Snails! Already!!! It's only day 1 of my fishless cycle. What are my options?

J

JCKey618

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Dec 28, 2010
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Hi all,

I started my 55gal tank with some plants to endure the fishless cycle. And, now, less than 24 hours later, I have killed about 10 snails in my tank! What are my options for getting rid of these fast and completely? I really don't want to have to do a full water change/restart because it was sooo taxing to get this tank set up as it is!

I've heard of assassin snails and different chemicals. I want to make sure I am not hurting my tank in the long run. It's still so young!

Any help is appreciated!
 
Just don't feed them. :cool:


No reason to get rid of them really, but if you insist... pretty sure a month without food in a cycling tank should stop them from taking over the tank.
 
i concur with petluvr, do not use chemicals to get rid of snails!

just keep picking them out as you see them, or you can weigh a piece of lettuce or cucumber down with a fork in the tank and once there are a good number of snails on it, remove lettuce/cuke and discard. repeat until you have what you deem an acceptable snail population.

i actually prefer to have snails (ramshorns) in my planted tanks. they will eat dead/dying plant matter, algae, and leftover food. i will sometimes give a handful away to local fish geeks that need puffer food, but other than that i make no efforts to control the population.
 
Isn't it possible for them to overrun the tank?

Also, I started this fishless cycle using food (I couldn't find ammonia). Now that I have ammonia, no more food but there's still a good amount of used food in there.
 
In that case, like the others said, just go around squishing/removing them as they come up for air.

They CAN take over a tank, but arn't as bad as people make them out to be. Usually they only take over when you over feed the fish. Otherwise they can easily be kept under control.
 
I have had great success with cukes or yellow squash. put it in held down with a fork or a veggie clip at lights out and remove the snails collected at lights on. (remove and replace after two days as the veggie will get soft) I move my snails into the tank with clown loaches. But they really won't take over if you don't over feed your fish. And as you're doing a fishless cycle I would think the veggie method plus no fish food will catch the bulk of them. just keep the veggies going until you're not catching anymore snails.
 
Khemul said:
Just don't feed them. :cool:


No reason to get rid of them really, but if you insist... pretty sure a month without food in a cycling tank should stop them from taking over the tank.
Click to expand...

I wish that was true....

I had a tank I literally NEVER EVER EVER put food in once. I had no reason to, there were no fish or inverts (that I wanted) in the tank. Only plants. Snails were living, and thriving in it until the day I tore it down.

There are no fish in the tank, so you could nuke the tank easily then use carbon and water changes to get rid of the chemicles. But many people don't like that method.

Assassin snails can work, but they wont kill everything in my experience, though I have read they do have the ability. If they do eventually kill off every snail, then guess what? You have to put more snails in to feed them...or you can rotate which tanks the assassins are in.
 
If you plan on making it a planted tank, snails are pretty much inevitable. Even if you nuked the tank with chemicals (such as copper) and used carbon to remove them, if you're planning on adding more plants, chances are extremely good that you will get snails again. So the best thing to do is to not freak out about it and just realize that an overpopulation of snails is directly related to overfeeding, as everyone has stated. Maybe instead of flake food try using a shrimp as an ammonia source, that way you can handpick the snails out better than with flake, which scatters all over.

Assassin snails do work, but you can't really have other kinds of snails with them...so if you're planning on having Briggs, Malaysian trumpet snails or any of the other kinds of snails people keep intentionally, it won't work out so well.
 
add a clown loach or two. any loach will do but i love the clowns. they will eat all of your snails. add after cycle obviously
 
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