aquatic snail control

[aquatix02]

just a few questions since i have recently discovered a small number of snails in my 80G tank.

1. are aquatic snails able to survive out of water for any extended periods of time?

2. what are the snail control abilities of gouramis, in particular dwarf, pearl, snakeskin and 3-spot...

thanks!

 

[VoodooChild]

They can't survive tooo long out of water, but a good deal of time still. How come? Some will lay their eggs on the tank rim actually. As far as control goes, if they're small, I believe the snakeskin would. As for the pearl, not to sure, and probably not with the dwarf. Otherwise, the threespot (opaling, gold, platinum) do a great shop of eating the snails. Think about maybe some clown loaches too. I've had good luck with them.

 

[OrionGirl]

Aquatic snails can't survive out of the water for long, but their eggs can tolerate a few hours.

Some gouramies will go after the eggs, but usually not after the snails, IME. Depending on other tank mates, there are several loaches that will make short work of snails, or you can go for manual removal by adding a peice of lettuce for a night and pulling it out first thing (before lights go on). A few nights of this and should get most of the hatched ones out.

 

[JP457]

I have snails and 3 spots together. they eat the realy tiny ones but otherwise nothing. they just ignore them.

 

[aquatix02]

thanks for the responses guys..

i'll keep that in mind if my snails become a problem!

EDIT: thought i'm not sure if i should keep clown loaches in a large planted community tank with small fish...