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ok i'm thinking of getting a dwarf puffer, but i just found out that these little guys are really aggresive!, I don't want to make my 10 gallon a dwarf puffer species tank, is there any other fish that can be put in a 10 gallon that will eat snails?, i've tried getting rid of them by cleaning the tank, but they get stuck to the gravel and start all over again.

Some of the smaller botia loaches will happily eat snails, in fact some of them are so small you might have to manually remove the larger snails, and leave them to eat any baby snails that come up . It should serve as an effective control.Youll have to be careful in your choice though, because some are not happy unless in groups,needing them to reduce aggression on the individual , and that might start to exceed the max bioload for you 10 gal. Im quite fond of skunk loaches myself, but the odd specimen might be nippy. A lot of nippiness goes hand in hand with snail eaters.

A few loaches are fin nippers though, so it really depends what other fish you have in there. Whats your stocking?

On the dwarf puffers - dont take the risk, the times they work in community are the exception to the rule. Generally they fin nip mercilessly, I had some a couple of years ago actually kill and eat an ottocinclus.Dont underestimate them. I tried all sorts of fish with them, from tetras, to rainbowfish and they attacked all of them, the only thing they didnt go for was SAE's, and thats only because they lacked the courage to take on a 6-7 inch fish. Its just not worth the risk for snail control, lots of other fish can do it and are a lot less aggressive.

What is in the tank right now? The easiest way to kill snails that I've found is to simply add copper to the tank. However, this doesn't work if you have copper sensitive fish or shrimp.

In my case, I simply added pennies to the filter and that took care of the snails quite handily. It takes a while for the copper from the pennies to leech into the water, and it only costs maybe 20 cents to rid a 20 gallon of snails as compared to spending money on commercial snail killing treatments. Over the course of a month or so, my tanks slowly became snail free. My betta girls did do away with some snails on their own, but their hunting prowess couldn't keep up with the snails.

I don't know what the copper content of pennies in Canada is, but for those of us in the US, we need to stick to pennies minted before uh... 1985, I think it is. After that, they started sandwiching zinc oxide into the middle of the pennies instead of having them solid copper...

I simply chucked a handful of pennies into my HOB filter and waited. After a while, you'll notice the pennies may start to look pitted or worn if you take them out of the filter. I replaced them if it was necessary to continue the treatment. It's not a quick method, but like I said, cheap and easy. Chuck the pennies in the filter and wait.

Again, if you have shrimp or other copper-sensitive fish in the tank, don't use this method. It also takes some time for the copper to get out of the tank after you remove the pennies, so keep that in mind.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

I also now have a snail infested tank even though I thoroughly washed a new plant off before placing it in there. Anyway.........does anyone know what fish are copper sensitive? I have:

angels
zebra danios
red eyed tetras
guppies
bronze cories
a common pleco

Are my fish safe to add pennies to my filter? I love that idea kitten......it's so easy!

Imo. In a 10 gal. tank, it's better to remove them by hand, than adding a snail eating fish.

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

I wouldn't put any botia species in a 10g. They are far too active. They bounce around like super balls all day and all prefer company. Dwarf chain loaches can work in some small tanks but are still going to be quite active and are rather expensive if you can find them. The rest are too large and I'd suggest a 29g for a trio or more. Dwarf puffers eventually attack their tankmates if they don't start off immediately nipping fins and causing injuries. There are a few odd occasions they survive for years in a community tank but even if it takes 5 years or more they almost always kill at least one tankmate before their lifespan is up.

Best way to deal with pest snails is just to limit your feeding and squish what snails you find. Snail population is directly related to the food available so if you overfeed your tank you'll get tons of snails. If the snail population is getting completely out of control you're probably overfeeding the tank or not doing enough gravel vacs. You can also bait them with lettuce or poke a small snail size hole in a container, add fish food, let it sink and remove the next day. Snails are actually beneficial to the tank helping keep it clean and the substrate stirred so the only reason to completely kill them off is looks. They do no harm to the fish and add little to the bioload.

If you do want to wipe them out with something like copper I suggest cupramine. I've used it to get rid of leeches and found it to be very safe as far as copper goes. It also can easily be completely removed from the tank using chemical filtration where some forms of copper will be left behind in the tank for years. However if you dose a tank with copper all the snails will die immediately causing the tank to fill with rotting snail bodies. That generally leads to an ammonia and nitrite spike and if the fish survive the copper fine may die to the mini cycle that follows. Easier just to leave the snails and find ways to limit their population.

That's what I love about this site.......... enough opinions to confuse a person.

I have a 55 g. & don't like being up to my armpits in water trying to remove snails. It sounds like I might go for the bait & remove method.

the only thing i have in the tank is a betta, and i'm planning to move him in a smaller 3 gallon planted tank, if i end up getting something that will nip his fins

You can also break their shell and the fish will finish them off overnight

Hi jennie! Welcome to FP!

Hi,
I guess that you have four choices with that 10G tank.
You can kill the snails chemically, with copper.
You can kill them naturally with snail eating fish.
You can kill them manually by crushing them against the
tank walls.
You can trap them and remove them from the tank.

If you choose to kill them with a chemical, all the
snail killers have copper as the active ingredient.
SO, the logic is "Why go to the store and BUY something
with copper in it, when I have copper pennies laying
around in a jar?" The pennies do work, BUT, there is
really valid reason why you SHOULD NOT use copper pennies.

There is no dosage or guidelines on this method of killing
snails. There is nothing that says that you should add
3 or 4 pennies per gallon. Tossing a handful of pennies
into a filter is a great way of killing more than snails.
Copper is lethal to many fish and can toxic to plants in
excess. There is no easy LFS test kit for copper. They
are expensive and can be hard to obtain.
However, you can go to ANY LFS and get something to kill
snails, and it comes with specific instructions and tells
you what to do once they are dead.

Many fish will eat snails. But, that's a 10G tank, not a
30 gallon tank. You don't have room to be adding
additional fish (and still keep the same ones in there now).

You can crush them against the sides of the tank and
eventually, you will win out. And, the fish will soon
learn as you do this, that they are good eating. Anything
falling will catch a fishes eye and they will charge over
and nip at it to see if it is food. Once they figure it out
they will follow you as you crush them, eating them many
times before the dead snail hits the bottom of the tank.

Or you can trap them by placing food on a small plate
when you turn out the lights. Go back an hour or two later
and the plate will have dozens of snails on it eating the
food. Remove the plate, and get rid of the snails. Do it
several nights in a row, and you get rid of the adults.
Then do it every once in a while to get rid of the other
snails as they hatch from eggs you may have missed.

Frank

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