Help I Have A Plague!

[freerunner416]

Howdy,

I am currently over run with the little blighters. I had seen a few in my tank and thought that it wasnt that bad but on emptying and cleaning my external filter i have realised that there is a LOT more than i thought!!!! They have been chomping on my plants aswell.

I have heard that worming stuff (i have discus) can get rid of them but this has had no affect when i tried it. I crush or remove as many as i can find during water changes and such like but still ament getting rid of them. I have two yoyo loaches and although they may eat some of them there is too many for them to make a serious dent.

What else can i try that wont affect my fish?

Cheers

Craig

 

[kewskills]

you lucky bugger, i remember once i had a problem with snails and i got rid of them all, now i have 4 puffers I dream of snails for them to eat and have none

I used flubenol15, safe for fish, no good for inverts

 

[Inchworm]

Hi freerunner416

If you have more snails than you know what to do with, it will eventually get to the point where you have to take the tank apart, clean it out, and set it up again. If it's not that far progressed, there are several things that might help. The one thing you do not want to do is poison them because then you will have all those dead snail bodies rotting in the water. This is a good way to feed harmful bacteria and which can make your fish sick.

Snails tend to increase their population until they reach the point where there's no extra food available for them. If they are multiplying wildly, there's a good chance you are overfeeding your fish and the extra food is being eaten by the snails. The first thing to do is to cut back a bit and watch carefully to be sure it's all eaten by the fish.

You can also try sinking lettuce leaves or other vegetables in the evening and removing it in the morning. You should find that the hungry snails gather on it overnight.

Also, look over your tank daily and remove any eggs you might find. You won't get rid of the snails very quickly, but it's worth a try.

Perhaps some of the other members can tell you some other tricks for reducing their numbers.

 

[Mr Community]

What I do when I occasionally notice snails getting out of hand is I tie a piece of fishing line to an empty bottle of water and place some sinking catfish food in and let it fill with water and sink to the bottom. I leave it in overnight and when I get up in the morning the food is covered in snails so I just pull the bottle out by the fishing line and throw it away. Cut the line long enough so that it sticks out of the tank so you dont have to get wet.

 

[freerunner416]

Thats some good ideas, thanks guys.

I think the main population is actually in my filter!

Think i will try the lettuce and cut back on feeding this now as i dont want any rotting to happen.

Kewskills,

If you would like matey i could bag some up and send them off to you if you would like. PM me your answer.

I will let you know how the lettuce thing goe but think it may result in some flubenol being used.

Another question

How do i tell if they have laid eggs?

 

[freerunner416]

Tried the lettuce last night and managed to take 5 snails out of the tank. I will try a couple of pieces of lettuce tonight in different locations to see if that works better.

c