We Hates Them My Precious: Snailses

Harlock

Harlock

Educated Idiot
Dec 15, 2004
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San Angelo, TX
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So, I set up my 29 gallon for cycling, added a number of plants... May as well brag on that while I can:1 Banana Plant
1 Ozelot sword
1 Amazon Sword
1 Ludwigia ovalis
1 Anacharis
1 Cryptocoryne wendtii
1 Cryptocoryne wendtii (green)
1 Hornwort

So anyway, today I found three small snails. I assume pond snils as their shells were very delicate and easy to crack. They were approximately the size of the tip of a ball point pen in diameter. Since then, I have seen a few smaller ones (one on the glass between plants was literally the smaller than the head of a straight pin.)

Here's the skinny. I hate snails. I DESPISE snails. I want them dead and gone forever. I've done some looking. I know a clown loach would do the trick, as would a puffer. Forget that. I want it solved before I get any kind of fish that would be too aggressive or grow too large for my tank. So, what am I left with? Will crushing the little devils as I see them be sufficient, or will I need to break down and add some of that copper crap to my tank, possibly throwing back my cycle? ANY and all opinions are appreciated.
 
Snails will come in on plants, can't be helped. The population will vary with the food supply. Extra food = extra snails. They'll collect on a leaf of lettuce overnight making them easier to discard, and with diligence, maybe you can get them all.

Personally, I'm a big fan of small loaches. I've got striata (zebras) and histrionicas and I've never seen a snail in my 30. Funny, active, personable fish that won't get past about 4 inches (fishbase.org has their max sizes at about 3.25" and 4.75" respectively).

I don't think clowns belong in tanks smaller than maybe a 125g.

Highly, highly recommend their smaller cousins.
 
Most excellent! Would a striata or histrionicas be "lonely" flying solo, or should I pick them up as a pair, trio, etc.? I was going to go with Cory cats on the bottom, a trio, but I suppose a couple of loaches could be about the same bio load?
 
Harlock,

You are FUNNNY. :laugh:

I know how you feel about snails, I despise them too, but there is no need to get hysterical. I've had the same experience with plants that I've bought from the LFS and from Aquariumplants.com. I did as Carpguy suggested and I'd take them out and dispose of them.

Funny how some people hate them and others love them. Don't fret. You haven't put any fish in your tank so it should be easier to get rid of them by baiting them with lettuce. There shouldn't be any chance at all for the snails to multiply since I hear that overfeeding fish will do just that.

Be patient. Soon you'll get rid of the buggers like I did and I have fish in my tank which was a bit tougher for me (I had to feed my fish, but sparingly). There is a way to get rid of snails before you place the plants in your tank (in case you decide to buy more plants in the future). I read it somewhere in this forum. Do a search on this, I'm sure you'll find it.

Good Luck. ;)

Lissette
 
I've got cherry barbs and a few snails (deliberately, I'm one of the wierdos who like 'em ;)) in my 10g, and so far I've seen egg packet after egg packet, but no babies. I've come to the conclusion that the barbs either like to eat the eggs, or the newly hatched babies.
I also learned (from OG, I think) that kuhlis will take care of small snails - if you're looking for small loaches you could consider them as well as dwarf loaches (Botia sidthimunki).
 
Man, snails get a bum rap. Harlock, that's fine that you hate snails, but do you know why you hate them? If it's a strong aesthetic distaste, OK, but if you think they'll harm your tank, you might want to rethink things. Small snails are actually model tank citizens in most cases, as long as you don't overfeed. Some benefits of snails:

- Clean the glass and plants. Malaysian Trumpet Snails also take care of the gravel.
- Add another layer of life and activity to the tank's mini-ecosystem.
- Like to munch on dead plant matter (pond snails, MTS, "true" ramshorn, and even a few types of apple snails won't harm healthy plants).
- A nice aesthetic touch (but as mentioned above, this is a matter of taste)

Simply put, those snails are unlikely to hurt anything, and they'll even help a little bit. And they can be surprisingly interesting -- I saw one of my MTS give birth once, pretty cool!

The default reaction of so many when they see snails in the tank is, "Oh *$&%!" and that fear is unfounded. I think the snail homicide rate would plummet if more people knew the facts about these little creatures. (And someone please correct me if I have any facts wrong.)

But like I said, if you just don't like the look of them, to each his own. If I had a bunch of, say, ugly slugs in my tank, I'd probably want to get rid of them even if they weren't going to hurt anything. I just wanted you to have all the facts before you got loaches instead of the fish you really wanted for your stocking setup.

On a related note and re: Aquabum's post, if I need new snails (rare), I like to get them from the LFS (many will give the pond snails and MTS to you for free) and quarantine them rather than get them as surprise hangers-on. It's good to give your plants a little "dip" before putting them in the tank -- not just to kill snails, but also to kill any nasties that might be along for the ride.

I use a bleach dip, and if you search AC for that phrase, you should come up with plenty of hits/instructions. Others use a potassium permanganate or alum dip -- again, you can search on AC and Google for more info on those. These are easy ways to prevent any further surprise visitors on your plants. The snails are harmless, but other plant stowaways might not be.

HTH and good luck with your tank!
 
If you want to keep your tank snail free (and I could never imagine doing that) any of the smaller loaches would be a good choice. And getting them in groups is the best way to go. Use them instead of the cory cats. Zebras, khulies or yoyo's should do the trick and are generally easy to find.
 
I'm with TRIPman, love 'em, and yeah, I've seen one of my MTS' giving birth once too, pretty awesome! Also when I see the substrate move as one of them burrows through I always think of the sandworms in Dune (yeah, I'm a nerd).

Other than that, watching ramshorms cruise along the glass (they can move surprisingly fast!) eating up algae, sucking up little hairs of it like spaghetti is time well spent, or at least it beats the latest trashy reality tv.

But, if they're not your cup o' tea, removing the adults via a film cannister with a piece of zucchinni and a bleach dip (25 parts water:1 part bleach) works wonders. I use bleach since all things considered it's cheap, handy and easily neutralized after use.
 
This is real simple:

See a snail?
Pick it up. If you can crush it, good.
If not, put it back.

Repeat 2xdaily for two weeks. No more "bad" snails.
 
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