Snails are taking over...

[cginflorida]

...in the 10 gal. They're reproducing faster than jack rabbits.

What should I do? I can't stand the thought of killing the little buggers, but I wouldn't mind them being part of the food chain.

Is there something that will eat them, shell and all? Or do I have to do the dirty deed myself.

 

[grimlock3000]

Feed your fish less or do more water changes. Snails can only multiply and spread if there are excess nutrient in the tank for them to eat. If you feed your Otos algae wafers, that is likely causing the excess nutrients.

Most snail eating fish are too large for a 10g tank. Even if you get something like a small Clown Loach, all those dead snails and waste are going to cause an ammonia spike.

 

[Cafe Jeff]

If you could move the 10 gallon's inhabitants to one of the other tanks, a nice borrowed Dwarf Puffer would probably do the trick. This is what the LFS does and it seems to do the trick. You can almost here the crunching! Jeff

 

[QTOFFER]

I have a snail problem in my 10 gal planted tank. Actually, I really don't consider it so much of a problem - the snails are part of the aquascape and they are kinda interesting to watch themselves.

Nevertheless, I don't want them to completely take over, so I routinely go on night-time search and destroy excursions. I've found that just about any piece of vegetable matter attached to the tank wall will attract dozens of the invading snails. Then, you just remove the bait with the unwanted visitors still attached, and discard.

 

[Cafe Jeff]

With a little garlic and butter, they also makes a nice night time snack.
Make sure to have it with proper baguette though. None of that whole-wheat stuff. Jeff

 

[TankGirl]

You will probably have to kill most of them in order to eradicate the problem, unfortunately, in the absence of a snail-eating fish (I am a major advocate of the rent-a-loach program!). You might be able to smoosh some for the betta, but that won't handle it completely. I like to bait them if they become a problem, but definitely take grimlock3000's advice and reduce their food source - that's going to be what will really keep their numbers in check. Also try to vacuum up any clear gelatinous wads you see in the tank - those are egg clutches.

 

[FawnN]

Just add a couple pieces of lettuce to your tank and by morning they will be covered with snails. All you have to do in the morning is scoop them out and throw them out or whatever else you want with them.

 

[cginflorida]

With a little garlic and butter, they also makes a nice night time snack.
Make sure to have it with proper baguette though. None of that whole-wheat stuff. Jeff

Eeeeuuuuwwwww! That's funny, Jeff.

Tankgirl, I have seen those egg clutches, I'll get rid of them. I'm afraid to reduce the food too much, I don't want my otos to starve. I do weekly gravel vacs and water changes anyway. And I feed veggies and like you all said, they do attract the snails. Guess I'll have to throw them out. And I could try to smush some for the betta. I'm such a softie, I hate to kill anything. Except spiders and roaches.

What do you do with them, throw them outside, in the garbage, flush them out to sea?

 

[naso]

I've been told that clown loaches help get rid of snails. They will outgrow your 10 gal. though.

 

[Lance M.]

I have a farlowella acus (twig catfish) in my ten gallon and I found out why my pond snails never multiplied and my trapdoor snails did- the farlowella would eat the egg clutchs from the pond snail and since the trapdoors are livebearers it didn't affect them. The one snail never multiplied and eventually died.

 

[Lance M.]

O and red apple snails are really cool.

 

[cginflorida]

Thanks for all the input, everybody. I've got lots of options to choose from.

 

[urville]

if you use sand i've been told you can strain them out during daylight with a handeled strainer. but watch out if you have plants.

 

[vega]

IF you using canister filter you will not able to totally iradicate the snail. Even though my comm tank have 5 yoyo and 1 clown loach, the snail still exist.

During the cleaning of the canister filter (fluval 304), I found out that there is at least 100-200 baby snail (yellowish 1-2 mm snail) attach to the plastic case for housing the foam.

HTH

 

[f_kidder]

I heard a story this week of a guy who had lotsa snails growing in his tank and they eventually spread to his ears. I laughed for 10 minutes about it only because it wasn't happening to me! Make sure you're washing your hands during the eradication period!

 

[rubysoho]

I've had those snails from when I first set up my tank last february/march, and there was a population explosion, but nothing horrible. Once I picked out about 20 and took them to my LFS and they gave them to their loaches, but since then I've never had a problem. They just chill in the tank. Not a huge problem, but I guess it is an asthetics thing with some people. Good luck getting rid of them!