100s Of Them

[newfishaddict]

I have a serious snail problem in my 21g. I posted months ago about it and I got a few replies saying to use lettuce and a few other methods were mentioned….

Most of the members replying felt that snails were not too much of a concern….I disagree…

I was able to “control” their population by removing them via siphoning and by hand….

But I got to the point were I was siphoning off 25% of my water daily to control them…

I have left this tank(due to work/time constraints) for a few weeks now and …well…the problem is now a big problem…

I am now VERY concerned because my 55g has 1 or 2 visible sails about once a week…when I cleaned my canister filter there were many (30) in it…I am very concerned that my 55g will have the same problem that my 21g now has…

My 21g has at least 50 visible snails, and likely there are many many I cant see….

Please help…..

 

[Mr Miagi]

Do you know the species of snail? Adding a predator, like clown loaches or huhlis, may help reduce their numbers.

 

[newfishaddict]

Do you know the species of snail? Adding a predator, like clown loaches or huhlis, may help reduce their numbers.

I have no idea of the species but they have dark shells that are a little transparent, and they breed like rabbits.

I wish I could attach a pic

I have heard about loaches but I have small neons in the tank, is this a concern?

I will add that my fine substrate should be perfect for some khuli loaches (spelling?), those are the "eal" looking fish right?

I am so concerned that I am close to removing all the fish and starting the tank over...

I should add that a month ago I removed all plants and decorations and cleaned the entire tank of all visible snails, they came back....I also looked for eggs and removed them....

Only if I could sell snails Id be rich!

 

[Dragonscales]

I am guessing your infestation is pond snails. I have also had massive outbreaks reaching into the hundreds, if not thousands in the past. If you want a way to kill them without pulling down the whole tank and blasting with hot water (which includes substrate, ornaments, etc as there will be eggs all over) then try this.

Take all your fish out of the tank and place them in a spare tank. Buy some copper based fish medication and apply double the recommended dose into the tank. Wait about a week and the snails should be dead (may take less time, but I'm guessing about a week). Do a 100% water change and place the fish back into the tank. Keep an eye on the tank over the next few weeks and if you notice any snails that survived then just repeat the procedure.

Don't do this if you keep inverts or copper sensitive fish in the tank or if you have plans of using the tank for marine within the next year or two though. The copper kills the snails, but it can also kill other inverts and fish and there is some debate out there about copper residue leaching into silicone and then passing back into the tank after treatment has ended.

 

[newfishaddict]

I am guessing your infestation is pond snails. I have also had massive outbreaks reaching into the hundreds, if not thousands in the past. If you want a way to kill them without pulling down the whole tank and blasting with hot water (which includes substrate, ornaments, etc as there will be eggs all over) then try this.

Take all your fish out of the tank and place them in a spare tank. Buy some copper based fish medication and apply double the recommended dose into the tank. Wait about a week and the snails should be dead (may take less time, but I'm guessing about a week). Do a 100% water change and place the fish back into the tank. Keep an eye on the tank over the next few weeks and if you notice any snails that survived then just repeat the procedure.

Don't do this if you keep inverts or copper sensitive fish in the tank or if you have plans of using the tank for marine within the next year or two though. The copper kills the snails, but it can also kill other inverts and fish and there is some debate out there about copper residue leaching into silicone and then passing back into the tank after treatment has ended.

Yes, I decided to do this as you were writing this reply (I could see you browsing my post)

I will just be positive and take this oportunity to redo the plants in the tank....

oops just realized that my neons wont fare too well with the large angel fish in my other available tank...and my shark in my other,.....hmmmm problem or time for a 5th tank in 5 months!? hmmm

 

[newfishaddict]

I have a serious snail problem in my 21g. I posted months ago about it and I got a few replies saying to use lettuce and a few other methods were mentioned….

Most of the members replying felt that snails were not too much of a concern….I disagree…

I was able to “control” their population by removing them via siphoning and by hand….

But I got to the point were I was siphoning off 25% of my water daily to control them…

I have left this tank(due to work/time constraints) for a few weeks now and …well…the problem is now a big problem…

I am now VERY concerned because my 55g has 1 or 2 visible sails about once a week…when I cleaned my canister filter there were many (30) in it…I am very concerned that my 55g will have the same problem that my 21g now has…

My 21g has at least 50 visible snails, and likely there are many many I cant see….

Please help…..

I would like to say that my 55g is now my concern. I can deal with them in my 21g but if my 55g has the same problem I am "toast"; there is no way I have enough room for all the fish in my 55g to be transferred to another tank....should I use copper based snail meds in my 55g (no catfish just a rainbow shark...)

 

[tenxiong]

Funny because it happened to me also but all I did was go to my LFS and brought "Snail a Cide" which killed snails but was fish-friendly.

 

[Dragonscales]

As long as there are no copper sensitive fish in the tank you could use the method above but just use a half strength dose, it will take longer, but it's not really good to dose fish with meds for no reason imo so half strength is a good compromise to get rid of the snails.

The only other alternative really is to run a filter in the tank for a while to build up as much bacteria as you can then take everything out and blast the tank and substrate with hot water from the kettle. This will also nuke the bacteria in the tank though because you will need to do it to the substrate, etc as well to get all the eggs. Once this is done use the filter to clone the tank (if you can keep some fish in your other tank for a bit to reduce strain on the bacteria until it builds up in numbers more, this would be good). Even this mightn't be a viable option though because there is likely to be eggs laid on/in this filter in your case because both tanks are infested and you would have to be extremely vigilant to remove them all.

 

[newfishaddict]

Funny because it happened to me also but all I did was go to my LFS and brought "Snail a Cide" which killed snails but was fish-friendly.

I am pretty sure that is copper based and thus not good for fish, it wont kill them, but not good for them. It could have killed my corries....
and, how many snails did you have...? I see now that I have at least 200 perhaps way more...their dead bodies would be very bad for the tank....

Please, a more experienced member, is this true?

 

[Dragonscales]

just remove the dead bodies by hand or by syphoning them.

 

[newfishaddict]

just remove the dead bodies by hand or by syphoning them.

ok my plan:

I will remove any snails I see in my 55g(about 1 every couple days) and replace all the filter media, if snails return I will use cu based meds.

In my 21 I will use the cu based med now, and removed dead snails often.my corries are in a 10g breeding tank now.

any suggestions?

 

[Dragonscales]

Funny because it happened to me also but all I did was go to my LFS and brought "Snail a Cide" which killed snails but was fish-friendly.

Personally I don't think any chemical put into a tank is 100% fish friendly and should be used as moderately as possible. The snail killers I have seen have all been copper based which can kill other inverts and fish which are sensitive to copper. Besides which, over here at least, they are more expensive than a copper based medication. It wouldn't suprise me if snail killer adds stress to the fish in the same way as medicating a tank or removing fish while killing the snails then the eventual move back into a more bacteria barren tank does as well. At least by using meds you are putting a cure for whitespot, etc in the tank to combat any ill effects, something the other two methods don't do.

 

[newfishaddict]

Funny because it happened to me also but all I did was go to my LFS and brought "Snail a Cide" which killed snails but was fish-friendly.

Personally I don't think any chemical put into a tank is 100% fish friendly and should be used as moderately as possible. The snail killers I have seen have all been copper based which can kill other inverts and fish which are sensitive to copper. Besides which, over here at least, they are more expensive than a copper based medication. It wouldn't suprise me if snail killer adds stress to the fish in the same way as medicating a tank or removing fish while killing the snails then the eventual move back into a more bacteria barren tank does as well. At least by using meds you are putting a cure for whitespot, etc in the tank to combat any ill effects, something the other two methods don't do.

Thanks Dragonscales, that makes sense to me.

 

[Dragonscales]

I will remove any snails I see in my 55g(about 1 every couple days) and replace all the filter media, if snails return I will use cu based meds.

In my 21 I will use the cu based med now, and removed dead snails often.my corries are in a 10g breeding tank now.

The number of snails in the 55gal is only minimal atm? If that is the case then you can attempt to keep their numbers down and (hopefully) eraticate them entirely by removing them by hand. I would only use copper based things in extreme cases where the outbreak is not managable by hand removal. You probably won't get rid of all of them by doing this but it is better than tearing down the tank, etc. Just be sure not to get too lax in the removal of them as they breed like rabbits (as I'm sure you are aware of )

 

[newfishaddict]

I will remove any snails I see in my 55g(about 1 every couple days) and replace all the filter media, if snails return I will use cu based meds.

In my 21 I will use the cu based med now, and removed dead snails often.my corries are in a 10g breeding tank now.

The number of snails in the 55gal is only minimal atm? If that is the case then you can attempt to keep their numbers down and (hopefully) eraticate them entirely by removing them by hand. I would only use copper based things in extreme cases where the outbreak is not managable by hand removal. You probably won't get rid of all of them by doing this but it is better than tearing down the tank, etc. Just be sure not to get too lax in the removal of them as they breed like rabbits (as I'm sure you are aware of )

Yes the snails in the 55g are mininal, I only see one every 3-4 days...But last time I changed the filter there were 20-30 small ones in the filter....