plant roots being eaten

[shadow999991]

i have alot of trumpet snails in my tank, ive used snail traps to keep the numbers low but they still have been eating the roots off my plants. ive moved the plants to a 10gal im cycling for my betta (his old tank got craked and leaks badly) is there anyway that anyone can think of to get ride of the snails with out chemicals? id like to move my plants back into my 55

 

[Fishfriend1]

You can drain the tank and thougholy look through all the ornaments and kill the individual snails. It just takes work and is a pain. What else is in the tank?

 

[shadow999991]

well i actualy just changed the stock (had a big tyrent angelfish) traded him in for some neons, white clouds, male guppys, a bristle nose, a whiptail, and some rams.

 

[coach_z]

are you sure they are being eaten? Are they simply rotting below the surface?

 

[captaincaveman9]

you can bait the snails out, get some zucchini and tie it to something to let it stay on the bottome and after 24 hours, you will have a large number of the snails. unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to make sure you got all the snails without chemicals of some sort (like bleaching the tank)

 

[captaincaveman9]

You can drain the tank and thougholy look through all the ornaments and kill the individual snails. It just takes work and is a pain. What else is in the tank?

Not really an effective method, as many of the tiny snails / larvae are almost impossible to see with the naked eye

 

[shadow999991]

well i was using an old school milk jug with an algea wafer to bait the snails it definatly cut down there numbers but a week later there are tons of teeny tiny snails everywhere.

 

[captaincaveman9]

you'll need to stop feeding for a few days too and do some gravel vacuuming so the snails have no other food to eat

 

[shadow999991]

kk will try that

 

[wespastor]

I have a 20 long with hundreds (sometimes) of trumpet snails (MTS). It is a heavily planted tank I have never had an issue with them eating the roots of my plants. My plants stock consists of: Bocopa sp., Amazon sp., Val. sp., Dwarf Hair Grass, and Najas Grass Sp., There is another stem but I forgot the name of it.

It could be something else harming the roots of the plants.

Best wishes,
Wes