Snail infestation

[necigrad]

SNAILS! You want 'em, I've got 'em! I kid you not, I seriously see about 30 or so. And that doens't count the 14 egg pods I just counted THAT I SAW. I'm cutting my feeding down to one a day, at least for now. I didn't think I was overfeeding, but being new it's certianly a possibility. On the bright side, I think the snails knocked down (and almost out) the white tuff I had on my driftwood.

Is there anything else I should be doing? I thought I saw a product somewhere that supposedly you add to a tank and it kills the snails. I know better then to blindly use a miracle product without checking though, and I don't know that I want to kill ALL the snails. I have the preference to not have snails, but I can accept that there may be some present. I was just not hoping for a million snail march in my living room.

 

[nickmcmechan]

I heard clown loaches eat snails?

 

[Sammie7]

Clown loaches get to be a foot or more and like to be in schools, so I wouldn't just blindly recommend them to someone when I don't know their tank size.

As for the snails you can either pick them out when you see them or put a piece of lettuce in the tank at night and in the morning take it out, it will be covered in snails. Don't use those "kill snails" products as they are usually just copper, which isn't good for plants or inverts and will remain in the silicone of your tank.

You can also scrap off the egg sacs as you see them. How much do you normally feed? The only time snail populations get out of control is when you overfeed. Most fish will do fine with one feeding a day.

What size is the tank and what are the fish you currently have?

 

[necigrad]

I've been feeding twice a day, once before I go to work, and once when I get home. I'm cutting that down to once when I get home. It seemed like the fish ate most of the food, and a little fell down to the bottom for the Corys. Guess I was feeding more then I thought or something.

Tank is a 24G so there's no way a clown loach will work. I actually added my tank to my signature, but apparantly it doesn't update, only adds the sig on new posts, so it'll be here now. When my Corys die I was thinking about Khuli Loaches, but that's probably (hopefully) a few years from now.

I've heard about the lettuce "trick", and will be trying it. I've been holding off for a few because the snails have beena bit usefull, eating some stuff oozing out of my driftwood. Once that appears to be gone (and it's close) I'm going to be trying to get rid of the snails. If the stuff pops back up, the driftwood gets replaced. Hopefully I'll have the "stuff" taken care of in the next day or two. With the lettuce, just blanch it and set it in the bottom of the tank, or put it in a glas or something?

 

[minnesotagal866]

I have kuhli loaches and they don't touch the snails. For my recent snail infestation, I blanched a couple of pieces of zucchini in the microwave and put it in the tank. I buried it in the tank a bit. In the morning I removed over a hundred snails (55 gallon). Repeat each night until snails are under control.

Jackie

 

[Sammie7]

I think you could just put it on a bottle cap so it will be easier to pick up without them a falling out; of course, this will depend on if your fish mess around with it too much, like the otos.

As for the driftwood issue, is it a kind of clear type fungus that is growing on it? Surprisingly, when I just just recently got 2 platys, I noticed that they were eating it. They also cleaned the algae and loose debris that was settled on the leaves of my rotala plants. Just a thought.

Those fish don't really need to eat 2 times a day and it is probably contributing to the snails and maybe even the algae. Are you supplementing the otos and the cories feedings with sinking pellets and algae wafers?

 

[KJoFan]

Zebra loaches are a good choice for snail eating loaches. They like to be in schools too but they only get maybe 3" max in size. I have some in my 55 and it's now snail free. They can be hard to find though I have heard.

 

[ErrorS]

I posted in your other thread.

YoYo loaches do a fine job and don't get nearly as big as Clown Loaches. It might be a bit much for a 24 though.

You could do what a lot of us do and just set up another tank for them when they get big enough.

edit: You can always kill them chemically. They are a lot more sensitive to certain things than most fish are. A salt or copper bath might do the trick depending on which fish you have in the tank. The snails will die out before any plants you have but you will have to be careful, it doesn't take long for copper to tear through plants in an aquarium.

I dunno if I'd recommend that though. I don't think I'd ever try it myself, it's more of a 'theoretically, it might work if you're desperate'

 

[jm1212]

you may want to take out the eggs that are hanging from the tank to keep any other snails from hatching. take out the ones that you can see by hand for now, and put a blanched peice of lettuce in the tank overnight, and taking it out in the morning with the snails.

 

[Ghostshrimp55]

Zebra loaches. They definitely have a fondness for snails. I'm not sure of the dimensions of a 29 gal tank but you might have enough room for 3-4 loaches in addition to your cories. I wouldn't get any fewer than that since they like to be in groups. Don't feed so much that you get a ton of food on the bottom. You'll want your loaches to be hungry, otherwise they'll just wait for the food to come and ignore the snails. You'll know they're doing their job when you start seeing a lot of empty, upside down snail shells in your tank. These fish are great in that, aside from eating snails, they add a lot interest to the tank. They're really cool fish.

As for snails always being directly related to overfeeding, I don't really think that's always the case. Snails will thrive on plant material. Depending on the species, it might not even have to be dead/decaying plant material. Small amounts of algae and the usual dead/dying piece of plant that are inevitable in a planted tank will be enough to sustain a population. These guys will do a great job controlling or eliminating their presence.