, so i don't want to get clown loaches as they grow too large (and if i moved them to my 75 gal, my oscars would have them for dinner).

I'm looking at purchasing a mystery snail as well, but would like to get rid of the small ones before taking on one i would actually like to *keep*.

 

[malkore]

First of all, you've got a 50/50 chance that your 'mystery snail' is going to be a major plant eater. I personally wouldn't risk it, but at least you can easily remove/relocate one large snail.

In addition to removing eggs, remove as many snails as you can.

Look into a product called Had-a-snail I'm not sure how safe it is for plants...but I'd search the forums here, as I think it's been discussed a few times.

Keep trying to bait them too. Otherwise, yeah I'd suggest a clown loach for a few weeks. Maybe see if the fish store would let you return him later for partial store credit. I've had great luck with clown loaches wiping out my snails.

 

[wulfin]

Thanks for the advice... i'm not sure on had-a-snail because i have both guppy fry and kuhli's in there and apparently had-a-snail can hurt them - but i will get more info at the LFS.

If not, i'll see about 'borrowing' a clown or yoyo loach from the LFS.

TY!

 

[Jchillin]

Do you know what type of snails you have? Not all snails snack on plants. Can you describe the shell?

 

[wulfin]

i'm not sure what kind they are.. and i'm not too worried about them eating my plants..so far they haven't done much damage (they have done some, but not enough for me to freak out TOO much)..but i have over 50 snails that i can visibly *see* (this doesnt include the ones that are so small that they can hide in the dense plantation).

i wouldn't mind if i had a few, but when i have a 15:1 snail to fish ratio, things are a little out of balance..

 

[malkore]

yep, even non-plant munching snails are a pest in big numbers.
I tried yo-yo's and they never touched snails, so I'd lean towards the clowns.

might be worth it to research a few other loach species (burmese, skunk, striped) to see if they are known to munch snails. they aren't quite as big as the clowns.

 

[wulfin]

Thanks, it looks like the striped loaches will eat snails, though should be kept in groups of at least 4. Man, if i keep this up i'll have more loaches than guppies in the tank (i have 3 kuhli loaches in there currently).

Is it possible to overload on the bottom feeders? :S

 

[malkore]

Only if they push the tank past its limit, or the bottom swimmers are particularly aggressive. In your case, over stocking should be the only concern.

 

[wulfin]

Thanks! Right now my tank is understocked with just having 8 guppies, a plec, and 3 kuhli loaches in it. So if i had just a couple more loaches it should be fine. I'm always keeping an eye on the water params, so i'll give it a try! This will have to be it for the tank though or it will get overstocked..