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arnie
03-19-2003, 11:20 PM
I introduced a couple of amazon plants in my tank about a week ago and now I have small snails roaming around the tank. How do I get rid of them ? Are they dangerous to discus? My water stays at 82-84 degrees farenheit and my PH around 6.6


Arnie ???

GWdiscus
03-20-2003, 09:35 AM
Hey Arnie,
I too have some plants and found some snails in my tank. I have a bare bottom tank, I keep about 7 or 8 plants in clay pots with peat as the substrate for the plants and gravel over the peat and around the plant.
I am concerned that the snails may harbor parasites as they are an intermedary host to many parasitic species. I had a number of them and soon found egg masses on the aquarium walls. When I saw the egg masses I decided to irradicate the snail population, up to that point I really hadn't decide, like you, what to do to get rid of them.
I decide to just siphon them out during water changes when ever I found one, I also siphon the egg masses off the glass. Since I have young discus I'm doing nearly daily water changes and so far have been able to nearly wipe them out, I did see one snail yesterday but it was late and I'll find it today or tomorrow. I'm sure there were egg masses I missed but by pulling the snails out as I find them I'm sure they will be gone before they reach sexual maturity and I should have goten rid of them by the siphoning.
If I'm off base here I hope someone out there will let us know.
Hope this helps and good luck.
Michael

arpanlib
03-20-2003, 04:16 PM
hi,
snails can introduce parasites and diseases. but at that hig temp, i doubt if you will encounter any disease, till you r fish get stressed. so before they get stressed, get rid of the snails.

if you are using CO2, then they will gather at the top water levels and syphoning can be done.

you can use small quantities of PP (a very faint colour of PP in the tank ) to get rid of snails and of some parasites that may have been introduced by the snails.

hope this helps.

arpanlib

Surfghost63
03-20-2003, 04:33 PM
Hi guys.

A discus friend of mine who has a planted tank always put the new plants in a bucket with an air pump and add some PP to clean the snails, it works for the introduction of new plants to the tank.

A couple of clown loaches (small) can do the job of removing snails too, just be sure of feed them some veggies (spinach, lettuce, or commercial tablets) after turning off the lights , they need that kind of food, and if they don't eat that, they can destroy your plants :-\

Take Care,

Bill :guitarist:

arpanlib
03-20-2003, 04:43 PM
ya, and the clown loaches have seemed to have disturbed the discus also in a way. am not sure but heard lots a trouble.

do some research before introducing the clown loaches, or people here will be able to give a better insight.

arpanlib

gemamanda
03-21-2003, 03:55 PM
Hi,
First off, I apoligize if this has already been answered before, but...
what exactly is PP??

Carol_Roberts
03-22-2003, 01:40 PM
Potasium Permanganet. You can find this strong chemical in the water softening dept. of Sears. The powder is mixed with watert o make a stock solution which is purple in color. arpanlib is suggesting you add a bit of the purple solution to your tank until the tank water is very pale purple. The water will turn tan as the PP works. You have to be careful with PP when used at full strength. Hydrogen peroxide is the antidote to pp.

BLUEKNIGHT
03-22-2003, 06:46 PM
i you can try keeping clown loaches make sure you Quarantine them before you add them in the tank. I have kept qeen botias in the tank with them and so far i have had no problems. and plus they eat the snails.

thebaglady
03-22-2003, 09:45 PM
Here is another thread going on snails:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=7;action=display;threadid=7810

A few more methods of eradication!

I actually LIKE snails. Red Ramshorn is one type that are quite helpful cleaning up uneaten food and their egg masses are easy to control.

I don't believe I've ever had a snail pass anything on to my fish. ???

arnie
03-23-2003, 11:01 PM
Thanks for all your replies, they've been very helpful. I think I'll go with the loaches, it seems like a more natural way to solve the problem, I hate putting chemicals in my discus tank. I'm also not buying any more natural plants, that's how my problem started!



Thanks to everyone, Arnie ;)