Help

[gizzmo1979]

I bought some plants last month. They had some snails on them, but I thought I got rid of them. I was wrong now my tank is full of them. I don't want snails. Can anyone help to get RID of them. Any suggestions would help Thanks

 

[tony2501]

There are treatments you can but for snails, never used them myself as my clown loaches seem to eat them when I hadthat problem.

 

[furryrabbit]

what type of snails? are they small snails with pointy long shells? if so , you are lucky enough to have malaysian trumpet snails - which are entirely good for your tank , and substrate. or are they largish snails with common looking shells - if so - you could have a number of species , many of which could be a nuisance - and a pest , and best removed.

 

[xJake]

The only way to truly get rid of snails is to break down the entire tank and soak everything in a 5% bleach solution for 10-15 mins or longer (3-5 mins for live plants or else they'll die) and rinse everything thoroughly (plants immediately or else they'll die) before reassembling the tank and be sure to remove any shells as they'll mess with your water stats (hardness and pH notably). Snail eggs are rather resilient however, and if you aren't thorough you could end up back where you started. Also before adding any new ornaments or live plants treat them in the same way before adding them to the tank as snail eggs can stick to anything and everything.

You can control the population by buying 3+ similar sized clown loaches (keeping them in 2 or less or with smaller companions can be stressful for them); however, clown loaches require rather large tanks (also be sure to provide hiding spots as they are semi-nocturnal). Another solution for controlling the population is to put in a piece of bait each night for the snails (a piece of fruit or a rather sweet vegetable) and then removing in the morning (with several snails attached) has worked for me in the past (although sometimes the fish will eat it before the snails get to it). The most obvious way of course is to remove them as you see them although this is also the most frustrating and tedious way and I do not recommend it.

Good luck! Hopefully you can get those pests in check.

P.S. if they are MTS's the only thing you want to do is control the population as these are very beneficial snails and clean your substrate of excess food and don't eat plants.