Snails

[silkcut04]

Hi
I have got alot of snails since i planted new plants are they of any benifit if not how do i get rid of them?.
thx
Robbie

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Snails are only beneficial if your tank (and in this case the plants) are covered with algae. If you can feed them a constant supply of green vegetables, they should leave the plants alone. I would suggest getting rid of them, though.

Easiest way to get rid of them is to place lettuce on a saucer and wait for the snails to get on top. You then take them out. Don't let snails die in your tank because they pollute the water.

 

[Sanj]

A good control is to add loaches to your aquarium. I have two Striatas in one of my aquariums and the snail populatio is kept down. However my other does not have any and I have snail population explosion. Iam receiveing some chain loaches tomorrow and they will g o in there. Both my aquariums are densley planted too.

Snails are ok in small contolled populations.

 

[Bol]

As mentioned, some loaches (chain, clown, maybe more) will eat snails.

Also, as a removal method, I find that the lettuce trick (I just weight it, and let it sit on the bottom of the tank) works well, but works much, much better if you remove the lettuce before the lights come on in the morning.

 

[AmberC]

I have a dwarf puffer that eats my snails, but I have found that when I squish the snail shell and drop it in ALL of my fish eat the snail... not just the puffer. My guppy (before she passed) REALLY liked this. My gouramis did too.

 

[billy61788]

i used the lettuce thing too but my snails began to get completly out of control so i went to my lfs and bought this thing called HAD-A-SNAIL which is some drops you add to your tank. it says its safe to use with fish and ive had no problems with it. it got rid of the snails for me.

 

[franky]

I have used the lettice idea but slightly adapted it, as the snails seem to like the cover of darkness, and while the lights are on you may struggle to find and remove them all, the way i tackled the problem was

take an old film canaster, you know one you put your film in when you take it to be processed and cut an arch out of the side, so it almost looks like a mini cave

shred some lettice and poke it into the top of the canister.

place the lid back on and bury in the gravel just enough to weight it down,

Leave for a day, then remove and you should find youve caught most of your snails,

repeat until problem solved

hope this helps.

 

[spanair]

i bet the fishes will love the snails as a snack, just crush them and feed, nice & fresh