Ahhh Snails!

[K_Hedin]

Hey all,

I am back again with a new problem. I got some fish off of craigslist. A few platys. The guy that was giving them away had snails in his tank and that worried me. So I carefully extracted the fish with a net and didn't transfer any of the water into my 55G tank. It has now been about 2 weeks and I can see snails growing in my tank. I don't want to go the Loach route to get rid of them as then I would have to find a way to get rid of some of the other inhabitants. I put some lettuce in a jar last night to try and catch them but none of them went in there. So I am thinking that I am going to have to dismantle the tank and boil everything and treat my live plants in a separate bucket for the eggs. I hope this isn't what I have to do as I don't really have a place to keep all of the fish that are hanging out in the 55G tank. This would also mean that only the filter would have good bacteria left in it when I was done if I could even reuse that. So really where am I at and what is the best way to get rid of these things? I know they don't harm my tank but I just find them unattractive.

Thanks.

 

[Ben M]

If you put carrot in over night, in the morning it should be covered in snails. I've not tried that though, so I can't comment. I personally remove them manually when I see them. I've found that if I remove them every time I see them I can keep the population under control. However, I have introduced some kuhlis (not because of the snails, but because I like them), and they are eating the baby snails (I have Malaysian trumpet snails), so I pick off the adults when I see them.

BTW, boiling doesn't work, I've tried in the past, but when I refill the tank they all crawl back out.

I wouldn't do anything drastic yet. Try veggies and manual removal first, and only use chemicals as a last resort, as if you use chemicals you won't be able to keep any inverts in the future. If the fish would be ok in another tank for a while you could use ammonia, which will kill the snails and can be easily removed afterwards (unlike products containing copper).

cheers

 

[K_Hedin]

Thanks for the ideas. I will try and remove them manually when I get a chance. It is pretty tough right now as they are smaller than the pieces of gravel that are in my tank. So by the time I try and grab on to it and move some gravel around it gets lost in the shuffle.

On a side note how did I get the snails in the first place. Can snail eggs be kept on a fish?

 

[Curiosity101]

Are they MTS or normal pest snails? If they're normal pest snails then the lettuce leaf trick should work if you persevere. If they're MTS then it's unlikely you will ever get rid of them without using a snail killer solution...

However you can try to manually remove them. To get them to come out of the substrate just leave the lights off for 24 hours. Mine all tend to come out after 24hours of lights out (such as when I go away for the weekend)... and as soon as the lights go on they've all normally disappeared under the substrate after an hour or so.

 

[Caprichoso]

There were probably some eggs floating in the water. It's very difficult to get rid of them without (like you said) taking apart the whole tank and starting over. I wouldn't want to do that if it were me.
You could always try some assassin snails. They only eat other snails. You would need quite a few of them though (like 10 or 15). I have some assassin snails and I've noticed the population of snails slowly declining.
I've also heard that mini freshwater puffers eat snails quite voraciously! The only problem with the puffers is that once the snails are gone, you have to get rid of them, plus they can be a bit nippy to some community fish.
Even if you get rid of the snails this time, you will always run into the issue of getting them by accident again (new fish, new plants, etc.)

 

[K_Hedin]

I am usually very careful about where I get everything. So now I have learned a lesson not to get free fish. I am thinking that I will have to deal with them for now and find a way to get another 55G tank and switch everything over slowly but surely once it is cycled. If the eggs can just be in the water though this kind of worries me as when I take the fish out then I could just end up with more snails. If I use the copper-sulfate route will that harm my plants or community fish in any way. Also as previously stated by pest control, if I did use the copper sulfate, then I wouldn't ever be able to have invertebrates. How can this be after many water changes?

 

[K_Hedin]

Here is a picture of the snails. I don't know which type they are.

 

[Curiosity101]

Ermm... can't quite tell from the picture but I reckon they might be ramshorn snails...

Just do a bit of googling for:
Pond snail
Ramshorn Snail
Malaysian trumpet snail

They're likely to be one of those...

 

[Caprichoso]

I am usually very careful about where I get everything. So now I have learned a lesson not to get free fish. I am thinking that I will have to deal with them for now and find a way to get another 55G tank and switch everything over slowly but surely once it is cycled. If the eggs can just be in the water though this kind of worries me as when I take the fish out then I could just end up with more snails. If I use the copper-sulfate route will that harm my plants or community fish in any way. Also as previously stated by pest control, if I did use the copper sulfate, then I wouldn't ever be able to have invertebrates. How can this be after many water changes?

Apparently, the aquarium silicone absorbs the medications and allows them to leech back into the water! I re-siliconed the tank that I bought (it was used),because the silicone was blue from meds and I didn't want to chance it.

 

[Ben M]

the copper is absorbed by the plants/wood/substrate etc, and can leech out again. Ammonia is better if you could temporarily remove the fish, because it can be easily removed. the snails you have are ramshorn snails.

cheers

 

[K_Hedin]

Would a Dwarf Puffer or "arinotetraodon travancoricus" work in my tank to help me take care of this problem. I have read that they are fin nippers. So this makes me think that adding one or two of them to my community tank of 8 Platys, 5 Sailfin Mollys, 6 Cory Cats, 1 Columbian Shark, 5 Black Skirt Tetras, and 1 Guppy would probably be a bad idea. Any suggestions on something that will eat snails besides puffers or loaches or anything that will get along well with my tank mates and eat the snails?

 

[Curiosity101]

The only thing I would suggest adding livestock wise is an assassin snail or two like Caprichoso suggested.

However manual removal should do the trick if you persevere.

 

[Aqua Tom]

The only thing I would suggest adding livestock wise is an assassin snail or two like Caprichoso suggested.

However manual removal should do the trick if you persevere.

+1 for assassin snails. They look nice, do not breed fast & if they do, they have a monetary value & you can selll them on.

I have seven Assassin Snails in my 180 litre tank & rarely see pest snails for more than 1 day. Although i have yet to see an assassin doing his job, i am just presuming that they do.

 

[Schrammykins]

Get a puffer! That's a buffet for them!

Nah. I've done the carrot/cucumber idea a few times. Usually works.

 

[kiriyama]

If you do decide to go the Assassin Snail route PM me , I still have a few left and have been selling them in the classifieds section, cheer, Sean