Just Sick

[bugsy66]

In my current Discus tank I have a very very bad over abundance of snails. It just makes me sick to look at this tank everyday. I have done everything from cutting back on food in order to starve them, picking them out by hand (grosses me out but I do it) making traps but they just keep on coming. In the past i have used snail away, had a snail and killed many fish. I have even gone as far as taking down the whole tank (years ago) boiling bleaching gravel and dam they still live somewhere. I did have one clown loach a while ago that kept them really well at bay and am thinking on doing this again.

Would like to know though, is the clown loach the only one that will eat snails??

I do not plan on keeping this loach just getting things under control to the point they will not come back. Ya right.

I am so ready to tear down this current tank and do some major cleaning to get rid of them, they are just sickening to look at as they are all over the glass gravel etc.

What the heck are they living off of LOVE???

Any suggestions greatly appreciated before I tear down this tank, toss out the grave, buy new gravel and boil the driftwood and scrub the one plant.

 

[Mr Bliss]

Smaller loaches will eat snails too. And Kribensis is a very effective snail-eater, but I must admit I have no idea about the compatibility of discus and kribs.

Or you could buy a few Assassin snails. They eat the pest snails, but shouldn't reproduce themselves.

 

[Spishkey]

some small breed of crayfish? when i introduced two into my fry tank (really over run with snails) they were gone in a week

my angels also eat snails

as do my emperor and head/tail light tetras. but not sure if any of those are any good for you!!

 

[bricko]

Get a few botia stratia loaches, not sure of your tank size but if its a discus tank it should be quite large.

4 or 5 botias will keep your snail population at bay, they are quite cheep and IMO look really nice. They can be very shy in small groups though and would require some refuge (caves / bogwood / plants) to hide out during the day. Mine only used to come out at night (a still predominantly do) but have started to venture out at feeding time occassionally, probably due to the lack of snails now

http/www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=12255

Cheers,

Bricko

 

[kev_kb]

There's no need to buy fish to eat them.

Wait until the evening when its dark and the room and tank lights are off. Leave the tank in darkness for an hour or two then turn the room light on. You'll hopefully see plenty of snails crawling up the sides of the glass.... Get a fine fish net and scrape it up the sides of the glass to catch the snails then discard them, they also float on the surface at times too.

Repeat the process for a few nights and you should have things under control.

There are living on algae, uneaten food or fish waste. Make sure your keep your gravel spotlessly clean for the Discus sake also.