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Snail trouble? | |
bruce Fingerling Posts: 40 Kudos: 34 Votes: 0 Registered: 07-Feb-2005 | I neede some advice... I need to find a fish for a twenty gallon that will eat snails, my tank is filled with trumpet snails.. The tank only has a paradise fish in it.. Thanks.. |
Posted 03-May-2006 20:20 | |
GirlieGirl8519 Fish Master *Malawi Planter* Posts: 1468 Kudos: 1029 Votes: 35 Registered: 25-Mar-2005 | Well, a 20g is a little small for snail eaters such as clown and yoyo loaches. You could borrow a clown loach from a LFS (or keep it for a few weeks and return it). Or if you have a bigger tank by chance (like 40g or above) you could get a few yoyo loaches to take care of the snails...and then move them to a bigger tank. |
Posted 03-May-2006 21:02 | |
sham Ultimate Fish Guru Posts: 3369 Kudos: 2782 Votes: 98 Registered: 21-Apr-2004 | Nothing will completely wipe out trumpet snails and you already have a good snail eater in the tank. Paradise fish love snails and will usually expend alot of effort finding ways to crack open or sneak up on even trumpet snails. The problem is these snails have extremely hard shells and a shell door. Even clowns which have drilled holes through the shell doors of very large applesnails won't be able to kill large trumpets. Loaches and labyrinth fish like the paradise will keep the number down and help keep the snails hiding in the substrate instead of out in the open where they can be ambushed but they will not wipe out the population. As soon as you returned the loach the snails would resume their former numbers. Trumpets are nocturnal. You should not see very many of them unless you overfeed the tank or it's too dirty. Try feeding a little less and doing more gravel vacs. The less junk that's left in the tank the less food the snails have and the less trumpets multiply. Their population is directly tied to the amount of food available. You can also smash all the little ones and scoop out any larger ones you see. Trumpets are actually quite desireable and I add them to all my tanks. They clean up uneaten food, stir the substrate, and kill off any other pest snails that might get into the tank. |
Posted 03-May-2006 21:14 | |
bruce Fingerling Posts: 40 Kudos: 34 Votes: 0 Registered: 07-Feb-2005 | I found all of the snails when I did a full cleaning.. The tank is actually very clean, and I do only see them at night..My paradise fish Jack who I love, is not interested in them... he is only actually interested in flakes.. Which is crazy thats why I needed the advice.. I do have a 50 gallon but it isn't set up right now.I could never crush them myself,At first I split them between my two tanks..The one tank is great, but Jacks tank is crazy with them..I don't feed Jack that much, so I don't get the snail population |
Posted 04-May-2006 04:04 | |
waldena Hobbyist Posts: 117 Kudos: 80 Votes: 71 Registered: 30-Jan-2006 | I do agree with the earlier comments. You should find that if you cut down your feeding you should reduce your pest snail population. I don't know a lot about individual snail species, but I have found the Dwarf Chained Loaches (Botia Sidthimunki) have done a fantastic job of reducing my pest snail population to barely noticeable. I have heard that they eat the snail eggs as opposed to the snails themselves so it can take a few weeks to notice a difference. The advantage is that these loaches are smaller than Clown's or Yoyo's and will fit in a smaller tank. The disadvantage is that they are rare and difficult to find in your LFS and therefore more expensive. |
Posted 05-May-2006 00:09 | |
sham Ultimate Fish Guru Posts: 3369 Kudos: 2782 Votes: 98 Registered: 21-Apr-2004 | Trumpets don't lay eggs. They are livebearing which makes it even more difficult for the loaches to eat them. That's why trumpets are great at keeping other snail species under control. The other snails have no way to protect themselves, their eggs, or to actually attack the trumpets. |
Posted 05-May-2006 05:00 | |
Fallout Moderator Communications Specialist Posts: 6416 Kudos: 4053 Votes: 742 Registered: 29-Jul-2000 | I agree, these snails can be an asset to planted tanks, stirring the substrate and munching dead plant matter. Too many snails can be best remedied by netting/manual removal. They can best be seen at night when they come out to do their thing. I have zillions of the lil buggers in my 29, with a lesser amount in my 30. When they get to be too much, i just remove a few hundred over the course of a few days. It will reduce their numbers, but won't completely erradicate them. You could try to control their population as well by reducing hardness in the water. They use minerals to form/build their shells up. If less are available, you'll see a reduction in numbers. |
Posted 05-May-2006 08:54 |
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