Snail Problem

[codeajohnson]

Hello Everyone,

I have a snail problem in my aquarium and I was wondering what is the best fish to take care of these? *needs to be able to be in a community tank*...I tried the lettuce trick but there are tons more in the tank. I thought about using a chemical treatment but I'd rather just find a fish that enjoys eating them. Thanks for any help!

 

[Honeythorn]

Many types of loach (Botia ) like to eat snails.

 

[Biulu]

Right. Botia striatum is a nice fish and known to be a good snail eater. Depends upon your size tank though what will fit in.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Right. Botia striatum is a nice fish and known to be a good snail eater. Depends upon your size tank though what will fit in.

Though not community, I find snails just vanish overnight when I put Convicts into the tank....

 

[Tag2008]

Right. Botia striatum is a nice fish and known to be a good snail eater. Depends upon your size tank though what will fit in.

Though not community, I find snails just vanish overnight when I put Convicts into the tank....

I used to put jam jars in the water with cucumber at night and in the morning the snails were all in the jars at the cucumber and could be lifted out..and jam jars are pretty good in the community too

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Sounds viable to me.....

 

[Biulu]

I think it is the same as the lettuce tricke and this was apparently not sufficient......

 

[minxfishy]

You may need to do the lettuce/cucumber method several times to get as many as possible. Snails in the tank can be beneficial, they clean up lots of uneaten food, algae, stir up the substrate etc.

If you have an exploding population could be your are over feeding, cut back on the amount you feed the fish, over the course of a couple of weeks, pop the cucumber in each night and that should clear them up pretty well.

The odd snail here and there is good for the tank IMO. You could always post them to people on here who want them, many use them to feed their puffers and loaches. All you need to do is put them in a small container (like a wee specimin pot LOL) with some cotton wool and tank water and they will be fine in the post.

Adding snail eating fish isnt always the best answer.

 

[Ficious]

well...im not sure what kind of fish you have in your tank but green spotted puffers dominate snails. i tried to let snails loose in my GSP tank and they were all gone in a few days. you could buy one for around 10 dollars then when your snail problem is gone, trade it in?? if getting rid of snails and having a happy little fish to look at for a few days is worth 10 bucks


goodluck with w/e you do

 

[TylerFerretLord]

If the population of the snails is too high, you are doing something wrong, to be frank. You're either over feeding, not cleaning the tank well enough, or letting dead plant leaves sit and rot.

The high snail population is not a problem, it's a symptom. Get rid of the main problem and the snails should thin out to an acceptable level.

Snails make a great addition to any tank; They eat algae and left over fish food(the small amount of, hopefully).



Ficious, a GSP is a horrible idea to fix a snail 'problem'. It would be just as happy to snack on the other fish as it would to the snails. If you're going to do the 'rent a fish' thing, I would suggest a loach that likes to eat snails.

 

[Tag2008]

When I had snails I think they came from the plants I was buying at the time..

I never got them in 1 go it would take me a few attempts to get them, My fish ate the stragglers and the jars with cucumber worked for me..

I put the jars in once it was night and my lights went out and I took them out before morning and light was to bright, If i left it to long to get the jar out most of the snails were gone and back in hiding...

Good luck

 

[codeajohnson]

Thanks for the help guys! Yeah I will give the jam jar a go, but if not I think I will just go with the loaches. I understand that it could be a problem with over feeding or doing something wrong. But the snails all just showed up because I added new plants; it's not like this has built up over time. thanks again for the help

 

[tangokitty]

My skunk loach was great at keeping my snails under control.