How To Kill Pest Snails But Not Harm Shrimps?

[freyathemermaid]

hi

i have a rekord 60, and am fed up of squashing snails daily

what chemical can i use to rid them but not harm my cherry shrimps?

FTM

 

[deucebrennan]

hi

i have a rekord 60, and am fed up of squashing snails daily

what chemical can i use to rid them but not harm my cherry shrimps?

FTM

Ask your LFS if you can borrow a clown loach or two.

 

[Esfa]

Ask your LFS if you can borrow a clown loach or two.

the clown loaches would munch the shrimp.

I'd never use chemicals to get rid of snails... one reason is that all the snails die and then you have a huge ammonia spike.

Also, I try not to put any chemicals in my tank if i can help it.

I'd put some cucumber and lettuce in there in the evening, then in the morning it will be teeming with snails. take it out and after a few weeks your tank should be snail-less

 

[davefish]

Get some of these: http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/247540/Wow/

 

[Esfa]

Get some of these: [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/247540/Wow/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/247540/Wow/[/URL]

they only eat one snail a day, so they arnt good for population control.

 

[tenohfive]

Get a fork and whenever you see them on the side, crush their shells. Free live food for your fish, they love it.

 

[davefish]

Get some of these: <a href="http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/247540/Wow/" target="_blank">http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/247540/Wow/</a>

they only eat one snail a day, so they arnt good for population control.

Assuming you're correct about the one a day thing, then several assassin snails will eat several snails a day. Makes it easy to know how many assassins you need. I would think it could work quite well!

 

[Esfa]

Get some of these: <a href="http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/247540/Wow/" target="_blank">http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/247540/Wow/</a>

they only eat one snail a day, so they arnt good for population control.

Assuming you're correct about the one a day thing, then several assassin snails will eat several snails a day. Makes it easy to know how many assassins you need. I would think it could work quite well!

yeah, but pest snails have more then several babies a day!

 

[Corleone]

Start with tenohfive's suggestion. Anything that would eat snails would probably have a go at the shrimp, too. Assassin snails are cool, but they eat much slower than pest snails breed, it would take a large number of them to combat the problem. At the price per snail, it's not feasible to use them.

Snails, especially pests, breed on overfeeding. If they're reproducing out of control, there's enough excess food to fuel the population.

Put leaves of lettuce in the tank overnight. If you don't have a lettuce clip, just weigh them to the bottom with a rock. In the morning, it'll be covered in snails, and you can pull the leaf out and throw the snails out with it. You might never be rid of them, but they can be controlled - I have at least three species of snail in my tank breeding (aside from the two I wanted which aren't breeding), and usually only see two or three crawling around. I find them a good alarm bell for overfeeding.

 

[Esfa]

I'd put some cucumber and lettuce in there in the evening, then in the morning it will be teeming with snails. take it out and after a few weeks your tank should be snail-less

Put leaves of lettuce in the tank overnight. If you don't have a lettuce clip, just weigh them to the bottom with a rock. In the morning, it'll be covered in snails, and you can pull the leaf out and throw the snails out with it.

parrot.

 

[davefish]

yeah, but pest snails have more then several babies a day!

I think if every snail is producing several babies a day then you must be overfeeding massively. My snail population stays steady now I've got the feeding right in my tank, and that's with no predators at all. The only population boom I had was when I went away and left in a feeding block. Obviously the snails loved this easy food supply.
If you are overpopulated initially then a big cull might be in order first I suppose, not every day though. If food is scarce and they are predated then the population is bound to be controlled.

Or perhaps my snails are just impotent!

Whatever the truth, I still think it's an option as part of the population control. The most important thing is not having excess food though.

I wouldn't use chemicals anyway.

 

[tenohfive]

People tend to ignore my suggestion, but it works nicely for me. Whenever the snails are stupid enough to come near the front or side glass, out comes the fork and my Rams get a treat. I let the population stay steady, if for some reason I do get a population boom I pop in something green to attract them and take them out.

As for Assassin Snails, I can't see any reason why they wouldn't work. Like Dave says, if you've got massive numbers of snails add some Assassins and stop overfeeding (more importantly) theres no reason why it wouldn't settle down. If I didn't like my fork method so much I'd give it a punt-in fact I'm pretty sure a place I've just started shopping at sells them, so I might pick a couple up next time I'm down there.

Assassins won't feet on the shrimps, they eat algae and debris if they can't find snails.

 

[davefish]

People tend to ignore my suggestion, but it works nicely for me. Whenever the snails are stupid enough to come near the front or side glass, out comes the fork and my Rams get a treat. I let the population stay steady, if for some reason I do get a population boom I pop in something green to attract them and take them out.

As for Assassin Snails, I can't see any reason why they wouldn't work. Like Dave says, if you've got massive numbers of snails add some Assassins and stop overfeeding (more importantly) theres no reason why it wouldn't settle down. If I didn't like my fork method so much I'd give it a punt-in fact I'm pretty sure a place I've just started shopping at sells them, so I might pick a couple up next time I'm down there.

Assassins won't feet on the shrimps, they eat algae and debris if they can't find snails.

Forking them is always a good easy option, especially for that initial cull if you are overrun. I guess some people might get fed up of doing it every day though.
I can't find any assassins locally, and the postage on them is prohibitively expensive just for a snail. Let me know how yours go if you get some. Especially if they do obey this 1-a-day rule (it would depend on the size of the eater and eaten surely).

Oh and if your assassins ever start breeding out of control then you know where they can find a good home!

 

[tenohfive]

Lol. They don't breed anywhere near the rate of other snails, one of the plus points of them.

And the fork isn't a daily method, its more opportunist - if I see one on the front, I deal with it.

 

[ikongoni]

People tend to ignore my suggestion, but it works nicely for me. Whenever the snails are stupid enough to come near the front or side glass, out comes the fork and my Rams get a treat.

Thats exactly what I do.
There was a time when I used to be obsessive about ridding the tank of snails, but now I realise that they do have a beneficial role to play.

When I get too many, I squash some and my fish go mad for them..