how to get rid of snails?

[meow200617]

We have a pond snail infestation in a tropical fresh water tank.
The water is slightly acidic, but we can't find out why, it killed a marble molly in 3 hours, so we don't want to put any more fish in the tank as the fish in it are happy, so clown loaches are out of the question.

The tank houses 2 large plecostomus and 6 or 7 widow/black skirted tetras, these fish have never had a problem with the water, we put bog wood in the tank to try and bring the acidity down. think the tank is about 20 gallon. it is not planted, is well ventilated and filtrated, it has a standard tank strip light, not growlux

There are no snail treatments available for fish tanks and we don't want to lose any of the fish.

When we half change the water, we remove as many snails as we can, and then the get put into the pond across the field.

other than hand removing, chemically killing or introducing new fish to a possibly toxic enclosure, are there any suggestions you can offer?

We going to try lettuce, so the snails eat it then remove it while there are loads stuck to it.

 

[msjinkzd]

You could try feeding every other day and increasing your maintenance as well as baiting them with veggie. Often their popuations will dramatically decrease as the supply of food does.

 

[tanker]

How many pond snail can there be in an un-planted 20gal?? You can poison the snails with copper--snails are VERY sensitive to copper.

 

[JeremyFlint]

But if they're cone snails, you had better be sure they're all gone. They, more so than any other variety, reproduce asexually, so even I snail can repopulate a tank.

 

[kjr928]

I'm not really sure you should be introducing your aquarium pond snails to an actual pond. Probably not the best thing for the eco-system, ya know?

I would say do a copper treatment.

 

[p3purr]

I'm not really sure you should be introducing your aquarium pond snails to an actual pond. Probably not the best thing for the eco-system, ya know?

I can't agree more with not releasing them into the wild. They can really mess with the eco-system and releasing anything, including plants, that's been in an aquarium can have serious affects on eco-systems.

If the pleco's are common pleco even one will get to big for the tank.

 

[jpappy789]

copper treatment- I've never used it before so I am not aware of any negative results

bating them with veggies- put a lettuce leaf in the tank overnight then remove it in the morning. the leaf should be full of snails

decreasing the food supply should limit their growth

but DO NOT introduce aquarium species into wild ecosystems...not a good idea

 

[red_wall]

The best way I think is to bait them with veggies.
The copper could kill the fish though A SMALL CHANCE, but, it still might disrupt the water enough to injure the fish(unless im wrong, then by all means, someone please correct me)
The more extreme measure would be to take out all of your things in the tank, and is by far the least that I recommend, and hand wash all the snails out. Unless you do the last option carefully and expertly, you'll definitely have another cycle on your hands

Other than that, just listen to what msjinkzd said, feed them less.

 

[kimmisc]

The copper would work, but if you use it you won't be able to keep inverts in that tank anymore. Keep that in mind when deciding what to do.

 

[chenya]

I have used a product called had-a-snail. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=6649 I believe it is a copper treatment. I wouldn't use it, however, if your tank contains shrimp or fish known to be sensitive to such products.

The tank that I have used it in contains an angel, corys, and bristlenose. I have experienced no problems. You do have to retreat. I also hand pick them as I see them. I still have a few left but they are at least controlled now. The only reason that I decided to use this product was because I had thousands and baiting them and cleaning all of the plants didn't work for me.