Snails!

[gone fishin]

I have got an increasing number of snails appearing in my tank, which i assume came via some new plants i bought.

Is there an easy way to get rid of these snails?

 

[mark.w.jones]

I have got an increasing number of snails appearing in my tank, which i assume came via some new plants i bought.

Is there an easy way to get rid of these snails?

In a word NO. Ive got the same problem and resort to hoovering them up or crushing them on tank cleaning day every weekend. Only the bigger ones lay eggs but they're a bugger to get rid of once youve got them. Ive still not found a better cure.

ps best solution ive heard is to attach a piece of lead weight for holding plants down to a piece of cucumber / lettuce. Leave in tank for 12 hours overnight then remove. Should be covered in snails. Havnt tried this myself yet but let me know if it works!

 

[geo7x]

1.pick em out, dispose of as you prefer.
2. put cucumber, lettuce, whatever in the tank, when the snails are on it then take out the vegetable and dispose of it
3. next time remember to thoroughly rinse your plants to dispose of any eggs.
.......prob loads more but its been a long day

edit: ok, according to jonseys reply im wrong, which i probably am because i have like zero experience of this but this is what ive heard

 

[mark.w.jones]

UV said pretty much the same as me so I cant say youre wrong. Ive only been keeping tropicals for 4 months but have done a lot of research and reading.

 

[geezer]

I have got an increasing number of snails appearing in my tank, which i assume came via some new plants i bought.

Is there an easy way to get rid of these snails?

Buy a couple of Clown Loaches, they love to be in groups and love eating snails. They suck them right of the shell.

I've got a snail problem which went on for a week or so, and I must have about 500 of them

Since I got a zebra loach and two clown loaches the numbers have decreased

 

[nmonks]

Also, understand what drives snail population growth: overfeeding, organic waste, and decaying plants.

If you remove excess food and dead plants, there is less for the snails to eat, and they cannot multiply. It's really very simple to deal with snails if you gave a balanced aquarium that is regularly cleaned (to remove dead leaves and fish waste) and where the fish are not overfed. Once the population is stable, you can crop them periodically using any one of a variety of tricks or traps. There's a German one called the "LimCollect" that can work well. It's sort of a lobster pot for snails. You bait it, the snails crawl in, but can't crawl out.

Snails cannot magically multiply without food. So you will not get a snail population growth in a tank that has nothing in it but water and gravel. If you have too many snails, it means you are overfeeding or undercleaning.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[silver tipped]

What do you class as a snail problem though? I clean my tanks every week - water changes, gravel vac, algae removal. I feed my fish once a day, for 6 days and 1 day off and yet I still get snails. However not so many that I can't keep on top of them.

I turn off my lights for 2 hours during the day and I found that this encourages the snails to show themselves. When I turn the lights back on, my daughter and I go on a snail hunt. She finds it very amusing.