UGH!!! These snails!!!

[kris_66]

On a daily basis I am fishing out these little browny-colored snails out of my tank. Seems the more I fish out, the more I see the next day!!!

What can eat these little snails? I think I read assassin snails will, but will the assassin snail produce? I dont want to be overrun with those too lol

Please advise what to do about these little pesky snails

 

[jetajockey]

You won't get overrun with assassins, and if you do, it's a good thing, because you can get a few bucks out of them. My assassins cant keep up with the pond snail population, but my cichlids can. My jack dempseys rid the tank of any snails in a day or two. I'm thinking about getting dwarf puffers to do snail patrol for me also, since the JDs are kinda big to be moving from tank to tank.

 

[kj5kb]

Sounds like you have pond snails...little football shaped ones. I usually just squish them on the glass and leave 'em. Many fish will eat snails once they are out of the shell.

Assassin snails are nice-looking striped snails. They WILL breed, but a lot slower than the pond snails...and they wont bother your plants. I put a few in a 40G Breeder tank a couple years ago. They have wiped out all the pest snails and most of the MTS. I've given away ~50 and there are 50+ in there now. I dont mind a bit!

 

[hage0245]

Sounds like pond snails to me. Many people see pond snails as pests, but in fact they are the opposite. They rapidly reproduce when there is an abundance of food, so they are a sign of over-feeding and waste. They actually do a tremendous job cleaning up the excess waste and left over food. If you cut down your feeding their numbers will gradually reduce due to a lack of nutrients. They can be unsightly, but they're there for a reason.

 

[captmicha]

Ooh! Mail them to me! Seriously, I used to feel the same way as you but I started ignoring them or throwing them in my main tank for my zebra loaches to snack on. Recently I came upon Amazon puffers so I'm collecting all the little snails I find in my tanks and putting them in a fish bowl and a bucket with hard water so they'll get bigger so I'll have a nice supply when I'm ready to get my Amazon puffers.

So, either don't over feed.
Get assassin snails, zebra loaches, other kinds of loaches, puffers, or squish them, or ignore them. Or you could try Kill A Snail but I remember using it a few years ago and it didn't get rid of all of them but I never used it more than once.

 

[minka-1974]

The plants from my lfs often have tiny brown snails on them ... my clown loach loves them!

 

[OrionGirl]

Sounds like pond snails to me. Many people see pond snails as pests, but in fact they are the opposite. They rapidly reproduce when there is an abundance of food, so they are a sign of over-feeding and waste. They actually do a tremendous job cleaning up the excess waste and left over food. If you cut down your feeding their numbers will gradually reduce due to a lack of nutrients. They can be unsightly, but they're there for a reason.

+1

 

[cicrush13]

go with assassins

 

[stephcps]

cut back on feeding. Manually remaove the ones you see during your tank maintenance. Manually remove any eggs you see...right when you see them! It won't take long to get the population under control.

 

[Khemul]

How many are you fishing out on a daily basis? If it is a few here and there, you are not being overrun. When you pull out dozens and there are still more, then you may have a problem.

Keep in mind that pond snails will find their own food, even if you are not overfeeding. The main 3 ways they get food; 1) overfeeding the fish, 2) algae, 3) dead plant material. At least one of these must be in abundance for you to be overrun by snails. Most people assume it is overfeeding that causes the population explosion, but in reality algae and plant material can be even worse since you may never even know it needed controling to begin with.


Heres the thing to do with snails. I do it with Trumpet snails, since I have enough trouble keeping my Pond and Ramshorn alive but it should work. Round up as many as possible (I wait until I can get 20-30 MTS), put in hard container, smashy smashy, pour remains back into tank. Free fish treats. :evil_lol: