ramshorns that just becomes a pest

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MotionInSilver

AC Members
Nov 14, 2007
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I have ramshorns in my tanks- they've become a huge problem and my assassins is not keeping the populations in check. The ramshorns are eating holes in my plants, driving me insane. And they're putting a roadblock in the caves/holes that my plecs and catfish can't go into.

I'm about to go into 2 of my tanks to pull them out by hand as they're going into the pipes/caves and that is making a huge impact with my pleco and catfish being able to breed as they're unable to go in there. I put out pumpkins as they tend to flock in big numbers on those within 30 minutes I just pull it out then empty it then put the pumpkin back in. its just a cycle all over again.

my question is is how well do they ship in the cold weather if I find someone that wants them for free? I have been throwing them out putting them in trash and I just feel its a waste of life just to do that. I brought assassins few times and it seems they don't do the job at all as my assassins are just borrowing deep into ground or getting ate by something in my tanks. I do feel that If I get loach in some of my tanks- I won't be able to have a population of shrimp- ever as I do find shrimp very cool to have in the tanks as I will always have some planted tanks running. And the other tank is just too cold to have small loaches in as its the tank that the ramshorns are actually thriving in.

Any ideas? I do not want to resort to chemicals or anything like that and how well do they ship pirority mail in the cold weather if I find someone who wants to use them as feeders?
 

7itanium

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Jan 31, 2009
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Spokane, WA
I have never known a ramshorn to eat a hole in a plant.. I have some in my heavily planted tank and they havent been an issue.. besides a bit overpopulated
 

blue2fyre

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Oct 7, 2008
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Yeah ramshorns don't eat plants. My guess if your plants may be missing some nutrient. Ramshorn snails will eat out sick or dead parts of plants but won't eat healthy ones.
You can throw in a leaf of lettuce then remove and freeze them to remove a large number of them. You can also offer them to people on the fourm. I don't know how well they would ship without a heat pack this time of year. I mean I'm certain they could survive colder water but if it frooze then I doubt they would make it.
Cutting back on feeding is the best way to control the population IMO. Snail populations are a great way to tell if you are overfeeding or not. I wouldn't get a loach to take care of the snails. Many commonly available snail eating loaches prefer groups and can get pretty big.
Also when throwing out snails pelase make sure you freeze them first to make sure they don't get into native areas. Just to be safe.
 

psyche

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Jul 16, 2009
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As long as they don't freeze in transit they are likely to survive. But ditto on the advice to freeze them before discarding--we don't want the little buggers getting into ponds and rivers.
 

MotionInSilver

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Nov 14, 2007
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I usually let the bowl full of the snail dry out then throw it out in the trash

that makes me feel better that they're not eating the plants just the dead parts- maybe i'll keep the around just in small numbers.

but they're blocking the small pipes-caves for my dwarf catfish- they can't even enter the caves because the snail is as big as the cave itself. hence the reason of me needing to get rid of them as they do outcompete for the food source with my BN pleco fry- and that will be the same issue with my dwarf panaque fry when they start to breed.

I do not intend to get loaches anyways as I have had loaches in the past- I just do not have the tank space for them anymore as i'm going to focus on smaller species now.
 

Stargazer53

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Oct 4, 2006
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I've never had ramshorns eat holes in my plants (and all my tanks are planted and w/ramshorns). Perhaps you need more assasins?
 

tweetyd

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Aug 2, 2009
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S.NH
I've heard that Rams don't eat plants but mine do. I've seen them eating the frogbit and not just the dead part. I feed them fresh vegies along with my Briggs, but i've also got holes all over my plants too. I have Assassins too but they can't keep up wiht how fast Rams breed.
 

MotionInSilver

AC Members
Nov 14, 2007
278
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I've heard that Rams don't eat plants but mine do. I've seen them eating the frogbit and not just the dead part. I feed them fresh vegies along with my Briggs, but i've also got holes all over my plants too. I have Assassins too but they can't keep up wiht how fast Rams breed.

I thought my plant parts they were munching on was as healthy as they come- and thought I was imagining it myself so I'm glad I am not the only one with ramshorns that has gone rouge.

so I'm really set on getting rid of them- if it takes an army of assassins so be it!
 

FasterShrimpo

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Jul 13, 2009
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Are you sure it isn't a Columbian/Giant Ramshorn, those guys are notorious for eating plants and filter sponges.
 

blue2fyre

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Oct 7, 2008
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When i first set up my invert tank I thought my ramshorns were eating my plants as well. My plants had holes in them and I thought they were healthy and the snails were making the holes. I posted on here and found out that ramshorns don't eat healthy plants. I thought that was odd since my plants were growing well. I later started dosing excel and flourish and now my plants don't have holes in them anymore even though I still have the ramshorns.
 
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