How many snail egg cases are in Shadow's tank?

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The Masked Shadow

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Feb 17, 2021
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So, let's play a little game. I have a 55g tank that has no decorations, and only topwater plants (for algae). Snails entered the tank through the plants. most likely only a few. Over a month later, take some guesses for how many snail egg cases I found on the side of my tank, which have the dimensions of 18"x13". Guess before you read the next part. You better have taken your guess! Well, I have 27 snail egg cases on the 18"x13" piece of glass. 22!?!?!? And there are hundreds of egg cases in the tank itself. I am just amazed at how fast these snails will reproduce.

Anyways, how do I get these snails outta my tank? The tank is stocked with a 10-inch Delhezi Bichir, so if there are fish that eat them, that would be great. I 100% don't want chemicals. So how the hell do I get the snail population under control?
 

fishorama

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Jun 28, 2006
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Well, less food comes to mind (feed only every couple days & vacuum excess out), manual removal of eggs, scrape & siphon them out. Bait the snails & remove (veggies work for this)...&/or the old smushing of all visible snails. Maybe your bicher will eat smushed snails (easy to break shells with pond, bladder & ramshorns but not trumpet snails)? I don't know, I believe I've said I've never kept bichers but I've had many different snails, lol. I like a few...
 

The Masked Shadow

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Feb 17, 2021
94
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Well, less food comes to mind (feed only every couple days & vacuum excess out), manual removal of eggs, scrape & siphon them out. Bait the snails & remove (veggies work for this)...&/or the old smushing of all visible snails. Maybe your bicher will eat smushed snails (easy to break shells with pond, bladder & ramshorns but not trumpet snails)? I don't know, I believe I've said I've never kept bichers but I've had many different snails, lol. I like a few...
I feed my Delhezi Bichir once every 2-3 days. I have manually scraped them, but they keep laying eggs in the weirdest spots. On the sponge filter, on the filter intake, inside the filter intake. He will not eat crushed snails. Not sure what the snails are. I know they are just fat bloby eggs tho.
 

fishorama

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Jun 28, 2006
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Oops, I just went on my usual snail rant. MTS are live bearers, so no eggs.

I can sometimes scrape off (with vac edge or fingernail) & vacuum up snail egg masses. If you can do a quick small water change with scraping eggs after feeding, that can help. Bait & remove snails is more effective I think, but it takes perserverance. Do it a few times/week & you should see progress...eventually, lol.

If your bichir doesn't eat smushed snails you should probably vac out the bits, you don't want an ammonia spike from dead snails.

Good luck, it can be a long battle!
 
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