Please help me with my snail infestation

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scorp

scorp

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Aug 31, 2011
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Hello people..
This is my first post, I'm not even sure I'm posting in the right section.

My snail problem is in my 75 gallon cichlid/community tank
I'd say there are approx: 200-300 snails although it's hard to tell.

Problem is other than looking less than appealing is that they are currently eating the 6 large Anubias I have growing on 6 separate lava rocks, also a beautiful sword plant (potted) also the Hygrophilia Corymbosa that is growing semi wild..

I've tried lettuce and cucumber overnight and while effective is only catching 20 or so a day... they dont really hang on the glass to much so I cant squish them all that way. and the corydoras and bristlenose keep the ground in good condition, and not overfeeding.. clown Loachs wont really go with the 4 Cichlids already in there.

So other then chemicals or a "Re do" of my tank.. what can I do?
I'm sorry if this the 1000th time this question has been asked
 
Ashes2ashes

Ashes2ashes

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What kind of snails do you have? Pest snails like pond snails/ramshorns/and MTS don't eat plants, so that wouldn't be what is nibbling on your anubias. You could get assassin snails to help kill off some of them, but that won't really kill the entire population, and I doubt a puffer fish would go well with a bunch of cichs either. Some people actually enjoy pest snails if you wanted to trap a few each day and keep them in a breeder trap until you had 100 plus snails, and then sell them off for shipping cost to people with assassin snails to feed (like me), or people with puffer fish. usually an infestation that large is from overfeeding though. None of my correctly fed tanks have an explosion of snails while there are a few tanks I overfeed on purpose because I actually enjoy the pest snails and need them to feed my assassins.
 
scorp

scorp

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@Ashestoashes, I googled them and they seem to be common south American snails... full size is about pea size, Overfeeding led to the problem I know but now there is nothing for them to eat but the plants... and they do.

I'd never thought about breeding them, I have a spare 15g.
I dont mind some, or a small populaton, but they are everywhere
 
Ashes2ashes

Ashes2ashes

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Hmmm..do you have a picture of the snails or can you get one? I'm not sure what a "common South American" snail is. I just know about the basic pest snails that usually come in on plants etc.. There are SOME that will nibble plants like Columbian Ramshorns and occasionally spixis, but typically you would know if you had those and would have purchased them on purpose. I am just curious as to what kind of snail you actually have.
 
Ashes2ashes

Ashes2ashes

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Oh, and I didn't mean you should breed them (they do that on their own). I meant you could save them in a breeder trap...to keep them out of the tank until you had enough trapped in the trap to sell off to someone who wanted them.
 
scorp

scorp

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nov 080.jpgsure.... here is one eating a leaf.. this iis full size, they are yellow color when little

nov 080.jpg
 
Ashes2ashes

Ashes2ashes

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I can't see that. It's too blurry. Let me try something...does it look like this:

(Common Pond/Bladder snail)

pond-snail1.jpg

If it does, that is a common pond snail and they don't eat plants. They will crawl on them, but they will live off micro algae and fish waste/leftover food etc... They are prolific breeders and typically come on plants you add to your aquarium.

pond-snail1.jpg
 
scorp

scorp

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so they do look like common pond snails.......

If they dont eat plants at all It seems that a mystery illness has infected every leaf on every plant producing tiny little holes in each leaf...... at the exact same time a snail population exploded.. :p:
nov 029.jpg
This pic, although the fish is blurry clearly shows, the level of infestation AND several of these holes in the leaves.

Thanks for your help though, Nowhere around here sells assassin snails.....

nov 029.jpg
 
blue2fyre

blue2fyre

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Ashley
Pin holes in leaves tend to mean some sort of nutrient deficiency. The cichlid in your picture looks like a mbuna. They can and will eat plants. I had mine with some anubias and they destroyed them. Snails will eat any part of the plant that is dying or decaying. If part of the plant is unhealthy due to a nutrient deficiency then the snails will eat the unhealthy part.

I'd also like to point out that mbuna do not make good community fish and will eventually kill your cories and maybe your plecos. I'm kind of surprised they haven't killed the snails. The only snails that can live with mine are trumpet snails and that's because their shells are so hard.
 
Linda S

Linda S

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hmm, I have good success with cucumber, I slice it, put it on a veggie clip about 5 in the evening and am able to empty it about 4 times before going to bed at 11:00. I leave it in over night for the otos to nibble, and remove it in the morning with snails on it again. Then I repeat the process until I am happy with the number of snails in my tank. Currently I don't have too many snails, I put them all in my 36BF with my clown loaches from my other tanks. I've pretty much got feeding down to a science now, so I don't get over run too often any more.
 
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