Pesky Persistent Snail Problem

[Underwurlde]

Hello.

I have a snail problem (my tropical tank that is)

In an attempt to kill them off I have added some 'King British' Snail Control to the water, but 24 hrs later this appears to have had NO effect on the little bastards what-so-ever.

Question 1) Does anyone know how long it should take for such a product to kill off snails?

Secondly, I have heard that certain fish eat them, the top of the snail eaters being Clown Loaches, however these fish grow to about 12" which is far too big for my tank.

Question 2) I have read that Ram Cichlids (aka: Butterfly Cichlid / Blue Ram / German Ram) eat them too. Is this true and are they effective snail eaters?

Many thanks in advance,

Andy

 

[xostrawberryox]

I just pick em out whenever i see one reachable, nothing to pull your hair out over! Why dont u get a clown loach and take him back when he gets too large?

 

[Underwurlde]

nothing to pull your hair out over

Pull out about 5 and leave them in a bucket of old tank water for a couple of hours and then see exactly how much sh1t these damn things are capable of producing!

They are dirty little things, spread disease, are destroying my plants and I WANT THEM OUT OF MY TANK. P E R I O D ! ! !

Why dont u get a clown loach and take him back when he gets too large?

Now that's a good idea, but can you ask an LFS to do this, or is it more a case of buy one and then give it back when too big?

Thanks for your response,

Andy

 

[dizzied]

Just bait them with a slice of cucumber. Works for most people.

 

[Underwurlde]

Please, I know you are all well intentioned with your responses, but please please please just stick to my 2 questions. Thanks.

Baiting with cucumber DOES NOT WORK. It CANNOT work because it will have ABSOLUTELY no effect on any eggs & will NOT trap ALL snails - leave only ONE snail or ONE egg sack behind and you will have achieved NOTHING. Same goes for traps. Same goes for 'just picking them out'.

Andy

 

[xostrawberryox]

I dont really find the snails that much of an issue to be honest and my water stats are always perfect... i take it you got them from adding live plants?

Yeah well it depends how your LFS are about taking fish back, just swap the larger one for a small one again and they may even give you some store credit.

Ive never heard of that cucumber thing before, interesting.

 

[Underwurlde]

My water stats are fine too & I vac the tank more often than my house!

Yes, my tank was infected by a single snail hitching a ride on some plants from a LFS and since them I am guessing that I must have pulled out at least >80 snails (they come in waves of about 20 i.e. after hatching from missed eggs). I have since complained to the LFS (with absolutely NO effect) but it is as much my fault because I did not cleanse the plants prior to planting them.

And now I simply want them gone. ALL of them and I think this can only happen in one 'hit'.

Yeah well it depends how your LFS are about taking fish back, just swap the larger one for a small one again and they may even give you some store credit.

OK, I may ask them about this, thanks.

Ive never heard of that cucumber thing before, interesting.

I have tried this with very little effect.

Andy

 

[voo]

A snail infestation is a great excuse to buy a tank for a puffer, as they love snails. I have a lot of pond snails in my tank, thinking they're clever and trying to take over the tank. But i have the last laugh when i feed them to the puffer, watching the get attacked and chewed to pieces

I don't know how long it should take to kill the snails, never used any of that stuff. It might work like a slow poison, i wouldnt expect instant results though, especially as you will have to wait for the eggs to hatch as well. Does it mention anything about being harmful to shrimps ?
Have you taken the carbon out of your filter? Just a thought...

I think angel fish and gourami's might eat the occasional snail too. My tank with gourami's, platties and a guppy seems to stay snail free, even though i keep adding the pond snails to get them to breed there. I keep finding the empty snail shells. There is a BGK in there too, but he hasnt always be there.

 

[Underwurlde]

hey voo, thanks for your response...

A snail infestation is a great excuse to buy a tank for a puffer, as they love snails. I have a lot of pond snails in my tank, thinking they're clever and trying to take over the tank. But i have the last laugh when i feed them to the puffer, watching the get attacked and chewed to pieces good.gif

Hell, I'M going to start eating the bloody things myself soon!

I don't know how long it should take to kill the snails, never used any of that stuff. It might work like a slow poison, i wouldnt expect instant results though, especially as you will have to wait for the eggs to hatch as well.

OK, Cool. Thought this may be the case, but the instructions do not mention a time line & I am having difficulty finding any info on this product on the 'net other than people selling me stuff. Erm, copy & paste that for any search I do on the internet actually!

Does it mention anything about being harmful to shrimps ?

No. But then again it does not mention anything to do with shrimps. I do not see why it should effect them as they are a totally different species.

Have you taken the carbon out of your filter?

I removed my carbon filter months ago and will only use it to clean the water after this course of 'meds' is complete or (After about a week I guess) is seen to have done nothing.

I have also read that bettas & some tetras eat snails, but only if they are very hungry. All fish it seems will eat snails if crushed, but rarley 'out of their shells' so to speak.

Thanks again all,

Andy

 

[voo]

Some medicenes and things that you add to the tank that harm snails often harm shrimp too. I think they're sensitive to copper.

 

[dizzied]

All inverts are sensitive to copper, so it'll kill the snails.

 

[joloco]

i have rams and gouramis and millions of snails (unwelcome guests!!) and i have to say neither eats snails. i bought some khulie loaches cos a friend has them to eat her snails and well mine clearly don't like snails. so as to whether rams eat snails - i doubt it.

i have however seen my zebra danios eat snails eggs but i wouldn't say they were as effective at this as i would like!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

my opaline gourami's love snails, they've cleared Ian's tank of snails in a few weeks.

I know this won't be the answer your wanting but it's definately something worth consideing so I'm going to say it anyway. What sort of snails are they? Do a bit of research as it might actually be good to keep some in your tank, if (for example) they're malaysian trumpet snails and you have a sand substrate then they're an essential to keep your sand stirred up and stop it from creating anearobic (sp) pockets. Some snails will also eat algae or uneaten food which can be good for your tank. So before you go about trying to blitz them all have a little think about what they are, then maybe just reduce the numbers but keep a few.

You also need to think about why your 1 stray snail has reproduced and they're thriving so much. If there's nothing for them to eat then they won't survive and reproduce at that rate. So if you've got loads then there's a fair chance your overfeeding so you need to cut back.

Right when you've considered those two points then you can think about getting rid of them.

A lot of snail 'killers' just knock them out and you then need to remove them. What you can do is remove all the decor and plants from the tank, sit them in a bucket ( by a window to keep your plants alive) of water with a really strong dose of the snail killing stuff in, this should kill off the eggs, just leave them there for a week or so, should do the trick. Then dose up your tank to the normal amount with the snail killer, after about an hr remove all the snails, as there's no decor in the tank there should be nowhere for them to hide. root through the substrate too to make sure you get them all. Oh yeah and make sure the substrate is vac'd and clean before you do this or you might stir up waste into the substrate and this is bad!

But by far the best method I ever found of getting shot of snails was to change my substrate, I wanted to do it anyway so I scooped out all the gravel, with it came all the snails, I picked any remaining one's off the side of the glass, replaced the substrate with cleanly washed sand, picked out about 5/6 malaysian trumpets that I wanted to keep and I haven't had any problems since. I also cut back on feeding and the population has never grown. There's just enough in there to keep everything ticking over nicely.

 

[Bloo]

Question 1) Does anyone know how long it should take for such a product to kill off snails?

NO - Never used these products as I don't want to add chemicals to the tank.
Secondly, I have heard that certain fish eat them, the top of the snail eaters being Clown Loaches, however these fish grow to about 12" which is far too big for my tank.

Question 2) I have read that Ram Cichlids (aka: Butterfly Cichlid / Blue Ram / German Ram) eat them too. Is this true and are they effective snail eaters?

My Rams never ate any. Ramshorn or MTS as far as I know

I feel your pain - I hate snails !

But I have 2 questions for you

1) How many gallons is your tank ?

2) What snails are they ? (ramshorn or MTS ?)

If it's large enough, try to get 4 Botia Sidthimunki - Dwarf Chain Loach.

 

[Underwurlde]

Sorry I have not got back sooner - Kids passed on a nasty stomach bug!



@joloco
Good info - thanks.

@Miss Wiggle
Great response! Thanks. I will try this if all else fails.

@Bloo
'1) How many gallons is your tank ?'
15 Gallons (60 Litres)

2) What snails are they ? (ramshorn or MTS ?)
"Bladder/Tadpole/Pouch Snails - Family Physidae", aka Physa fontinalis
See my other thread here:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=154270

Update after adding 'King British Snail Control'
Effect on Snails - sweet f-all.
Now got a bloody green algae bloom as well. As far as I can tell, the same product (but in a different bottle) that uses copper sulphate as the main reactive ingredient is also used to stave off Green Algae, but like the damn snails seems to have had the reverse effect.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Andy (loading his 12 bore, side-by-side shotgun....)