What to do with snails in discus tank ?

[Discus3anatic]

My nitrates in my discus tank are getting out of control and all my plants are being eatin too.. I need to get these snails out of my tank. I started with just like 3-4 yellow mystery snails and now i have like 300 of them.. I tried to sell them on craigslist for like 50 cents each.. or like 10$ for 5, then i tried to give them away and no one is interested or replying to my ads.

The petco or petsmarts wont take them. I know they are a big reason why my tank has higher nitrates. And every morning i wake up my tiger lotus has its leaves eatin.. and my watersprite doesnt even grow anymore as its like a vine with no leafy parts..


I deff am not the type to release them in the wild lol, but also feel really cruel if i just kill them.. I dunno what to do.. Im thinking of giving my tank a big cleaning here, pulling the plants out and vacuuming ALL the gravel really good and starting over but still.. the snail problem needs to be taken of first..

Also can driftwood cause nitrates ? The wood i have ive been using for awhile but i found it at my reservoir its a nice large stump with good roots for hiding spots.. It floats still even after being in the tank for a year so i have to weigh it down.. But when i take it out and squeeze it deff isnt rotting, it feels hard not mushy

[rickztahone]

DW will not cause nitrates, but the snail population sure will. Your only option is to either give them away to people which you say you haven't been successful at, or euthanize

[Goldenmelondiscus]

Loaches like snails. I know loaches are more active than Discus like, maybe someone with more experience can walk you through having loaches in with your discus.

[Discus3anatic]

Ihave active fish in my tank and my discus arent bothered by them.. Like the Siamese algae eaters which are 6 inches long... they dart through the tank like bullets and my discus couldnt care.. Maybe ill get some loaches. For now i just scooped 70% of them out of the tank and ima put them in my 55g tank.. I have already tried splitting my snails throughout my 9 tanks but that didnt work lol they just bred over n over in my discus tank and now i have more.. Sigh.

I also have those damn mini sized malaysian trumpets.. the ones the size of a pencil tip.. courtesy of a plant from petco i got awhile back..

Wish there was a way i could eliminate them

[MattArmstrong]

I can't help you much. I can commiserate.

I might have horrible ethics, but I just toss my unwanted aquatic snails on the garden, or down the garbage disposal, or squash them on sight right in the tank if they are small. I "harvest" with every water change.

I have a 10 gallon tank that has been idle, with water but unfed, unfiltered, untouched, for six months. The snail population is growing (slowly).

I once had a single one inch Malaysian Trumpet snail. I know there was one because the tank was bare bottom with no decor. I thought "cool, it can't reproduce so I'll let it be." It was alone for a month or two, and grew a bit. Then I read they sometimes self fertilize. I now have a lot of trumpet snails.

There is a guy active in the local aquarium club that is strict on plant and fish quarantine, and has no snails. All plants spend many weeks in water treated with "Alum" which acts as a salt that kills the snails. Or he first grows them emersed (out of water). He can sell his plants as "snail free."

I think snails can be eradicated manually, with diligence, in bare or sparsely decorated tanks. I've eradicated pond snails this way because I think they're really ugly. The other types of snails have never bothered me enough to motivate me.

[Kyla]

i have been steadily chipping away at my snail population by harvesting them during wc and i dont have a lot left. in the beginning i used to pull dozens and dozens at a time and give them away free on kijiji. but after i saturated the market i couldnt give them away. i tried googling a humane method for euthanizing them, but i couldnt find anything.

i feel horrible about it but i opted to use boiling water. it was either that or crush them individually. not sure which would be less painful... i know boiling works very fast, and kills them almost instantly from what i can see (as there is no movement at all after the initial kill shock).

i am def open to other ideas if there is a better option....

[Discus3anatic]

Like little snails i dont mind killing by crushing.. But the big yellow mystery snails.. All my snails are super healthy, great looking shells but they are just too many.. They are big too like 2 inches in diameter so i couldnt crush them id feel horrible

[bluelagoon]

Like little snails i dont mind killing by crushing.. But the big yellow mystery snails.. All my snails are super healthy, great looking shells but they are just too many.. They are big too like 2 inches in diameter so i couldnt crush them id feel horrible

Sounds like you have decided to keep your snails.If not this stuff will get rid of your infestation.http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Cupramine.html.your cycle may over loadfrom all the dead snails,so watch your spikes.

[rickztahone]

Pull them out if they are large and use clove oil. If it works on discus it should work on snails?

[warblad79]

escargot of course, why waste? just breed snails instead of Discus. They are pain in the a$$, too much water change, water/electric bill spike and poop a lot.

[DISCUS STU]

I gave my extras away to a lfs, lps store. Didn't bother with Petco.

[ericNH]

I have already tried splitting my snails throughout my 9 tanks but that didnt work lol they just bred over n over in my discus tank and now i have more.. Sigh.

Oh my. That's a harbinger if I ever heard one.

[Jack L]

1. yours are bigger...can you eat them?
2. can you grind them up into beefheart mix?
3. i have assassin snails in my q tank to work on my infestation. but i'm not sure they will work on your larger snails

i have an infestation of various small ones
in the meant time....i kill them left and right, but one got me back, its shell went into my thumb pretty pretty pretty good.

[Discus3anatic]

here is a pic of what they look like in my 55 when i tossed a big chunk of them in there to get them outa of my discus tank. This is just one side of the 55g lol there are ALOT more

So couprimine or however you spell it kills snails ? Will it kill those tiny pencil tipped malaysian trumpets im having issues with in my 27g hex and discus tank ? I have like million of those i hate them more then my Mystery snails. What fish do i need to remove if i use it ? It wont harm my discus right ? I do have two assasin snails in the tank, and i havent seen them inawhile but i have seen 7 or 8 snail shells always in the same spot of the tank so i have wondered if the assasins have been eating them

My fish i have in the tank are

Discus, neons, red barbs, a betta, red tailed shark, siamese algae eaters, cory cats, and otocinclous.. Will it hurt my plants ?

93564

[Tshethar]

I used Cupramine successfully when once overwhelmed by snails in a cichlid tank. Did not cause problems for fish or plants, but would for other inverts like shrimp, for example. Wrote something about it recently here:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?122574-typical-snail-infestation-or-particularly-bad

[DISCUS STU]

I've also used chelated copper sulfate (Copper Safe), similar to Cuprmine but the chelation may make it a little safer. All of this should be removed with water changes. I don't think activated carbon will adsorb it.

[Goldenmelondiscus]

[QUOTE=Discus3anatic;1194262 What fish do i need to remove if i use it ? [/QUOTE]

Clown Loaches. They are pretty, have a great personality and will eat the snails. They are one of my favorite types of fish to keep.

Escargot the snail live in cream or something. The very idea of it makes my stomach turn.