getting rid of ramshorns!!!

butterflylove

fishie fishie fishie
Dec 17, 2004
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maryland
(sorry if this didnt go in this forum...i wasnt sure)
i started out with maybe 3 hitchhikers from some plants that only lasted a few weeks before being completly eaten up. now they have multiplied thousands of times!!! they even some how got into my 55 gal! i want to get rid of them, but there is just WAY too many! i started out just crushing some of the little ones, but they are all getting bigger and bigger and i feel bad crushing them this big. i feel bad overall about killing this things, but they are still all way too little to give to a pet store. i really want all of them gone.....what should i do???

all i have in the tanks are live bearers....by the way
 
rams dont eat plants, but w/ a bloom they can be very annoying. your lfs will not take them, they are prolly having the same problem w/ them as you are.

reduce feeding and sink a cucumber slice in your tank every night, get up about an hour later and the thing should be covered w/ them. remove the snails, put the cucumber back and repeat. do this for a few weeks and the colony should be significantly reduced.
 
There is a type that does, and a type that doesn't. The type that does eat plants is the one with an operculum (trap door). I found this out the hard way. I actually bought the darn things. I already had 1 ramshorn that didn't bother my plants. Thought I'd get a couple more, & thought I was getting the same thing. I got them home before noticing that the new ones had the operculum & the original didn't. They reproduced like mad. I went away for 2 weeks & came home to a tank with NO PLANTS. They were completely mowed down to the gravel. I pulled out all the snails I could find, and continue to do so when I see them. The runner type plants are slowly coming back.
 
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