How to rid snails?

[mohican]

I have a 125 planted tank that has been set up for about a year. Slowly snails are taking over and need to rid them. Any thoughts?

[Galligak]

The lettuce trick, put a piece of lettuce in your tank, sit over night, take out in morning with snails. Or my favorite way: assassin snails!!!!

[mohican]

I've heard that one but didn't know if it actually worked. Thanx.

[Fdsh5]

They work. They actually mostly eat the egg sacks. That greatly reduces the population quickly.

[EMAN12]

You can use a clown loach but they grow to big.

[Mlani]

Sliced zucchini works too. The snails love them then once you see a bunch of the snails on the slices just pull them out. I used the zucchini along with 5 assassin snails. Tried the loach but they need schools of at least 3-5 and they grow to be around 6-8" good luck and let us know how it goes for you

[mohican]

Ill have to try lettuce/zuchini trick. Not big fan fighting snails with snails, sounds like a disaster.

[Hholly]

I read that striped loaches also eat snails. But they don't get as big as clowns. I've been netting out hundreds from my tank. I just keep a cup of water handy to throw them into. Every time I see any up on the glass, I get em and throw em in the cup. Slowly, I'm winning the battle.

[Mlani]

I tried just doing the zucchini way alone, before figuring out I was fighting a losing battle. For every one snail I would pull out there were 10-20 in an egg sac waiting to hatch. The assassins dig down into the substrate and every nook and cranny to eat the snails. I wasn't big on the idea of more snails to kill snails, however I only bought 5 assassins and they've really put a bigger dent in the snail population than I could.

[GodFan]

I had to drain my tank, remove all visible snails, soak everything in HOT water, and then kill any I see ever.

[Hholly]

I'm tempted to get a tank to keep a puffer fish in, so I'm not wasting all these snails.

[debisbooked]

Originally Posted by Hholly

I'm tempted to get a tank to keep a puffer fish in, so I'm not wasting all these snails.

Good idea. I probably net out 100 MTS on a daily basis and still the buggers replicate....

[GodFan]

Originally Posted by debisbooked

Good idea. I probably net out 100 MTS on a daily basis and still the buggers replicate....

I havent struggled with the MTS but I despise pond and ramshorn snails. Well then again my assassin snails eat the MTS pretty fast... I actually take free ones from petsmart lol

[Little Stinkpots]

put a turtle in there haha mine cant get enough i breed them in a sep tank just for them they don tbreed fast enough. i dont know what copper does but it kills snails, also an algae killer will kill any snail in ther

[Discusapisto]

Assassin snails that's all you need trust me they wipe out snails fast only problem is after they eat everyone you have a bunch of assassin's left. But hey they don't eat your plants which is a plus.

[mohican]

Do the assassin snails multiply like regular snails? Snails in general make me nervous b/c of their ability to over populate.

[Fdsh5]

Assassins are slow reproducers. They will not take over your tank by any means. Don't worry about that

[GodFan]

Originally Posted by Fdsh5

Assassins are slow reproducers. They will not take over your tank by any means. Don't worry about that

I hate to be a naysayer but well fed assassin snails reproduce fairly quickly. While much much slower than ramshorn, pond, ior trumpet snails it is faster than generally implied. My laid like 20 eggs in a week or 2. But they are sellable at least.

[Mlani]

Originally Posted by GodFan

I hate to be a naysayer but well fed assassin snails reproduce fairly quickly. While much much slower than ramshorn, pond, ior trumpet snails it is faster than generally implied. My laid like 20 eggs in a week or 2. But they are sellable at least.

I've had 5 assassins in my tank for the last 2 years no babies :-( I must be doing something wrong? There's plenty of "food" for them. Must be too busy eating to do the deed?

[GodFan]

Originally Posted by Mlani

I've had 5 assassins in my tank for the last 2 years no babies :-( I must be doing something wrong? There's plenty of "food" for them. Must be too busy eating to do the deed?

lol maybe it is like bettas. One acts this way the other does the opposite lol Ive heard they breed slow but the ones I got bred fast and my LFS said they had other customers saying the same happened to them. Fish are just so finicky!