Snails

[MitcherNeaf]

My little bala shark came with 2 tiny little snails, the bala doesnt pay attention to him but would a pleco or any other sucker fish have a problem with these guys, and how do you feed them, do i need to put the algea disks in like i do for the pleco or should they ahve enough just from other fish. Im thinking about just leaving them in the 10 gallon tank, and maybe keeping it either a QT tank or maybe having some feeder fish or maybe ghost shrimp, i looked up some info on the bala and they say they eat snails but it hasnt bothered the ones i have at all, is it hard to breed feeder fish, or is it not worth it to feed a school of 3 balas?

 

[hc8719]

snails are mostly scavengers, so they like to eat excess fish flakes, but will also go after algae/algae wafers.

some pointers on snails:

any type of loach will eat the snails, so if you want to keep them, dont get any loaches

they also breed rapidly when they mature, depending on the species you may or may not be able to control the population

take snails out of the tank if you use any type of medication, or they'll die

 

[Pleco]

I used melafin on a tank once and the mystery snail survived just fine. Maybe thats not the same sort of meds you are talking about though.

-Pleco

 

[Mosaic]

All inverts are very sensitive to copper in meds. Maybe melafix doesn't have copper?

 

[Guest]

melafix is made from tea tree's, the active ingrediant is melaleuca. there is no mention of it containing copper.

 

[crazycat]

any type of loach will eat the snails, so if you want to keep them, dont get any loaches

to be more specific, members of the botia family of loaches are snail eaters. my clowns are voracious, snails, shrimp, clams, you name it.

however, other species of loaches WILL leave snails alone--i have a six gallon with kuhlis (pangio kuhlii) and a ton of ramshorn and malaysian trumpet snails, not to mention amano and cherry red shrimp. the loaches ignore them completely.

melafix is a totally natural treatment--all fish and inverts can tolerate it. but any meds containing copper will kill inverts, and will also stay in the substrate. it is almost impossible to remove copper so you can't ever treat with copper and then introduce inverts.

hth

 

[DarylF2]

Ok, I like snails, but have two situations where I am having minor snail issues.

#1: My 38g tank has two gorgeous "Botia salwnsis" (possibly Botia kubotai) loaches and pond snails (family Physidae as far as I can discern). The problem here is that the loaches have nearly cleaned the tank of snails; very few are left. I got the loaches to help control a rampant snail overpopulation issue, but I'd like a small number of snails. What snails can I get that my loaches won't eat, at least the adult snails?

#2: I have two tanks (a 20L and a 6-gallon) that are too small for loaches. What snails can I get for these tanks that won't overpopulate the tank through very rapid breeding? I don't mind weekly snail removal sessions if needed, but would prefer not to have to remove them often, if at all. Especially attractive snail species are a plus, and I'd LOVE links to online sources for snails, as my local stores have few if any...

 

[crazycat]

#1 your loaches will fins a way to eat almost any snail. you might try grown pomacea brigedesii (also know as apple or mystery snails). however, my loaches got to mine eventually. the kubotai might be too small for a brig measuring about an inch diameter. i think my clowns were the culprits when mine disappeared. otherwise, you're sort of out of luck.

#2 i've heard that olive nerites don't reproduce unless the water is brackish. i have red ramshorns and mts in a small tank, along with cherry barbs, hengeli rasboras, kuhli loaches and cherry shrimp (it's my scavenger tank ). the snails have totally multiplied and are all over the place. but i happen to love them, so it doesn't bother me. you can alway throw a piece of lettuce or cuke in there occassionally and pull it out when it is covered. the population will eventually attain euquillibrium. the snails reprocuctions slows down when they begin to over populate. but that can mean hundreds of snails. i love my red ramshorns. check them out on aquabid.com.

 

[MitcherNeaf]

I think im gonna leave the snails in my 10 gallon tank, and maybe raise some feeder fish in it, so that should be fine, thanks for the help.