Dosing with copper to kill snails

red devil · Mar 1, 2014

I just bought my first aquarium plants....brought them home, rinsed them (supposedly) carefully and put them in the tank to float for a while....then noticed these black things moving on the floor of the tank. I am doing my best to pick them off and hopefully will be able to get rid of them. I was wondering, the next time I buy plants, if I have a small tank set up with no substrate and a filter, correct temp, ph, etc, can I dose that water with the copper treatment and then let my plants float in that for a couple of days? - kind of as a quarantine tank?
I also noticed some kind of worm-thing, about half an inch long that has managed to evade capture. Is this likely to be a serious threat? I was toying with the idea of buying a clown or zebra loach to live in my tank for a while. I will be setting up a larger tank in a couple of months, so will have room for it later.

TL1000RSquid · Mar 1, 2014

heavy dose of copper type ich med should kill them off. Bleach can work too and will also kill any algae trying to hitchhike in with the plant, regular bleach diluted down to 5% and 2 minute soak, good rinsing in another container heavy dose or prime or other dechlorinater.

If you have shrimp I would be careful with the copper method, after dosing i'd let the plants go a couple days in another container with a filter running carbon.

Byron Amazonas · Mar 1, 2014

I would not go this route. First, any chemical strong enough to actually kill snails will almost certainly harm plants. Copper for instance in ich medications frequently causes plants to melt, which is why such medications warn of use in planted tanks.

On the snails themselves, they are your best friend in a fish tank. Malaysian Livebearing snails are perhaps the best, but the pond and bladder snails are also good to have. Snails break down organics faster, thus allowing the various bacteria to get to it sooner. And snails can get everywhere, and eat all fish waste and dead plant matter. The small types we are talking about will not harm or kill healthy plants. I consider snails an important occupant in a healthy aquarium.

Byron.

ZorroNet · Mar 1, 2014

It's common to feel the need to eradicate snails from your tank, but as Byron said, snails are helpful and not harmful in a planted tank. Chemicals can be harmful to pets and humans, so avoiding their use is the better plan. Snails are very good little messengers of tank conditions too. If they hang out up high on the glass all the time... oxygen levels are likely low in the water. If there is a population boom, you are likely overfeeding. I have a ton of snails and even get requests for me to share them with others all the time. Think of them as a free clean-up crew and sages of the aquarium

SnakeIce · Mar 1, 2014

Copper is not a good thing in a tank, once used in a tank it is next to impossible to remove it well enough to keep invertabrates healthy in that tank(short of taking the tank apart and scraping all the silicone off the glass and rebuilding the tank). Bleach is effective, but would harm your plants also.

Alum is plant safe and much less residually toxic, but it will kill snails and eggs.

Alum is also useful. Get "Alum U.S.P." at the drug store. Soak the plants in a gallon of water that has up to 10 teaspoons of Alum. The Alum kills microscopic bugs. Longer soaks (2-3 days) will kill snail eggs and/or snails.
quoted from:
http://faq.thekrib.com/snails.html

fishorama · Mar 1, 2014

I go with the "see & squish" technique if snails get out of control (except MTS, they don't squish, I just pick them out). But they are more a sign of overfeeding. Be on the lookout for the jelly-like egg masses, scrape them loose & vacuum them out. Like others, I like some snails to help with maintenance & a healthy eco-system.


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Dosing with copper to kill snails

red devil

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TL1000RSquid

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Byron Amazonas

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ZorroNet

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fishorama

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