A zillion snails,and how to get rid of them

[Greenheinie]

Assassin snails have worked wonders for me. They're not aggressive (duh), look kinda cool, and usually hide or burrow in the substrate so you don't see them much anyway. 5 in a 65g took care of my snail problem in a couple of weeks. Once you fix your snail problem, just sell them or give 'em to a pet store.

[mwdw]

thanks for the thread. looking at my tank and wondering the same thing.

[mench]

thanks for all the great info,I haven't tried the cucumber yet,and I am looking for a less pricey spot for clown loachs..in our lfs they are $16 each,if ya can find them..so I may try either the cucumber or snail out

thanks
mench

[brewmaster15]

Ron,
another option...I had a major snail issue in one of my tanks...tried loaches..they were okay....but what really did it was a Synodontis eupterus.... really a great scavenger of snails in my limited experience.....Neat to watch as well.

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_feather.php

and if you want to go chemical....flubendazole will do the trick on most snails if you can get it.

For a slower control.....jack up the temp, decrease the pH..The softer the water and more acidic the better...it makes it hard for the shells to grow.

hth,
al

[Darrell Ward]

Your best bet would be to add a loach. He will clean them up real nice.

Ha! Ha! It may help some if you remove the other fish from the tank, and quit feeding the tank. Otherwise, loaches will prefer fish food.

[Darrell Ward]

They might be malaysian livebearing snails (Melanoides tuberculata).

If they are they are almost impossible to get rid of.

You can control them as others have suggested with clown loaches etc. However I have thought tanks were Ok and the loaches and various other fish I have used have killed them off only to discover hundreds of them crawling on the gravel and glass at night when the tank lights are off in some of my tanks.

I have even stripped tanks and bleached them only to find some MLBS have survived and started the process over.

I have frozen them and find some survived up to a year later.

When they have babies they often float on the water and if a net or anything is used in the tank (your arm) they will stick to it and thus transfer to other tanks this way. The babies I am talking about are microscopic so you bearly notice them.

I have lots of fish that do eat them (But none wipe them out)

Clea helena the assassin snail works OK sometimes on ramshorn snails but has no effect on the MLBS. I have experimented in tanks placing 10 of each in a tank and checking 3 months later to find more than 25 MLBS to 1 Assassin.

I keep many species of fish where I do not want snails in their tanks like elephant nose, discus, zebra plecos etc. I find the MLBS an almost impossible foe to actually wipe out.

Removing all substrate and netting the adult snails as you see them will work eventually as there will be no adults to reproduce. At this point re introducing the gravel (after you have boiled it to kill any baby snails lurking it it) will work.

Best of luck getting rid of yours.

I agree. These are worse than roaches. You will never get rid of all of them. Amazing creatures.

[ExReefer]

Clown loach killed every snail I have. I just rotated him in all my tanks until he killed all of them. They get big and should really be kept in groups though. Slow growers.

[brewmaster15]

Synodontis eupterus seriously. very underrated snail destroyer.

-al

[mathao]

in my 55g i just crush everyone that i see when i go to feed, it's about a month now and i only see one or two, everytime i see them "plop" they are crushed and the fish gets a meaty snack.

[RodneyL001]

Another product that is good to control snails is Aquari-Sol, it is used to treat Ick, it has Soluble Copper Salts in it, in a mild form. I had some some snails hitch a ride on some plants I bought, not only did the product treat a sick discus I had, but it got rid of the snails. I was treating a discus in a quarantine tank I had, he is doing great now.

[retiredsailor]

also check your filter. in my last tank, my canister filter was filled with them. i would wash them all out every other month and they would just keep coming back.

[korbi_doc]

Hey Al, will this Synodontis hurt my lil' zebra loaches...really like the lil' guys, but they have not controlled the snails...these snails are very tiny & start out on the glass & everything else in the tank, never have seen any large adults....I do have one clown loach in a 78* tank, but I'm reluctant to set him loose in the lg discus tank...would love to have a good controller to use when nec...that's what I get for wanting live plants, lol...& where best to get'm?...........

TIA, Dottie

Synodontis eupterus seriously. very underrated snail destroyer.

-al

[Darrell Ward]

I don't know about the Synodontis, (I think I had one of those once for several years, haven't seen one since my died) but those tiny snails are the plague! It seems almost every aquarium plant sold comes with these free. They often even survive plant "dips" to remove such creatures before planting. One of the reasons I now hate planted tanks.

[brewmaster15]

Dottie,
I don't know where the best place is for them as I got mine second hand when a friend got out of the Hobby..... but I just did a quick check and it looks like you can get them here ....

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/a...cfm?c=830+1163

hth,
al

[mench]

Thanks Al and everyone else for all the great info..I think I will try to get a couple of the featherfin guys

thanks again

mench