kill snails,once and for ever

[TKOS]

And unless you have baby fish, stop feeding so much. 3 times a day is more than they need. Sure you may be feeding tiny amounts of food, but food comes out the other side and there is still a lot of good nutrition in the waste for snails to eat.

I can pretty much gaurantee that you will fail with the method you proposed. If you continue with your current setup, the snails will just return and be an issue again. Don't try to deal with things at lightning speed.

If your mom is that mean or confused of a person then I doubt she will ever be happy with your tank.

 

[Squawkbert]

How about other loaches... are Sids or Horseface loaches any "calmer" than YoYos or Skunks (and do Sids eat snails - does Temo have soft enough substrate for Horseface loaches)?

Maybe a dwarf puffer should be considered (though it may take several tries to find one that won't tatter the fins of the other fish).

I'm w/ MG... fish are seldom the answer, but is preferable to nuking the tank.

I'd say go ahead and bait/remove snails over night 2-3 nights in a row (I really think you will be surprised at how many you get) - then repeat once each week or every other week to get any hatchlings before they get big enough to breed. If this doesn't work, then consider adding a snail predator (DP) or 5 (loaches - prefer to school).

 

[Lupin]

How about other loaches... are Sids or Horseface loaches any "calmer" than YoYos or Skunks (and do Sids eat snails - does Temo have soft enough substrate for Horseface loaches)?

Skunks are out of the question anyway with their extreme aggression. I have never seen horseface loaches eat snails but worth a try on the other hand if they really do. Sids are fine and will not bother the discus if kept in as large as 8 in number but these are ridiculously expensive on the other hand.:huh:

In the end, using a fish is not a wise move. Consider the fact most and a lot of fish species don't mix well together.

 

[necigrad]

I'm going to throw this out, with the disclaimer that it is not "advice", only something I'm doing right now. I have an empty tank that has/d a snail problem. I bleached it and let the bleach sit overnight. Did a couple WCs and left it for 2 weeks. I bleached it again. Several WCs, and repeated AGAIN a week later. After that I did WCs until I could barely smell the bleach. Then I did a few more adding Prime at 5X dosage. I'm HOPING this works. Those chemicals tend to be bad. Usually they are copper based and once used in a tank you can likely never have inverts in the tank again, even if you want them.

As a side note, many people have said it's part of the ecosystem you've built. They're right. And the snails don't harm anything. But I don't like them either. They're not necessary so I'm trying to eliminate mine.

 

[Cory Keeper]

MTS is the answer, although they are prolific like any livebearing fish, they remain more or less unseen and hidden in the substrate, I have at least 9, but only see them at like the morning when I first flip on the lights, within 10 minutes they are all digging in the sand.

Since I've added them to the tank the pest pondsnail and ramshorn population has dropped. They seem to out-compete anything else besides Mystery Snails for food.

Its kind of like this MTS->Ramshorns->Pond snails

But please DO NOT nuke the tank. And avoid copper based treatments, unless the plants soak them all up (not likely) your never going to get it out, killing any future inverts, including shrimp.

 

[Hooked Newbie]

I have a solution for you Temo.

Collect all you can and send them to me (I'll pay postage and feed them to my loaches). Then adjust your feeding. They will not reproduce without a ready food source. If you have too many snails, you are feeding too much. Period.

 

[Temo]

well my mom was thinking of doing the tank all over, re-set up it agian, get news sub,and everythings, we'll be scrubbing the tank, and tryt o get rid of the snail on the plants, new fillter,ect.

 

[kimmisc]

If you tear it down, and replace the substrate, it shouldn't be a problem. Make sure to get the filter cleaned out very well too! Run it in some bleach so there are no snails or eggs left alive in the impeller and housing.

Use potassium permanganate or a diluted bleach bath for the live plants.

You may want to order/buy some bio-spira to have it on hand for whenever you put the fish back in, because your bacteria will be gone.

 

[jones57742]

Temo:

I have briefly reviewed the posts in this thread but I did not see your tank size and filtration equipment posted?

As you have discus I presume that the tank has a fairly large volume, like 100 gallons or more, and has a depth of 24" or 30" .

As Mg indicated and in which I concur chemicals are NG.

You will not be able to eradicate the snails but you will be able to attain a condition in which none are observable.

IMHO go find seven yoyo loaches (these loaches have been set forth in previous posts) which are approximately 1.5" in length and put them in your tank. If your tank is 110G and similar to mine within a month no snails will be observable.

Lupin indicated that the yoyos are boisterous and that their presence might cause stress to your discus. I have no experience with discus but yoyos are boisterous although when young they cause little commotion and eat a ton of snails.

Unless you have a very large tank after 2 months you will need to re-home 4 of these yoyos (obviously the ones which have the least distinct markings).

TR

 

[chilover1113]

IMHO go find seven yoyo loaches (these loaches have been set forth in previous posts) which are approximately 1.5" in length and put them in your tank. If your tank is 110G and similar to mine within a month no snails will be observable.

TR

FYI, not sure if you are just talking about babies, but adult yo-yos are way bigger the 1.5". And mine didn't eat the snails until they grew to a certain size, so they were laying eggs anyway. Yo-yos did not cure the situation in my tank.