feeding pond snails and discus

[crystalview]

With the 4 juvi discus I have, and several feedings I have a pond snail explosion. I have a lightly planted tank and a couple of hundred pond snails. What the discus waste the snails eat. What do you do about this problem?

[Graham]

Loose the snails...they'll over run you like loctus. They can also a host for other assorted pathogens and just add to the bio-mass of the tank

G

[crystalview]

I have had a prefilter on my intake. I am wondering if this has kept the eggs from entering the canister filter. I am moving the Discus to a bigger tank and wanted to use the already cycled filter.
I will be soaking the plants in alum and PP and boiling the wood and rocks.
I have a pad from my sisters goldfish tank to help with the cycle but it is coming from a 5g to a 45g. If this worked I would use a totally different canister filter.

[Dissident]

Get some of the smaller botia species to keep the snail population down. They will not bother the discus and they love eating small snails. larger ones just crush with your fingers. Snails will damage plant leaves, plants like anubias will get hit the hardest.

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/pictorial-species-search-index/botiine-slimmer-body-striped-vertical-striping

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/botia-striata
My favorite for planted discus tanks, I have kept them in up to 86F with no problems. Just be cautious if you OD excel in the tank. 2x recommended dosage has been fine for me, but I have lost some in the past doing the initial dose (1cap for every 10gal). The like being in small groups ~5+, they do not get big so even 5 in a 20gal is good, but if you have 4 discus i would guess you have at least a 55gal so you could get ~8, I keep 10in a 110gal and almost think I need a couple more.

[Apistomaster]

This is the first time I have seen caution advised when dosing Flourish Excel.
It is good advice because some fish like many that need high dissolved O2 levels are very sensitive to it's temporarily reducing the dissolved O2 levels.

I sold 18 Sturisoma aureum juveniles to someone who is very experienced with Plecos and their relatives. She added the recommended dose to her Royal Farlowella tank and they began dying within minutes. No other fish reacted adversely but Sturisoma come from small shallow fast moving streams rich in oxygen. Same is true for most loaches. They were for her own future breeding stock. She lost them all and she had them for three months before this incident. This is a Zebra pleco breeder who has bred over 15 species of plecos and retail fish shop owner. Those Sturisoma cost her $12 each wholesale.

[Dissident]

There are a lot of Excel horror stories out there. Fish without scales (catfish, loaches, Dwarf Puffers, etc) that absorb nutrients through the skin are particularly susceptible to OD Excel, as are shrimp.

I will never do the initial dose, nor recommend anyone ever do the initial 'recommended' dose of 5ml for every 10gal.

[Apistomaster]

I can see how someone used to true plecos would be able to safely use Excel but then adding it to such faster water, high octane royal farlowella could accidentally use it on the wrong fish.

There is one way to quickly wipe the snails out and not have to start over. Save the amount of water you would use in a normal water change. Put a small wad of filter floss in the intake of the siphon. This will give you snail free water Place the discus in a covered bucket.

Save all your filter media. Rinse of any visible snails.

Then clean the tank and all equipment with your favorite disinfectant, bleach/water or Potassium permanganate/water. Then rinse and neutralize if you use bleach, just rinse Pp off.

Set everything back up. The snail eggs will all be dead with the exception of any that made it to the filter media rinse off to get rid of invisible eggs or fresh hatched snails.

Some will always slip through but when they show up, kill them, you will have no more snail problem. This won't hurt your biological filter so your tank will be the same, minus snails
I did this to reset the balance of power between me and the snails in all of my tanks last Summer.
If you have sand and Malayan Trumpet Snails then the above will work if you start with new substrate. Otherwise, get used to those. They are a complicated animal to remove easily.

[crystalview]

I try to be careful with Excel. When I dose in the morning I make sure everybody has been fed. I don't have a lot of plants so I so have not done the set up dose at each water change. So far (a year) I have had no problem.

When I did a deep vac on the old tank I could not believe the amount of newly hatched pond snails. I used a hot shot with a micro filter. I have removed all but one plant and boiled the wood and bleached the rock. I put the other plants to soak for 3 or 4 days in Alum. I discus seem happy with the change. I did cover the sides of the tank so they can have more dark corners if they choose.