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i HAVE GOT 2 angel fish 10 cories and a few tetras.
I have treated my tank with "had a snail" countless times and I have still got snails! THey wont die! Any suggestions>? I dont want to put too much salt due to cories not being tolerant and not sure what else I should try so thought I would see if anyone has had success.
Thanks in advance.

The problem is most likely overfeeding. Put less food in the tank, and the snail population will decline.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Hi,
First, why are you using salt in the first place?
None of those fish need, or want, any salt in their water.

As far as the snails are concerned I'm not sure that
"Had a snail" kills them in their eggs but rather when
they have hatched and are crawling around the tank.

Quote:
Aquarium Products Had A Snail controls water snail overpopulation. Use in hard water only. 1 drop treats 1 gallon of aquarium water. Safe for Fish and plants, and will not interfere with biological filtration. Treat for two days. Repeat treatment in two weeks to eliminate newly hatched snails. For freshwater aquarium use only.
End Quote *Instructions from the container

Be sure to perform water changes after the use of the
medication as the dead and decaying snails can easily
pollute the tank.

Any new or added plants can be bringing new snails and
snail eggs, be sure to throughly clean any plants before
planting them in the tank.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

It's better to remove the snails you see by hand & don't use any treatment or salt.

Start feeding less & remove the snails you'll see. It's not easy to remove all the snails but you can control them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

This bring me to my question. Why don't you put in a fish to control them? Now the question is Does anyone have a list or can we put together a "List of Snail Control Fish"?
If any one knows of a small, community tank fish? I have been looking and research for one to go into a 26 USgal planted tank. Clown loaches are out the get to big, Pakistan loach out to big, need something wife getting very upset with the smashing process and using a baited film can not working. Not sure why I have so many because I'm only feeding once a day, just a pinch of crumble up flakes. I just think I have a lot of snails. This has only 14 galaxies in it now and 3 micro cories.

"Don't Panic"

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

Allow me to introduce you to Yasuhiotakia sidthimunki, a small snail eater that will do the job VERY nicely if their antics at Maidenhead Aquatics during my recent trip were anything to go by. The dealer dropped in some Malaysian Livebearing snails, and even though the fishes were just a little over a centimetre long, they tore into the snails like a shark feeding frenzy.

The beauty of this species is that it's the smallest of the Botia-type loaches - usually they don't grow past 4 cm in the average aquarium, and even if you give them lots of space, it's unusual to see ones that are as big as 8 cm.

This page cites 6 cm as their maximum typical length. And that's in a spacious aquarium.

There is a larger species of Loach, Yasuhiotakia nigrolineata, whose juveniles resemble sidthimunki, but as this page shows, they're markedly different as adults. This species reaches 10 cm.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Just to clarify, I was just mentioning that I didn't want to add salt to the tank due to the species type that I have. I dont have any interest in introducing more fish because I am stocked with bottom dwelling cories already and I do not want to croud them for the purpose of exterminating the snails. To get them out by hand is far too trying because they are all very small and there is prob like a 100 or so pest snails that I haven't any idea where I picked up! One day they were just all over the place and I hadn't even added anything to the tank. It mustve occured during a water change with a small snail in one of my buckets I kept outside! And unfortunatly, the Had A Snail didn't even kill the already living ones. It was useless and I read the instructions and followed per the recommendations. I do appreciate the suggestion of the Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki which appears to be a great looking fish but I have already got the tank stocked as much as I would like. I am just looking for an "outside the box" solution someone may have had success with in the past. The snails wouldnt be that bothersome except for the fact that I have real driftwood that is beautiful and they seem to be somewhat causing its decompisition and they all flock too it and it looks kinda nasty actually!

Depends what size your tank is but if you've got 2 angels we should be dealing with a tank around 55g which is big enough for botias. Any of the botia species will wipe out snails so depending on how many cories you have and how much tank space add 3-5 loaches and no more snails. If you go to this site http://www.loaches.com/species-index/species-index you can find a listing of pretty much all loach species including botias and the common names each species is often labelled with. Most will work but double check size and temperament of the individual species before buying any.

The only way to completely wipe out snails without using fish or tearing down the tank is to use chemicals. The chemicals may have bad effects on your fish and if it kills the snails will wipe them all out at once causing an ammonia spike. That may end up killing more fish. If you don't want to add snail eating fish your better off just controlling the population by removing as many as possible and feeding less.

For snail control in my planted tank I put in a cucumber or zuchini slice in the evening. When I remove it in the morning it is covered with snails. This then goes into my community tank where the pleco eats the veggies and the loaches eat the snails. This method will not get rid of them all together, but will control the population without any dangerous chemicals.

I am going to try removing them with a vegetable or lettuce as a decoy and see how that works, It is a 55 gal but I like my fish to have room to roam and i have got 10 cories which remain pretty active at the ground level, they are all fully grown.
thanks for the insight all, and I will continue to follow the string and keep you posted on the results.

I went to that site and looked at the fish. Nice shiny sliver. However, the site say size ti 2.5 in and when I went to others site, they have them listed even bigger 4 to 5.5 inches. Are you sure about the size. I hate to buy a fish that I couldn't keep because it to big for the tank. Thanks for the suggestion and will do more research it just a adult size the thing. Do you know who or where I could buy them if I decide to go that way.

Thank You
Djrichie
"Don't Panic"

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

What do snails love?

Waht is their favourite food?

?ettuce, particular type of aquatic plant, fruit with high sugar content?

When a forumite jumps in and tells us what that favourite is get yersel' some. Tie it to a rock or suspend it near the surface. When the little beggars descend you lift the bait our and dispose of the snailies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

My advice is redundant. Sorry. It was already covered.

Erm, so how'd it go?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

The favorite food of snails is fish food. The higher the fat, the higher the protein, the more nuts they go. However so do your fish. You can punch some snail sized holes in a plastic container that will sink once filled with water, add fish food, and catch them that way if the vegetables aren't enough.

lettuce didnt attract any snails so I am gonna try to buy some zuccinni and give that a whirl, if that doesnt pan out I will try the container trap... keep you all posted thanks thus far!

I always find heaps of snails on the algae wafers we put in the snail infested tank at work. I take them out and go feed them to the pufferfish and the clown loaches. I dont think i've ever come across a treatment that gets rid of snails successfully.

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Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

I must agree with Cali up there. The chain loaches sound like your best bet. I am stumped as to the size differences the sites list. I kept some of these guys a while back, and over the course of 3 years, they never grew any larger than 4-5 cm. I am thinking that maybe there are more than one species that look alike and/or such. And probably coming in as the same species when shipped, due to the appearance when smaller sized. Such things do happen on occassion with newer species of fish. Just look at how many L numers have been changed and such for fish that originally were thought to be the same species. But later were determined to be a completely different species.

The chain loaches kept the snails under control so much so, that I always thought the snails were gone, as I never saw any of them. But when I move them around to other tanks for snail control, eventually they came back in the tanks they used to be in. I have kept them with corys and never had any problems with them. In fact, they usually would school with the corys and play with them.

The chain loach would make a great addition to your tank, and in the end, I feel you would enjoy seeing them in there. As for their size, they would not require much feeding, thus not taking anything away from your corys and such.

_____________________________________________________________

There is always a bigger fish...

I agree with Cali and Acidrain above. The Dwarf loaches will do a great job of clearing snails. I got 6 of them when I had a similar problem with snails and after a couple of weeks they'd wiped them out. As Acidrain mentioned, I thought they'd completely wiped out the snails until I moved them recently (for reasons, see below) and I'm beginning to see snails return now after a month or so (with no new additional plants, so they must have been in there somewhere).

I just want to add a warning though. My personal experience, which I accept is apparently rare, is that they can become a bit of a 'nippy' fish, so I would fear for your Angels. I've found them to be a very boisterous (for the want of a better word) fish. They want to know everything that's going on in the tank, and they're dashing everywhere. They remind me a lot of the overly playful dog, who thinks that every other dog, person is a play mate who can't wait for a bit of play fighting, whereas the reality is the other dog / person wants to be left alone or is intimidated by the behaviour. My loaches would nip at my DG's, would chase my neon's for light relief and I blamed them for nipping my Cories fins (although I have no eye-witness accounts to prove it). I moved them into a new tank, and after a period of being a bit subdued, they are beginning to get a bit cheeky again. Having said that, it's this behaviour that makes them so endearing to me. They were given a lot of indulgence over their behaviour until I spotted how expensive Corydoras Sterbai had become .

If you're not put off by my experience (and by most accounts there is no reason why you should be), don't worry about the number of cories you have inhabiting the bottom of the tank. It was also mentioned on the link provided by Cali, but you will find that the Dwarf Loach almost seems a bit of a mid-level dweller. They appreciate a piece of rock/driftwood/big leaf to rest on, but they certainly don't swim along the bottom like a cory. They will be perfectly happy swimming around with your tetras and will be at the surface when you put in flake food at feeding time.

In regards to Calilasseia's post... Dwarf loaches are small and do eat snails... but(!) they are usually required to be put in large groups of 5 or more for they are shoaling fish and do better in groups (preferably larger ones too). Oh! and i say you get them
they're beautiful loaches... just remember to cut the doses in half when medicating a tank...