Struggling to get rid of my Snails

[nickmcmechan]

Had some snails come in with plants

Cant use chemicals as I have other inverts (Shrimp & Frogs)

Been using the lettuce trick - not working!

Any suggestions?

[Ulan]

Lots of snails means that you feed too much. As soon as you go down with the amount of food, the number of snails will go down, too. I also crush some at the glass during feeding time as treats :D.

I quite like snails. They remove dead plant matter :). And they are my "feeding meter" ;).

[lazyNode]

Vaccuuming the gravel helps suck up any potential eggs lying underneath.

When I replanted my tank and changed substrate to sand, I found that dipping the plants into salty water made the snails fall off. I then rinsed the plants in tank water.

Snails be gone now!

[nickmcmechan]

thanks guys....I do three pwcs per week, but only one was gravel vac...i'll do it every time now

I probably am feeding too much...but I worry about my ADFs not getting fed...thay are very shy and my tank is heavily planted....so I do put in a bit extra bloodworm to make sure they get fed

[clogstonian]

I'd had a pretty serious snail problem; turn the lights on late at night after they'd been off for awhile and there they'd be, armored aquatic garden slugs. My slow but enevitable solution was to buy a couple of pea puffers. They were relentless in their pursuit . . . obviously they can't touch the adults but the snail pop. is now in check(down actually). . . and the puffers are entertaining, they leave everyone alone including the cherry and zebra shrimp . . . just another possibility.

40gal and heavily planted

[DaisyTattoo]

What kind of snails are you talking about?

[nickmcmechan]

I've no idea, I just hate them!

[DaisyTattoo]

LOL...well what do they look like? What color? Shape? Do they bury in the substrate? Do they mostly come out at night? Are they round? Pointy? It will help determine your best action if you know what kind they are.

[kkifer]

I've had mixed results on snail control. The trumpet snails are fine, and only once got too numerous. Since they don't lay eggs, they aren't that hard to control. You can see my method here (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=832080&postcount=9).

Pond and small ramshorn snails do lay eggs so it's hard to get rid of them. In my large planted tank, I've been handpicking them for a year... zero tolerance... every snail I see goes. And after a year of diligence, I can still find a dozen anytime. But they are no longer visible to the casual observer, so in a sense the problem is under control ...with daily removal. I crush them for the fish. Like my LFS guys says "you'll never get rid of them, so think of it as harvesting." He was happy to take a jar full I collected.

But in two smaller tanks, I HAVE been able to get rid of them by hand picking. I use Permoxin (potassium permanganate) as a dip for plants and rock that I move from tank to tank. It works, and is supposed to kill the eggs, though a few sometimes survive. Messy stuff though. After treatment, the plants go into a QT tank for a few weeks before I'm willing to say they are snail-free.

Good luck.

[snickle]

I find the ADFs like algae wafer and since most of the other fish in the tank leave them alone, it works.

Overfeeding = Bad :-)

As for plants chlorine or salt dip them and rinse well before adding to tank,

I just rinse. The snails don't bother me as the tank residents keep the population under control.

[J double R]

not to be picky or anything, but frogs are vertebrates, not INvetebrates ;) they may still be sensitive to any chemicals though.