best way to - kindly- get rid of bladder snails

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I had an issue, though not as severe as in previous years, I just got an army of Assassins....now when I put the lights on first thing I can count on one hand the number of peskies loitering on the glass and elsewhere

Only one issue with my army of Assassins.....they never clean up the empty shells after "doing the deed". That is my job at water changes.
 
Snails are a useful part of the tank ecosystem, but definitely super annoying when they take over and make everything ugly. I do find bladder snails kinda adorable, but my population died out somehow! The shrimp didn't, and didn't use copper, so wasn't meds or anything. But I have no qualms with baiting and crushing the teeny tiny species of ramshorns I deal with now. Hate them. My MTS also often have population bursts, and I need to use a little sifting thing to sift through the sand and lift out loads of MTS. Those get binned - I feel sorta bad about it, but their shells are too hard to easily crush.

When people talk about over-feeding, I don't think it's so much saying that the snails will die. It's more of a thing that if there's a load of extra nutrition in the tank from excess food, loads of organic decaying plant matter, substrate not cleaned much - that the snails grow faster and better, and are encouraged to breed more and sooner, leading to a rapid excess number of them that then also start breeding. I know that if I've slacked on cleaning or I've been feeding a lot more because of fry, that's when I've had excess numbers.
I'm happy to have some snails, they do help break down organics, even consuming dead fish sometimes which can help prevent an ammonia spike. When they expode in numbers, I take it as a sign that I'm slacking somewhere and need to do a thorough clean and ease up on the feeding.

I also use a net to swipe MTS off the glass once the tank light is off/first turned on, and otherwise, bait them with algae wafers or similar.
PLEASE, DON'T RELEASE ANYTHING FROM AN AQUARIUM INTO THE WILD/OUTDOOR WATERWAYS! This is how aquarium diseases wind up spread into the wild, non-native species end up damaging the natural ecosystems etc.

Also please don't but fish just to deal with snails. For the reasons outlined by @Naughts . Hate seeing people advise getting a yoyo, clown or similar botia loach for that purpose. Yes, they're great snail eaters (but bear in mind that once they're a bit bigger, they won't bother with tiny snails anymore) but they're also fish that get pretty large (clowns Get MASSIVE) and NEED to be in a social group of five at the absolute minimum. They're intelligent and social, and suffer when kept in ones or twos. Only get loaches if you want them for them and you're prepared to give them the kind of tank they will need for their lifetime.

I always highly recommend this brilliant article by our very own @AbbeysDad https://mjvaquatics.com/mulm-and-algae-and-snails-oh-my/
 
"Kindly get rid of them"... Hmmm... I don't think there is a way. Just murder them all. Snail purge.
 
thanks. i did move a lot to the guppy 20 gallon tank that is a lot of work and i would like to down size. i do over feed i guess. i stopped “saving” newly hatched guppies. i could put some in my native north american fish- they eat them. anyone want guppies. ughh😬

It's an odd contradiction to be squeamish about squishing snails, and yet happy to feed guppy fry to predator fish!

Having said that, I've experienced the nightmare of being over-run with guppies long after I'd tried to stop breeding them and the hassle of trying to find homes all the time, so I kinda get that. And no, I definitely don't want more guppies! I've only just managed to finally rehome the last batch of fry that appeared, and only have my five elderly male guppies left.
Pest snails survive without filtration or heat. You could have a bowl of water indoors, or a tub of water in the garden, to put the snails in.

I think this is the only "kind" way to get rid of excess snails. You could easily set up a small unfiltered, unheated bowl for the snails. Bait them and move them over.
 
It's an odd contradiction to be squeamish about squishing snails, and yet happy to feed guppy fry to predator fish!

Having said that, I've experienced the nightmare of being over-run with guppies long after I'd tried to stop breeding them and the hassle of trying to find homes all the time, so I kinda get that. And no, I definitely don't want more guppies! I've only just managed to finally rehome the last batch of fry that appeared, and only have my five elderly male guppies left.


I think this is the only "kind" way to get rid of excess snails. You could easily set up a small unfiltered, unheated bowl for the snails. Bait them and move them over.
i don’t feed guppy fry to predator fish. they are in an all guppy tank. i continue to provide Hikari First Bites fry food. i know the adult guppies could eat them, but the tank is well planted and there is space below an internal filter in horizontal form for hiding.
 
"get rid of" and "kindly" don't go together well. Murder is the only way, unfortunately. I don't suggest buying fish to eliminate them as that is stress for some poor fish, since you then have to get rid of it. And they always miss one.

Catch and crush (outside the tank), give them to a puffer keeper, feed them to a turtle (my approach) - there is no kind, smooth way to eliminate these pests.
circle of life…and death😕
 
i don’t feed guppy fry to predator fish. they are in an all guppy tank. i continue to provide Hikari First Bites fry food. i know the adult guppies could eat them, but the tank is well planted and there is space below an internal filter in horizontal form for hiding.

Fair enough! I used to raise my guppy fry with their parents too, so I'm sure the odd slow or weak ones were picked off by the adults. I was confused by this post;
thanks. i did move a lot to the guppy 20 gallon tank that is a lot of work and i would like to down size. i do over feed i guess. i stopped “saving” newly hatched guppies. i could put some in my native north american fish- they eat them. anyone want guppies. ughh😬

Since you were talking about guppies and having too many, then said about putting "some" in with your native North American fish to be eaten. I guess you meant some snails, but sounded like you meant the guppies! Happy to hear it's not the case. :)
 
Fair enough! I used to raise my guppy fry with their parents too, so I'm sure the odd slow or weak ones were picked off by the adults. I was confused by this post;


Since you were talking about guppies and having too many, then said about putting "some" in with your native North American fish to be eaten. I guess you meant some snails, but sounded like you meant the guppies! Happy to hear it's not the case. :)
sorry. i wasn’t clear. i was talking about putting snails in my north american native river fish tank. i used to put guppy fry in floating - save the babies containers- now i can’t keep doing that. that tank has too nany fish in it already. hopefully the babies make it on their own. 😊
 

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