Pest Snails

[Bettafanatic]

I think a bunch of pest snails came in on my plants because I've got a big population of them in my 38 gallon planted aquarium. It seems that they don't touch the anubias but all the other plants, especially the crypts, are suffering. I've been removing any pest snail I've spotted and flushed them down the drain but they seem to just keep coming back so I'm going to have to exterminate them.

I did some research and found out that you can kill snails by dropping some pennies into the aquarium. Is this a good method? How can I sanitize the pennies before dropping them in? Also I have three trapdoor snails for algae so I'd have to remove them while I get rid of the pests. How long should I leave the pennies in for and how long should I wait until I put the trapdoor snails back in? Thanks!

 

[Rivercats]

Are you sure you have pest snails? Any pic's? If they have cone shaped shells they could be Malaysian Trumpet snails which are good snails. Another option is to get some leaf lettuce, run it under hot water to soften it and place it in the tank at night. Just remove the snails off the lettuce. You can also build a DIY snail trap. You really need to find out what type snails you have. I wouldn't use pennies, pennies have copper (well at least I think they still have copper in them), you wouldn't know how much copper was leeching into the tank, you'd probably kill your plants, and you get the picture I'm sure. Don't know what kind of fish you have but adding a couple yo-yo loaches would help get rid of the snail but I don't honestly know if loaches would go after the larger trapdoors (probably not since trapdoors can close up so tight-but they might harass them for a while.

 

[aqua_chem]

Most pest snails are a result of overfeed or generally unsanitary conditions (lots of mulm, litter, etc). Cutting back on feeding and performing more tank maintenance will control their population, although you may need to keep manually removing the ones already in the tank.

Also, as a rule of thumb, most pest snails will not eat plants.

 

[Bettafanatic]

But these snails are eating my plants that's why I need to get rid of them. I'd leave them if I could. They have gray, circular shells. I already have a lot of fish planned so I really can't get any loaches. I'll try the lettuce method for a few nights to try and get rid of most of them.

 

[azmodan]

Definitely do not drop any pennies into your tank. Remove the snails that you can, cut back on feeding, and if you need to buy a couple of assassin snails.

 

[Bettafanatic]

Do assassin snails take care of pest snails?

 

[aqua_chem]

Not if you've got an infestation. They'll do a number on a normal snail population.