Help - Snails!

[Sky]

I have a sudden explosion of snails in my tank - mainly all over my pieces of wood. Should I just keep removing and cleaning off the snails from the pieces of wood or is there any other solution? I noticed in LFS that there is something you can buy to get rid of snails in your tank - is it safe to use solutions like this and would you recommend it?

 

[Catbeanie]

I had this problem a few years back - a snail explosion!! The aquarium shop did not recommend using the "snail killer" as it would kill my bettas and tetras.

So what I did was a drastic spring clean.. including boiling all the stones at the bottom of the tank.. it was a massive job but worked!!

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Sky

Never use any product to kill snails! It will only result in a tank full of dead snails, and you will immediately have to take it apart to clean them out. In the process, your fish could be injured too.

Snails will only reproduce to the extent that they have enough food to eat. A snail explosion is usually a sign that you are either overfeeding your fish or that there is a lot of rotting plant material in there. Either one of these reasons are enough to lead to illness, so consider the snails as a warning that something else is wrong.

Once you remove the snails, either by taking the tank apart and cleaning them all out, or by eliminating them a little at a time, take care to avoid whatever it is that caused them to overpopulate it in the first place.

 

[SkiFletch]

you can also try the lettuce trick. put in a big leaf of iceberg lettuce into the tank before you go to sleep. in the morning the snails will all be on it and you can toss the lettuce out in the trash