Annoying Small Snails!

[Rob5]

After the lights came on in my 125litre tank and whilst my usual daily inspection in the tank.....i found about 6 very small, grey in colour snails sitting on my bogwood!!!!!

After trying to crush them with my glass scraper, and failing, as they are so small and light, they just floated off to the bottom of the tank.

Has anyone got any good ideas of eliminating them from my tank as i hate them?

 

[Akasha72]

Most members will say your overfeeding if you have a lot of snails. Personally I think everyone will have the odd snail in their tank. They come in on the plants and despite washing the plants you'll never eradicate them all. I squish them with my finger when I see them and let the fish eat what's left.

There is an assasin snail though that you can buy that feeds on pest snails. I guess it just depends on your individual circumstances which method you chose.

Please don't be tempted by a clown loach though unless your tank is HUGE and can house a shoal of them

Good luck

 

[This Old Spouse]

If you don't hate ALL snails, you could get assassin snails. Also, cut down on the amount of food you're feeding which will help.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

A few snails aren't an issue. But, overfeeding will cause them to breed unmercifully and ridiculously fast. The easiest method for removal is to lower a lettuce leaf into the tank at night. Remove the leaf in the morning with all the snails attached. Repeat until no more snails are found. Another option is to crush them manually. If they are small its not much different than crushing a small seed. Larger ones can get messier. Your fish will appreciate the fresh meal though.


I've had pest snails for quite some time now, and I used to just suck them up as I saw them during a water change. The numbers never got crazy, but they were always present. But, since I've recently added a dwarf gourami and BN pleco, I've noticed a dramatic drop in their numbers. I wonder if one or both are eating the eggs? I'm not suggesting you add a fish to your tank for the purpose of removing the snails (you can do that yourself, fairly easily). I was just pointing out an observation I've had recently about my own snail population. (My money is on the BN pleco being responsible, as I've seen it written somewhere that they will eat small invertibrates... sounds like snail eggs or baby snails to me... The other option is that he is beating them to the algae, and therefore they have a smaller food supply, which is also very possible.)

 

[Primous]

I've had some recent experience with this and from what I gather perhaps the same species of snail. Like previously mentioned be careful not to overfeed. A good trick is to turn of the filter(s) when feeding so the food isn't dispersed over the tank. wet the food and drop it in the same spot and wait until the fish have eaten everything before you turn the filters and pumps back on. A rule that I follow which may help is that if there is still food on the substrate for 2mins then you have over fed.

Secondly these things also eat algae. Mine fed exclusively off build up off the glass so wipe your the glass down at least twice a week.

Thirdly if your snails were the same type I had...

Then don't bother buying an assassin snail because they will be of no use as these critters are too small to be preyed upon.

 

[purp751]

we got an assassin snail, best £4 ever spent, mind it's getting big, at least doubled in size since got it!

 

[This Old Spouse]

I just found 4 baby assassins today ... they seem to be taking care of the smaller snails! Yay!

 

[Rob5]

thanks for that guys...i will cut down on the food and will definately try the lettuce in the tank!!!