snail eating fish

[woodboys]

I have a snail problem somehow. I didn't put any in the tank but I think they came in with some plants. I heard of a fish that eats them but can't remember what kind. It's a heavily planted 10 gal. with a couple albino cories and 5 rummy nose tetra's.

 

[Slevin]

get some dwarf chain loaches. their only downside is that they're a little hard to find.

 

[Kyohti]

Or you could try something like 'Had-A-Snail' too.

 

[Steppenwccr]

Dwarf Puffers will eat any little baby snail they see, so if you need to control your snail population...

 

[jm1212]

in such a small tank, you should fix the problem yourself, without adding anyting to the tank except lettuce now and againto attract the snails.

pull out any snails that you can see, and leave a blanched peaice of lettuce in the tank overnight and then take it out of the tank in the morning with the snails attached. if you see any of the egg pods outside the water, remove them to prevent ant more snails from appearing

how often and how much are you feeding your fish?

how often are your water changes?

 

[woodboys]

Does either the dwarft puffer or loach get too big for the 10 gallon.

 

[liv2padl]

jm1212 has the right idea .. your tank is too small for loaches. You can remove the snails in large groups by tempting them with food. After the lights go off for the night and the tank is dark, place a saucer on the gravel at the bottom of the tank, place a piece of sinking fish food on the saucer and leave for about 25 minutes. When you come back there will probably be several snails on the saucer and they can be easily removed with the saucer and food. you can similarly use lettuce, spinach, scallions or other fresh vegetables to do this, .. weight them down with a small rock. repeat til the snails are gone.

 

[woodboys]

I'll try the lettuce, but will that work with all the plants in there. I feed the fish 2 times a day. Water changes once a week 50%.

 

[Marinemom]

Your water change schedule sounds fine but I would knock the feeding down to once a day which is more then enough food for the fish. Fish do not need to eat every day like we do. In fact in the wild fish go days or even weeks with no food and they are fine. Your fish will do fine with once a day feedings. Too much food in the aquarium will eventually lead to poor water quality. Also too many nutrients in the water just fuels on the snail problem.

Marinemom