20g Pest Snail Help

[n0v]

Hi there-

I'm at a bit of a loss with what to do with my aquarium's pest snail problem. I downgraded from a 29g a few months ago and only added one new plant. At the time, I only had a few bladder snails (three or four) but they've completely exploded, along with Malaysian trumpet snails.

I manually remove as many as I can daily and gravel vac at least once a week. I've also cut down on feeding but I'm worried that will stress my snails and shrimp out if it goes on much longer.

Current stock: two mystery snails, one nerite snail, and 10-15 red cherry shrimp.

I'm in the process of moving my quarantine tank so I could technically move the snails in to feed them but I'm hesitant to move the shrimp because of the stress it could cause.

I've read about Sera snail traps but I'm not sure if they would work with the snails and shrimp. Assassin snails worry me with shrimp and their babies.

Are there other options? I don't want to completely give up and rehome everyone but I'm not sure what else to do at this point.

Any guidance is much appreciated!

(The tank has also started to develop brown algae on the glass which I scrape off frequently, though I'm not sure if I'm managing that incorrectly since I've never had it happen in an aquarium before.)

 

[Kame]

If you're having an outbreak I have found from personal experience reducing feeding to be the best way to cut their population down.
Since you have shrimp, my advice would be to feed them, but be sure to remove any leftover food with a gravel vac or other appropriate tool after a half hour or so, maybe even less. Continue removing snails you see every day and control food levels and you should see their population decline.

Completely removing them many people find almost impossible. My tanks all have pest snails, but I feed my fish sparingly and their populations are always low enough that it doesn't bother me or take away from the aquarium's appearance.

You shouldn't need to worry about the assassin snails if you did decide to go that route. Shrimp are quite agile and the snail would have a hard time getting past their shell anyway. Just be sure to remove the mystery & nerite snails, else they might become a snack.

& Brown algae sounds like diatoms, they commonly appear in newer tanks as they establish themselves. It should stop appearing in a week or two as the tank matures.

 

[C.w.deegan]

I have had alot of success with assassin snails I had pond snails in 3 different tanks and I put 4 assassins in my 10 and 20 gal amd 6 in my 40 gal and I haven't seen a pest snail in over 6 months it will take them a few months to clean out the problem snails but they do a good job amd the never bothered my gold mystery snails in my 20 gal and 40 gal tanks this is just my personal experience with them but they worked for me
I don't keep shrimp though so I'm not sure if they will try and eat the shrimp or not.

 

[ADsnail]

And another alternative:

Blanch a lettuce leaf for 20 seconds. Place it in the tank overnight with the lights off. The leaf should be covered with pest snails when you turn the lights on in the morning. Gather up the lettuce leaf and toss it in the outside trash bin. This works better if you don't feed anyone all day, so the pest snails will be hungrier.

 

[ADsnail]

Blanching is to set the vegetable in boiling water for a brief amount of time. For harder vegetable - zucchini, etc - blanching for one minute breaks down the fibers so aquatic critters can eat them. Tongs or a couple of forks to remove the veg, and let it cool down thoroughly before using.

 

[ColdKoi]

Seems most peoples theories are correct in the sense that the bladder snails will only become an issue in a tank that has an excessive amount of food for them. Whether that be algae or just leftovers from feeding

I have them in both my tanks and actually have a hard time trying to keep them in my 29g with the comets, though I’m sure quite a few end up being snacks. They’ve almost all but have become extinct in my 75g where they originally hitch hiked into on a plant. There’s a bunch living in the canister filter but in the tank itself it’s really hard to find one anymore.

In your case it’s hard to starve them out without doing the same to your pet snails and shrimp. If you really want a quick and easy eradication of them I think your only option is to temporarily rehome the ‘keepers’ and nuke that tank