help with getting rid of plant eating snails

[MilitantPotato]

we bought some plants today and i bought a large mat of microsword for my fiancee and when she placed it in her tank and went back to check the tank she noticed billions of of plant eating snails.. im question is how to get rid of them all without harming plants or fish.. we have 3 tanks infected wiht them now

 

[momar]

Depending on species they might not do much damage. But you'll probably still want to get rid of them. I think the best way is with snail-eating fish (but only if you actually want one - don't just get it to eat the snails). The best for this are loaches and some catfish (synodontis and talking catfish, but they won't eat nearly as many as the loaches), as well as puffers. However, puffers are not the nicest of fish and certainly not for a community tank. If you get a snail-eating fish, check its water parameters etc.

Other options are leaving the snails, buying a snail killing chemical, or crushing them all (they will then be eaten by most fish, but you'll never get all of them).

 

[msouth468]

The best solution is the snail killing chemical. If you don't have any other type of inverts in your tank this will do the job nicely. Your basically adding copper into your tank. And you should make sure that none of your plants or fish are sensitive to copper.

Also, you should not dose with the recommended dosage on the bottle. Only do about half to 1/4 and see what that does. Give it about 4 days after you dose and then do a water change. See how well it killed off your snails and if necessary dose again. Adding a little more if needed (NEVER DOSE ABOVE THE RECOMMENDED AMOUNT!!!) too much can have an affect on fish and plants also. Just be careful and do water changes to lower the amount in your tank.

Edit: This is what I used once to get rid of a snail problem I had a few years back.

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=28081;category_id=3385

It worked really well, and only took about 2 weeks to kill off the snails. And I only dosed once. Just make sure to do a few more water changes to start to dilute the amount of copper in your tank. It will take awhile for your tank to be completely rid of the copper in it. So if you plan on adding any inverts shortly after getting rid of the snails. This is not the way to go about it.

 

[rrkss]

Most of the snails that come on plants feed on the algae that grows on the plant leaves. I love my snails and just leave them alone. Not overfeeding the fish controls the populations quite well.

 

[chinnp]

I've got snails in my tank now, but I've not yet decided if I want to get rid of them or not. I can't use chemicals since I keep shrimp in the same tank. You could use the method of sticking your hand in there and removing them one by one or laying out a piece of lettuce overnight then in the morning grabbing the lettuce and the snails and getting rid of them that way.

 

[Mysteria]

I have two yo-yo loaches in my aquarium and they work great for eating snails. They don't grow to big (around 4inches)

 

[Gumby131]

buy a clown loach, let it eat all the snails and then take it back to the shop, simple.

 

[mdowdall]

Female freshwater red-eyed dwarf puffer. Bit cranky but in a well planted tank with companions who can take care of themselves there will only be empty dead snail shells to be seen after 10 days.

Ive found that copper wrecks some plants and the dosing has to be repeated after a week to catch the eggs that hatched maybe above the water line. Unless you change ALL the water in between doses, its really hard to make sure not too much copper is going in on the second (or third) dosing.

I dont care what people say....the little brown snails that come on plants eat plants especially ones with softer leaves. I hate those guys!

Bring on the Puffer!

 

[daveedka]

Gee folks, Don't you think if the snails Ate Plants the people selling plants for a living would have killed them ???? Maybe not at the LFS, But definately at the Plant Production Company. Snails do not spontaneously generate out of the air. If you have them on the plants you bough, the LFS and the wholesaler have them as well. Since they make a living selling those plants, I'm sure they would not let something live in their tanks that was constantly eating their income!!

Copper is a very dangerous chemical which has an Adverse effect on all life forms in you tank. The effect may be unnoticeable on larger specimens like fish, but it will still cause problems. Additionally Copper changes in form, it will absorb into Some types of decor, it Does not always come out with Water changes and Activated charcoal, and years from now it could still cause you problems. There is nothing That I would use copper for in my tanks.

The three most common Hitchhikers do not eat plants. I would guess you have pond snails, Maybe common Ramshorns but either way you will be better off keeping them. If you decide you don't like them, trap them and remove them. If you really want a loach or other snail eater that will work, but if they aren't fish you planned to own it makes little sense to go buy them. Trapping information, population control tips, and so on are in the article.
Read this article for more information:

A begginers Guide to snails


Dave

 

[mdowdall]

Howdy

A fair point. BUt having spoken to the folks at three of my LFS's over the years, they said that the snails probably dont come in from the distributor but reside and breed in the large vats the LFS use for selling and storing their plants. In two of these shops the water was room temp. where they stored the plants for display in the shop.

My theory is that 1) the snails in these tanks at lower temps maybe do not breed as fast, 2) in the abscence of fish food (which they eat as well) they dont grow as fast nor breed as fast and 3) the fact that they only seem to eat certain plants (hygrophilia and the like) means that the entire LFS stock is not being destroyed, just some of it. And with the population in check probably not enough to reduce the LFS stock enough to be a problem.

Once they get to the tank at home, with warmer temps and excess food, off they go.

The snails that are the biggest problem here in Ireland at least never grow more than about 7 mm in diameter, have a slightly concial shell, brown in colour, and lay eggs in a 5 mm in diameter patch of clear jelly with maybe thirty white eggs per patch. This jelly is hard to scrape off the glass or plant. They breed quickly and appear to eat (or at least damage somehow) soft bright green vegetation. They look ghastly on the glass, they get in the filters, their eggs are disgusting, and if you use a chemical the large dieoffs fould everything. As they come out in the middle of the night you have to stay up late to get them and you only ever remove a tiny portion of the whole population. The supposed benefits like aeration of the gravel and the like are not worth having the blighters.

It is impossible to eradicate them without a complete tear down as their eggs are even on the cover glass, or by using a fish that will not tire of eating them as some loaches do.

And dwarf puffers are so good at the job that I knew a guy who had maybe thirty of them and he would rent them out for a month at a time to planted tank owners as a way of getting rid of a plague of snails with no risk of gravel digging as loaches do, chemicals, scaly hands from having them in the tank water so much, film canisters, old lettuce leaves fouling the water etc. etc.

Snails are the worst thing that can happen to a tank. Little black buggers.