I think I hate snails

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Aussie_Bristle

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Hi all
hope all is well?!

Well exactly what it says in the title... I am over snails and I think I hate them!! I want to get rid of my haters snails that are in my tank but not sure how.. maybe I’ll keep 2 and that’s it! And MTS well these guys are a different story, I have been culling these guys for a week now and I reckon I have got out around 500 MTS no joke and I still have more then I would like. They are like an iris army and just keep coming :rolleyes:
 
I don’t want to bring anymore into my tank. I have had a few die off as they were older when I got them but I’m just really over them. I can pull about 15 clutches off my hood and top of water level in a week. They don’t really clean tbh just eat breed and be annoying!
 
I don't have any snails that produce young, only Nerites (zebra and tiger). I have one lone Malaysian Trumpet Snail (I think) that I have no idea how it got in my tank. I hadn't put any new fish or plants in for over 3 months. I love my Nerites, they clean all the diatomatic algae off of my glass and have neat little pellet poos that are easy to gravel vac up. Nerites only reproduce in very selective environments that are impossible for people to accidentally set up. Brackish, egg, pure marine, hatch, unshelled stage (which I forget the name of), feed a rare microorganism, back to brackish, acclimate to freshwater.
 
I wish I could tell if the snails do something beneficial. At one time I easily had 1,000 snails in one tank. When we would do a weekly water change we would spend easily an hour removing all we could find, only to face the same problem the following week. Anyway - my favorite fish is a yellow Dojo just because they are just hysterical to watch when they are "in the mood" - probably when we're about ready to have a storm because supposedly they are great storm predictors and get all active when a storm is comming. Then I found out they LOVE to eat snails - so I put 2-4 Dojos per tank (they are hard to find in stock) but they started eating all the snails. They also are great scavengers and will eat most of the excess food - if you'f
 
Hi all
hope all is well?!

Well exactly what it says in the title... I am over snails and I think I hate them!! I want to get rid of my haters snails that are in my tank but not sure how.. maybe I’ll keep 2 and that’s it! And MTS well these guys are a different story, I have been culling these guys for a week now and I reckon I have got out around 500 MTS no joke and I still have more then I would like. They are like an iris army and just keep coming :rolleyes:
If you have sand MTS are beneficial. I can really see the difference in my tank that does not have them.
When there are a lot go in an hour after lights out. Put a little bowl on the substrate and pick any you see off the sides and drop into the bowl. This is a lot less messy than trying to remove them one by one. When there are less and you want to do a routine clearout feed algae wafers (or whatever) to your fish in a saucer an hour before lights out. It's ok to put in a bit extra because you don't want the fish to finish it :). Than go back an hour after lights out and remove the saucer.
 
If you have sand MTS are beneficial. I can really see the difference in my tank that does not have them.
When there are a lot go in an hour after lights out. Put a little bowl on the substrate and pick any you see off the sides and drop into the bowl. This is a lot less messy than trying to remove them one by one. When there are less and you want to do a routine clearout feed algae wafers (or whatever) to your fish in a saucer an hour before lights out. It's ok to put in a bit extra because you don't want the fish to finish it :). Than go back an hour after lights out and remove the saucer.

I also notice the difference in the substrate as it is sand but they just seems to be hundreds of them lately. I would like to keep quite a few for their beneficial ways but not that many. In saying that, I was just at my tank with my phone torch checking something and found heaps on my java moss throughout the tank. I might do a light out run and just get them down to a reasonable amount. Thank you As for the MS I’m not sure what to do with them, maybe just let them live there life out and eliminate them that way I’m not sure.
 
I wish I could tell if the snails do something beneficial. At one time I easily had 1,000 snails in one tank. When we would do a weekly water change we would spend easily an hour removing all we could find, only to face the same problem the following week. Anyway - my favorite fish is a yellow Dojo just because they are just hysterical to watch when they are "in the mood" - probably when we're about ready to have a storm because supposedly they are great storm predictors and get all active when a storm is comming. Then I found out they LOVE to eat snails - so I put 2-4 Dojos per tank (they are hard to find in stock) but they started eating all the snails. They also are great scavengers and will eat most of the excess food - if you'f

they are super cute the loaches but I would need a few to company each other and don’t think I can accommodate that many due to the cories and plec’s I have now
 
I also notice the difference in the substrate as it is sand but they just seems to be hundreds of them lately. I would like to keep quite a few for their beneficial ways but not that many.
They seem to go though cycles of intensive breeding activity - usually when the tank is warm. Just before the height of summer I simply cleared out all I could see for a week knowing that there would be hundreds of babies soon.
 
They seem to go though cycles of intensive breeding activity - usually when the tank is warm. Just before the height of summer I simply cleared out all I could see for a week knowing that there would be hundreds of babies soon.

We are just coming to the end of winter so the days are getting warmer etc this might be the problem then. Thank you for that I will remember that as it warms up
 
I love my nerite snail, it’s great. The millions of little pest snails in my tanks however, I hate them so much. The babies are like little white dots all over my glass every day and it drives me mad.
 
I’m just going to throw out my opinion here...

I think there is nothing wrong with MTS snails. They help prevent dangerous pockets of air from forming under the surface of the substrate. They also keep the tank clean. I bet u have at least 200 MTS snails in my 29g tank, but I only see 4-6 a day; not that bad.

Snails like pond snails are very good for tanks IMO, because they stay relatively small and produce very little waste.

If you would like to get a snail that doesn’t reproduce in freshwater, I would get some Nerite snails. The females will still lay eggs (and they can get annoying) but they never hatch. (As some have already said...)


I also notice the difference in the substrate as it is sand but they just seems to be hundreds of them lately. I would like to keep quite a few for their beneficial ways but not that many. In saying that, I was just at my tank with my phone torch checking something and found heaps on my java moss throughout the tank. I might do a light out run and just get them down to a reasonable amount. Thank you As for the MS I’m not sure what to do with them, maybe just let them live there life out and eliminate them that way I’m not sure.
And many people do that, as do I. I take them out when I see to many, because I know they will repopulate very fast. I would personally keep around 5 for every 10 US gallons. :)
 
For whatever reason i cant keep MTS alive in my current tank. Ive had MTS in the past as they are beneficial for plants as they aerate the substrate much like a worm does with soil but 3 separate times ive plopped a few in and had them die within days.
Currently i have one olive nerite, i find they do better and stay smaller than the tigers and zebras. And i have a bunch of Ramshorn snails. Mostly brown a few red foot. Theyre easy too manage, i watch my feeding and theyre kept in check and they along with the nerite keep my glass and plant leaves clean and my kids love watching them!
Ive had the MTS explosion in the past so i feel your frustration, i like MTS but not in marching angry hoards.
 
I've had bladder snails in my tank before, didn't mind them too much, they're kinda cute and entertaining as they zip along the glass, they're fast for a snail! Easy enough to keep their population in check, although when they do have a load of babies, it's annoying as they're the perfect size to get wedged in the tiny hole in my syphon.

But the ones in my dad's 55 gallon drive me nuts. I assume they're ramshorns, they're that shape, but these ones are super, super tiny. Have never seen an adult sized ramshorn in there, yet these tiny ones are being produced in the hundreds somehow. How is that even possible? Three assassin snails and two botia in there, and not a dent in the snail population. Only time I see the assassins, they're mating, never eating another snail, lol. They must be eating some of them though since they've been in the tank for months. The snails are too small for the adult botia to bother with.

I've tried baiting them with things like courgette, but the livebearers eat those, and I only end up removing 5-6 snails at a time. Crushing the ones that are on the glass (sorry little dudes) before a water change, and sucking as many out with the gravel vac as I can helps, but despite being small, they're relatively heavy somehow, so it doesn't remove as many I'd like.

Is there a different species of pest snail I don't know about? Like I said, look like ramshorns, with the round spiral shell, but absolutely tiny, and somehow reproducing without there being a large adult sized snail in there.
 

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