getting rid of snails

[69steveo69]

I have a freshwater tank and somehow got a stow-away and now I have many, many snails. I daily pick out about 5-10 out of my tank but I just keep finding more. I think they multiply worse then rabbits! Is there a type of fish that eats them or a way to get ride of my snails? I don't want them to over run my tank like I see at the pet stores.

[jm1212]

dont add a fish or any chemical to your tank to get rid of snails.

remove any that you see, even if you have to search around a bit more than you think. also look in the filter(s).

before you turn out the lights for the night, put a piece of blanched lettuce in the tank. in the morning, remove the lettuce and all of the snails attached to it.

[Nue]

Get assassin snails, but u must feed them when other snails or gone. And they are fun to have. Or as jm said you could put a piece of lettuce in the tank. And remove it and freeze it when they all attach to it. Do that every once in a while.

[FastFly67]

and don't overfeed!

[boet]

Assassin Snails are great and they do not over populate once other snails are gone. It takes both a male and female and they only lay 1 single egg at a time. I have not had the luck of finding any eggs or baby assassins yet after 4 months with 5 assassins in a 50 gal.

[Lupin]

I saw baby assassins only after four months and that was a long wait to me.:thumbsdown:

[jpappy789]

Cut down on feeding/increase water changes and go with the bait n' catch method...

[Wycco]

What type of snail is it that you are being over-run with?

If it is MTS the only way to get rid of them is manual removal- but it won't get all of them... Assassins may help but I doubt they'll get all of them. If you have MTS you'll always have them- don't overfeed and they won't overpopulate.

If it is a bladder snail or ramshorns- assassins might very well wipe them out. My spixis eat them (others say theirs don't) - my ghost shrimp eat them (again others say theirs don't). Neither spixis nor ghost shrimp wipe them out though- just margainally limit their population.

Ghost shrimp are good for snail control nonetheless though because they will eat the eggs of bladders and ramshorns even if they don't eat the snails- they also share the same niche scavenging for food and get to the food quicker. It won't wipe out your snail population- but ghosties help keep them down.


Larger mouthed loaches eat snails, puffer fish eat snails, Betta and goldfish will eat smaller snails- it's usually not advised to buy a fish just to get rid of a pest though- although, if you want more fish, and you like the above fish ANYWAY and want them anyway they could be an option.

[maxking23]

- Puffer fish to clear them
- When you buy a new plant, soak them in snail-exterminator before planting them
- Put food into a bottle, punch a couple of holes big enough for the snails to go in. Let it sit overnight in your tank. Voila! All the snails are feeding on the food, in the bottle. Now clear them.
- Don't feed too much.

[Arturo]

The way I got rid of those little buggers is take everything out the tank and filter, clean everything then put everything back together.

[coach_z]

dont get a fish to remove snails because once the fish has easten all of the snails you then have the problem of needing to find snails to put into the tank for the fish to eat! isnt that what you dont want to do?

if the OP doesnt want snails why does he/she want to put snails into the tank to rid him/herself of snails? that doesnt make sense to me either.

make a snail trap out of a bottle, put some food in it, leave it in there overnight, remove the snails in the morning. repeat as necessary.

also some food for thought:
snails overpopulate when there is food for them to eat. you should refrain from overfeeding.

snails have a very beneficial aspect to the health and cleanliness and overall maintenance in your tank. they are great! i love my 'pest' snails, i only have a few because i regulate my feeding. they help eat a lil bit of algae here and tehre, eat some dead plant matter that i might miss during cleaning. and might catch a few pieces of food that i might ahve overfed.