REMOVAL Of Snails!

[Kindredspirit]

Hey Guys ~ I wish to remove my snails from two of my discus tanks ~ I have Trumpet Snails in one 55gal ....oodles of them ~

They do not suck up well ~ any suggestions wld be helpful ~ I know they do themselves that is why I have so many....:p but enough is enough ~

I'm thinking handpicking them ( ugh ) is going to be the only way?

Also I have a huge Apple Snail which I have always wanted....I never had a prob with getting what I wanted.....in life...it is wanting it after I get it ....according to my Mom....was always my prob....lol! Where can I put him? Goby Tank? African Tank? Back to the lfs? lol!

Any suggestions/advice wld be great!:D


Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/29/29_5_2.gif

[traco]

Aah, trumpet snails!! I just did a huge cleaning of my tank with them in there. I literally was sucking them out with the hose. You can also put in a piece of cucumber, zucchini, something along those lines, they will come to eat it and you just lift out the piece of veggie with them on it.

I also would rake them off the sides of the tank with the net. I know there is a product called "had a snail" (I think that's what it was called). It will kill them all, I believe.

Apple snail will either get eaten or constantly picked on in the african tank. You could try the goby tank. Why do you want to move him?

[lhforbes12]

Along with what Barb said, most loaches are excellent snail carnivores. I know I never have snails in a tank that has clown loaches in it but I've heard many other loaches also work well.

[Kindredspirit]

Look at this pic guys! You can barely see this snail with the naked eye!



brb~

[lhforbes12]

Yep! I would certainly have to agree, that is a snail.

[rcomeau]

Clean them out by hand/net and smush every dot you see.

[TRAKURT]

http://www.petsolutions.com/default.aspx?ItemID=42701000&eid=GL5002042NT&sid=GOOGLE&gclid=CLfG6rPm94cCFSbAJAodxjUBJg

[Ed13]

Marie is this a planted tank?
In that case, hold the chemicals until your absolutely sure the plants you have can take it

As for fish, puffers and botias love them! find a hobbyists near by that could use them:p
L007 the vampire pleco will eat them, doradids like raphael cats may eat some, some crustaceans as shrimp and crabs eat them and many fish will eat them if you crush them.
Do the trap, some report a higher success rate with a cocktail shrimp other say a piece of cucumber or lettuce.
High concentrations of salt, copper and formalin kills them

A little trick I learned is that keeping BN plecos will control the population to some degree since they eat the eggs of the snails, that with the hobbyist taking other measures such as physical removal will control the population, but it won't eliminate it though and its obviously harder to do in larger tanks!

[TRAKURT]

Marie is this a planted tank?
In that case, hold the chemicals until your absolutely sure the plants you have can take it

As for fish, puffers and botias love them! find a hobbyists near by that could use them:p
L007 the vampire pleco will eat them, doradids like raphael cats may eat some, some crustaceans as shrimp and crabs eat them and many fish will eat them if you crush them.
Do the trap, some report a higher success rate with a cocktail shrimp other say a piece of cucumber or lettuce.
High concentrations of salt, copper and formalin kills them

A little trick I learned is that keeping BN plecos will control the population to some degree since they eat the eggs of the snails, that with the hobbyist taking other measures such as physical removal will control the population, but it won't eliminate it though and its obviously harder to do in larger tanks!

For your info Had a Snail is safe for planted tanks.
Every time I recomened a med people on this board jump on it. Why is that?

[brewmaster15]

Hi Trakurt,
I don't know if that product is safe or not in a planted Tank...I don't have much experience with planted tanks, and have never used that Product. Has your experience with it been that its safe? Or is that a product claim that its planted tank safe ?




Every time I recomened a med people on this board jump on it. Why is that? I went thru all your Back posts and didn't see this happening.. I saw threads where you gave your opinions and others gave their opinions. Ultimately thats the best we can do. Hopefully the person needing the help will get the help that best suits their problem.

For what its worth, I looked at your recommendations and suggestions and didn't see anything wrong with them...Your posts looked fine, and I think were reasonable suggestions.:)

Hth,
al

ps.. if I am missing something here, and theres an issue you want to talk about please drop me a PM.

[Kindredspirit]

Clean them out by hand/net and smush every dot you see.


Smush? ...as in personally smush them Rc?


umm....no ~ no can do:(


Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/29/29_5_2.gif

[Kindredspirit]

Aah, trumpet snails!! I just did a huge cleaning of my tank with them in there. I literally was sucking them out with the hose. You can also put in a piece of cucumber, zucchini, something along those lines, they will come to eat it and you just lift out the piece of veggie with them on it.

I also would rake them off the sides of the tank with the net. I know there is a product called "had a snail" (I think that's what it was called). It will kill them all, I believe.

Apple snail will either get eaten or constantly picked on in the african tank. You could try the goby tank. Why do you want to move him?



Hey Woman ~ I got the Trumpets from Deb at Sc and AFC...so long ago and now all of a sudden I am inundated with them Barb! ...and I knew they multiply and all ~ but it took a long time and now there are just too dayum many man!

Well ~ re the Apple Snail....I think I just want to have the discus tanks free of anything but....except my Rams of course:)


Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/29/29_5_2.gif

[Kindredspirit]

http://www.petsolutions.com/default.aspx?ItemID=42701000&eid=GL5002042NT&sid=GOOGLE&gclid=CLfG6rPm94cCFSbAJAodxjUBJg


Thanks Kurt! I shall check that out:)





Marie is this a planted tank?

No no ....silk/plastic only Ed ~ (Hey you shld see my Africans babe.....getting big Ed!) I think I shall try first Barb's idea of trying to get them to accumlate on a lettuce leaf ~

then they are toast:p




Thanks Boys!


Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/29/29_5_2.gif

[Kindredspirit]

For your info Had a Snail is safe for planted tanks.
Every time I recomened a med people on this board jump on it. Why is that?

Oh well not that it matters in my case Kurt....but good to know for the ones that live "in the darkside"....:)


Do they do that ~ I am sorry if that is the case Kurt ~ But I do not think that Ed was doing that at all ~ he was just concerned about the live plants I do not have:)

Cheer Up Charlie!!


Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/29/29_5_2.gif

[Ed13]

Do they do that ~ I am sorry if that is the case Kurt ~ But I do not think that Ed was doing that at all ~ he was just concerned about the live plants I do not have:)


Yup, meant nothing by it. Its just that chemicals are to be use carefully and many times products stating that are plant safe or reef safe are only making generalizations about a system, not taking into account other factors and with limited testing on very little specimens. There are many plants that are too fragile and difficult to find no, sense in destroying them carelessly. But apparently I was concerned about Marie's non existent plants:p , which makes me wonder how the snails got in the tank in the first place;)

[Ed13]

No no ....silk/plastic only Ed ~ (Hey you shld see my Africans babe.....getting big Ed!) I think I shall try first Barb's idea of trying to get them to accumlate on a lettuce leaf ~

then they are toast:p



I may be involved in two projects in the coming months that I think you'll really like Marie, both with cichlids. I'll have to get a camera and written permission by the owners to post pics though!

BTW, I hope they are toast and not on toasts!:p

[hexed]

Marie,
I would try all the ideas and you will slowly get them out. The problem with the products that will kill the snails is just that. If you use it, you will have to hand pick them out of your tank when they die and fast. Trumpet snails have "seashell" shells that are thick and heavy and usually are to heavy to vacuum out of the tank. Alot of dead snails will foul your water very quickly and cause disease. If you only had a few, then yes you can use "rid a snail," "had a snail" or "snail be gone", but from what you said in the first post there are "oodles" of them. If you still had your loach they would all be gone and you would have little sea shells in your tank LOL :)

All the ideas each and every person posted will work, so no one is wrong in his/her advice. When you do get the bulk of them out of the tank, use one of the products and get the rest. Be sure you do a large water change after just in case. Kurt is right, most all snail removal products are safe for planted tanks ;)
Frank

[Kindredspirit]

Marie,
I would try all the ideas and you will slowly get them out. The problem with the products that will kill the snails is just that. If you use it, you will have to hand pick them out of your tank when they die and fast. Trumpet snails have "seashell" shells that are thick and heavy and usually are to heavy to vacuum out of the tank. Alot of dead snails will foul your water very quickly and cause disease. If you only had a few, then yes you can use "rid a snail," "had a snail" or "snail be gone", but from what you said in the first post there are "oodles" of them. If you still had your loach they would all be gone and you would have little sea shells in your tank LOL :)

All the ideas each and every person posted will work, so no one is wrong in his/her advice. When you do get the bulk of them out of the tank, use one of the products and get the rest. Be sure you do a large water change after just in case. Kurt is right, most all snail removal products are safe for planted tanks ;)
Frank



I got all this ^^^^!!

[Kindredspirit]

which makes me wonder how the snails got in the tank in the first place;)


I was wondering who was going to ask me that;) Ya wanna know Ed?



I may be involved in two projects in the coming months that I think you'll really like Marie, both with cichlids. I'll have to get a camera and written permission by the owners to post pics though!


Woo Hoo!! I can not wait ~ Hurry!! lol! Hey I was thinking of when I sell all of these babies ....I swear Ed there must be 50 at best....even if the lfs only takes five buck ea....that is still like $250-....i think:p I wld donate it to Simply ~




BTW, I hope they are toast and not on toasts!:p

ewwwwwww..........take that back!! lol!!

[Ed13]

I was wondering who was going to ask me that;) Ya wanna know Ed?

Yup!



Woo Hoo!! I can not wait ~ Hurry!! lol! Hey I was thinking of when I sell all of these babies ....I swear Ed there must be 50 at best....even if the lfs only takes five buck ea....that is still like $250-....i think:p I wld donate it to Simply ~


It's not up to me, in one I have to convince the wife of the guy that the 350gal cichlid tank his husband wants, its worth it:inquisitive: and the other is going to be a while because of the lack of appropriate rocks to complete the rift lake theme! Nevermind if they refuse to have the pics and info posted!

Without knowing the market of cichlids in your area $250 @$5 each sounds terribly good. Be prepare to ask have of what they sell them for, but don't be surprised if $1.50-$2.50 is their counter offer




ewwwwwww..........take that back!! lol!!
I'm just making sure the proper semantics are being used;) :D

[Kindredspirit]

A friend gave me some Moss and in was the Trumpet Snails:p I knew that ~ I just didnt expect some 2million of them months later! Oh...and Ed ...check this out..last night I had put everyone to sleep ~ all lights were out in the tanks but I came back in my office here and saw the most gross site!

.....all over my 55gal sides...ends...were oodles of these snails! They come out at night ~ it was ....just not okay ~ I must work on this when my work load slows....

...some year:p


I know ...you keep telling me I will prolly get nothing for all my babies when I sell them to the lfs ~

..but IF I do ~ you owe me lunch:D


Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/29/29_5_2.gif


( come to Cali...I shall give you a turtle;) )

[traco]

It really is gross, isn't it?!! That is when I get my net out and slide it up from the bottom, collecting snails as I go upwards. Smushing them with your fingers works on smaller ones, even then, my fingers get sore. They really do have hard shells.

Sometimes, you may see a whole swirl of little ones on the surface of the water, just scoop out the swirls. There sure is a fine line between having some for aerating your substrate and then having them take over the whole tank.

[traco]

Would you rather have a whole bunch of these ....? http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/29/29_4_33.gif

or these ....?http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_7_207.gif

[GrillMaster]

Put sum lettuce in the tank, an in the mornin take it out with the snails attatched to it....Repeat for a few days till they are gone...:D

[jpfelix]

be careful of the copper.

[AmberC]

Maybe its time to get that puffer you always wanted Marie! ;)

[GrillMaster]

You can always do the humane thing, an stick a half dozen clown loaches in there... 2 weeks...snails gone! No questions asked!!

Tell ya what, I will ship out my clowns for a month, once yer snails are toast, ya can ship em back to me. Hows that sound?;) :D

[Kindredspirit]

You are a nut! But thank you anyways:)


Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_1_18.gif

[russell]

Careful wih snail products, most don't recomend with soft water

[Kindredspirit]

Hey Russel~ I tossed all my gravel when we moved so I have all bare bottom once again.... and NO MORE SNAILS!! :p


Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_4_10.gif

[Wahter]

If your water in the aquariums is very soft, the snails will disappear (their shells become brittle). Fluke tabs also seems to hit those malaysian trumpet snails harder than some of the other common snails (like ramshorns). I've used it at half strength and in a planted tank - no ill effects on the discus or the plants (although the pl*cos definitely were NOT enjoying it - they became washed out colorwise, but survived).

HTH,



Walter

[Kindredspirit]

Thanks Walter! I was infested with Trumpet Snails! It was a gross site esp when I walked into my office and on all sides of the tank were these snails in every size imaginable:mad:


But ~


Not anymore:D


Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/5/5_9_5.gif