Snail infestation

[necigrad]

Here's a shot of a group of snails. This area of driftwood is the same spot where I was getting this white stuff oozing out. The snails seem to have made good work of it (but I'd still prefer they be gone). You can see the remnants of the stuff in the lower center to right of the picture hanging off of the wood.



As long as the stuff doesn't come back over the next couple of days I'll start getting rid of the snails via the bait method.

I haven't been using pellets at all... Yet. The corys were eating flakes that sank, so I wasn't worried about them. I just picked up the Otos yesterday. For the 6 fish, will one algae wafer like twice a week be too much? Or too little? And is there a better option entirely?

I'd love to get the loaches. In hindsight I think I'd rather have the loaches over the Corys. But the Corys are here now, and I dont' think my tank can handle 3 more fish. I think by the time what I have fully grows I'll be standing right at the edge (or slighty over) on overstocking. When the Corys die I might add loaches of some type.

 

[Woofy]

get a small container with a lid, something from glad or tupperware with a lid , make sure its clean and has never been used. poke a hole in the lid so that your fish cant fit, about straw size. Put a piece of lettuce in container put lid on and leave over night, the next morning you should have lots of snails in there, i mean lots, remove snails and all and repeat til you have removed all the snails enjoy tank.

 

[chevyguy86]

Hello first post on the site!!!

When i first setup my tank I put a live plant in, and it must have had a snail in it, and within 1 month I had about 100+ snails and eggs everywhere, I have a 46 gallon bowfront tank, to rid the snails I bought 3 clown loaches and reduced feeding to once per day. However clown loaches will not rid the problem if they are small. So the second method was a shot glass with lettuce at the bottom and some white bread on top to sorta seal it. I left the shot glass on it's side overnight in the corner of the tank and buy the morning I had 50 or more snails in the shotglass. I did this for a week straight replacing the lettuce and bread each night, and eventually I slowly rid the problem, now that the clown loaches are bigger they eat any snails that my arise.

 

[Sammie7]

Hello first post on the site!!!

When i first setup my tank I put a live plant in, and it must have had a snail in it, and within 1 month I had about 100+ snails and eggs everywhere, I have a 46 gallon bowfront tank, to rid the snails I bought 3 clown loaches and reduced feeding to once per day. However clown loaches will not rid the problem if they are small. So the second method was a shot glass with lettuce at the bottom and some white bread on top to sorta seal it. I left the shot glass on it's side overnight in the corner of the tank and buy the morning I had 50 or more snails in the shotglass. I did this for a week straight replacing the lettuce and bread each night, and eventually I slowly rid the problem, now that the clown loaches are bigger they eat any snails that my arise.

You do know that you are going to need a bigger tank for the loaches, right?
Or were you already planning on upgrading to a 100 gallon tank or more?

 

[SHK_ATK]

I THOUGHT that all you had to do is add salt??? Cant you just do that??
or is this a bad idea??

 

[Sammie7]

No, I wouldn't add salt unnecessarily, especially if you have salt-sensitive fish like cories or loaches. There are other methods that should be tried first before adding any chemicals. Also the dosage necessary to kill them would have to be a crazy amount and that would be bad for fish and plants.

 

[rop]

Salt does not work...

I THOUGHT that all you had to do is add salt??? Cant you just do that??
or is this a bad idea??

I can testify that salt at medicinal doses (2 teaspoons per gallon, to get rid of Ick recently) will not have any effect on snails. They will very happily live through that. In fact, some of my fish did not survive the salt. So, snails are hardier than fish when it comes to salt.

-Rob-

 

[Shocker6966]

I can testify that salt at medicinal doses (2 teaspoons per gallon, to get rid of Ick recently) will not have any effect on snails. They will very happily live through that. In fact, some of my fish did not survive the salt. So, snails are hardier than fish when it comes to salt.

-Rob-

Confirmed - just treated my channel cat with salt at 1tsp/gallon and the snails are unaffected.

 

[DebbyS]

Since there are suggestions to buy a snail-eating fish, my snail population in my Eclipse 6 is pleasantly small. I haven't seen an egg cluster in months, nor many baby snails -- not that they can't hide, but I used to be kind of paranoid about getting rid of them... then gave up and let nature take it's course. Nature turned out to be my Head and Tail light tetras having a taste for snails and apparently their eggs. I actually saw one of the H&Ts, a big female ("big" as in 1.25" or so) catch and eat a tiny baby snail (possibly thinking it was ~1/8" big food falling) and the same or a very nearly the same sized one playing with a tiny snail: "inhaling" it, spitting it out, "inhaling" it again. In my 10 gallon I saw a glow light snatching the antenna off a big (~1/4" red snail). I have more snails in that tank, but there is more for them to do (more plants, a bit more algae). For both tanks I'm happy with the snail population and am 99% certain there won't be a population explosion thanks to these tetras.

 

[mooman]

Let em go. They keep your interior decor sparkling clean and are a very natural part of every aquatic ecosystem (ever stick your head in a pond?). Eventually the population will die back to what the tank will support depending on feeding/cleaning frequency. This takes about 6 months and if weekly gravel vacs and moderate feeding are maintained then the population will be at a reasonable and natural level.