any advice on how to quarantine snails? i'm assuming they can also introduce nasties.

[Jack L]

searching board i found procedures on fish quarantine.

any insights on snails?

[nc0gnet0]

Yes, don't use them.

[warblad79]

Yes, don't use them.

Good answer!

[DJW]

Snails leave mucho droppings. I would rather have the algae.

[Second Hand Pat]

Yes, don't use them.

Snails are carriers to many nasty things...suggest passing on this.
Pat

[Kyla]

if i didnt already have snails i would def never add them to a tank on purpose. they are a huge pain.

[warblad79]

if i didnt already have snails i would def never add them to a tank on purpose. they are a huge pain.

Bleach them, that would eradicate the snail population.

[Kyla]

im not at the point yet that i want to eradicate them with bleach etc.
i have plants and i dont want to dip them.

for now i siphon or net the snails out. after removing hundreds and hundreds (thousands probably) i have their population wayyyy down. i think im removing them faster than they reproduce at this point. time is on my side ;)

[ericNH]

I believe Jack L is referring to adding assassin snails to reduce the overall snail population in his tank. So there is a reason he wants to add snails, and it's not because he wants more. Is that right Jack L?

I don't have any qt advice for you on snails Jack, I can only share my meager experience. I once tried adding a assassin snails to my tank to reduce the amount of MTS i used to have. I didn't qt them. I am sure it was a bad idea, but I was dealing with Snailageddon and I couldn't wait. In any case it didn't work for me. The MTS pop was still wildly out of control.

If your tank is stable and your discus are healthy, which I think they are, then maybe your best course of action is to just let it roll. Accept them as part of your tank. It may be that the only way you'll reduce their unmbers appreciably is to remove your fish, nuke the system, and then return the fish after the system recovers.

[Jack L]

Yeah assassin snails to attack the pest snail population, based on board advice in another thread
It is starting to look life a zombie hoard of snails crawling over each other

[MattArmstrong]

If I purposefully quarantined snails, I'd do it just like fish.

In a non Discus tank I have one assassin snail and do notice an uptick in the number of "empty" shells of the other species.

I've heard the "snails harbor all kinds of nasties" claims before, but not with with specific details. It makes sense that there may be some parasite that uses both fish and snails as hosts, but I have seen very little in the way of documentation. I'm not "pro snail" -- I just like to understand stuff. Anybody have a reference/article/book that gives an example of why snails are a health hazard to fish?

[rickztahone]

Have you tried the lettuce trick yet?

[Jack L]

have to get some, then i will

[rickztahone]

have to get some, then i will

I meant on your current horde of pest snails. Take a piece of lettuce, leave it in the tank over night, in the morning, you will have a huge group of them to toss out. Keep doing this until they are all eradicated.

[DISCUS STU]

I've kept Mystery Snails with my Discus to control algae and qt them the way I do Discus. With concurrent use of Metro (6 days) and PraziPro (10 days). I also like the way they look.

But I think your question is how to eradicate them. If picking them out by hand doesn't work I would use a small amount of chelated copper sulfate. This can be removed with water changes. I don't think activated carbon has any effect.

[Jack L]

have to get some, then i will
Lettuce deployed in tank and sump

[Jack L]

I've kept Mystery Snails with my Discus to control algae and qt them the way I do Discus. With concurrent use of Metro (6 days) and PraziPro (10 days). I also like the way they look.

But I think your question is how to eradicate them. If picking them out by hand doesn't work I would use a small amount of chelated copper sulfate. This can be removed with water changes. I don't think activated carbon has any effect.

I was asking in this thread how to quarantine snails as I'm contemplating buying assassin snails to add to the tank

I have prazi pro but I do not have any Metro. It probably sounds silly but I intentionally don't have many meds on hand because then I can't be tempted to use them because all the lessons have taught me throwing meds at the situation often makes it worse

When I quarantine fish I used to just observe, but as ich can live unseen I now use prazi and ich rid

[DISCUS STU]

I was asking in this thread how to quarantine snails as I'm contemplating buying assassin snails to add to the tank

I have prazi pro but I do not have any Metro. It probably sounds silly but I intentionally don't have many meds on hand because then I can't be tempted to use them because all the lessons have taught me throwing meds at the situation often makes it worse

When I quarantine fish I used to just observe, but as ich can live unseen I now use prazi and ich rid

I can only pass along my experience. This is what's worked for me.

[Jack L]

I can only pass along my experience. This is what's worked for me.
Understood, thanks for info. I will look into metro, I've never used it. I have a mystery snail in qtank based in your advice

[DISCUS STU]

They're pretty cool. Here's a pic. of one cleaning a strand of Vallisnaria with a juvenile Altum Angelfish in the foreground. Pretty acrobatic for a snail!93366

[ericNH]

Beautiful pic, STU

[DISCUS STU]

Thanks! I like the German Ram sticking its head out for a look on the lower right.

[Jack L]

They're pretty cool. Here's a pic. of one cleaning a strand of Vallisnaria with a juvenile Altum Angelfish in the foreground. Pretty acrobatic for a snail!93366

Agreed

What type val is that?

[Jack L]

Lettuce deployed in tank and sump

Lettuce trick showing promise, 6" piece had about 200 on it

[DISCUS STU]

Agreed

What type val is that?

What type of Vallisneria? I'm not really sure. It's somewhere in the middle thickness. It grows like a weed and I don't have to worry about it, other than to thin it when it gets too dense. I've had it for about 5 years now from a few shoots I bought at that time.

[Pardal]

They're pretty cool. Here's a pic. of one cleaning a strand of Vallisnaria with a juvenile Altum Angelfish in the foreground. Pretty acrobatic for a snail!93366

STU
Mystery snails are definitely cool indeed however, I want to share my experience when I kept them in a medium tech 90gallon planted tank. Like you I brought them to control the agae, unfortunately they start to reproduce really fast and their poop create more waste than the algae they eat.
Check around the inside plastic reams/ frame of your aquarium just above the water were the water meet the frame. You will see some "cocoons like" those are the eggs.
A what point I use to found two or three of these every day when doing WC,s. At the beginning I let them "big mistake". I end up having snails of different sizes and their waste like I said before produce more algae that what they consume.
These is my experience with them . I don't saying it could happen to you . my advise control those cocoon when you see it, look for them since they are kind of hidden.
I guess you probably won't have to worry if you have a rim less aquarium as you could spot them really easy.

Julian

[DISCUS STU]

STU
Mystery snails are definitely cool indeed however, I want to share my experience when I kept them in a medium tech 90gallon planted tank. Like you I brought them to control the agae, unfortunately they start to reproduce really fast and their poop create more waste than the algae they eat.
Check around the inside plastic reams/ frame of your aquarium just above the water were the water meet the frame. You will see some "cocoons like" those are the eggs.
A what point I use to found two or three of these every day when doing WC,s. At the beginning I let them "big mistake". I end up having snails of different sizes and their waste like I said before produce more algae that what they consume.
These is my experience with them . I don't saying it could happen to you . my advise control those cocoon when you see it, look for them since they are kind of hidden.
I guess you probably won't have to worry if you have a rim less aquarium as you could spot them really easy.

Julian

Hey Julian. Yes, I've had them breed and am good with this, I usually donate them to a lfs, but these cocoons can easily be removed if you don't want them to increase their numbers in your tank. I use Perfecto plastic hoods and they usually lay their eggs on the underside of the hood tops so they're easy to see and remove if you don't want them to reproduce. This species needs to lay eggs out of the water in the dry air. They aren't the same as the small, common unwanted snails that come in with plants and other things and they don't reproduce asexually. You do need to have at least two or more for this. As far as I know they're not sexually dimorphic, or change their sexes for the purpose of reproduction.

As for waste, yes as they consume algae and unwanted food they will produce waste, which is normally removed with water changes.

So I've effectively used them for algae control but at this time the planted tank that you see in the picture is algae free using a combination of Clown Plecos, Farlowellas, and just because I like the way they look, one or two Gold Nugget Plecos.

[Jack L]

They're pretty cool. Here's a pic. of one cleaning a strand of Vallisnaria with a juvenile Altum Angelfish in the foreground. Pretty acrobatic for a snail!93366

p.s.
this is a cool photo, and i don't think i have ever seen sand so clean!

[Jack L]

STU
Mystery snails are definitely cool indeed however, I want to share my experience when I kept them in a medium tech 90gallon planted tank. Like you I brought them to control the agae, unfortunately they start to reproduce really fast and their poop create more waste than the algae they eat.
Check around the inside plastic reams/ frame of your aquarium just above the water were the water meet the frame. You will see some "cocoons like" those are the eggs.
A what point I use to found two or three of these every day when doing WC,s. At the beginning I let them "big mistake". I end up having snails of different sizes and their waste like I said before produce more algae that what they consume.
These is my experience with them . I don't saying it could happen to you . my advise control those cocoon when you see it, look for them since they are kind of hidden.
I guess you probably won't have to worry if you have a rim less aquarium as you could spot them really easy.

Julian

not rimless, but no canopy

thanks for info. i only have 1 mystery snail in qtank. 1 died. i've been removing the pest snail gel egg sacs already

have about a million pest snails though!

[Jack L]

What type of Vallisneria? I'm not really sure. It's somewhere in the middle thickness. It grows like a weed and I don't have to worry about it, other than to thin it when it gets too dense. I've had it for about 5 years now from a few shoots I bought at that time.

i like it, looks thinner than my "red" jungle val.

[Pardal]

STU ,Sounds like you got it under control.


Julian

[DISCUS STU]

p.s.
this is a cool photo, and i don't think i have ever seen sand so clean!

Between about 7 Cory Sterbais and various Plecos they do a pretty good job of keeping the beach clean! The Cardinal Tetras also graze the sand. The Mystery Snails acted like roving vacuum cleaners.