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my 40g is being over run by small ramhorn snails and a larger unknown snail. how do i get rid of them??

there is far to many to just pick them out, and tank is to densly planted to get them all!!!]:|

is there a fish that eats snails and doesn't get to big?
otherwise what type of chemicals work? would rather not use chemicals but will if only option.

cheers shekoi

Last edited by shekoi at 28-Oct-2004 07:09

www.blooming-brilliant.co.uk

What fish do you have in there?

Kim

Usually clown loaches are the best remedy for snails, but they unfortunately get quite large and are schoolers, so they need a huge aquarium. IMO the next best thing would be adding at least 4 zebra, yoyo, or queen loaches (their max sizes are 4-6 inches) but you'd have to be willing to rearrange your tank a little so they'd have some substrate to forage and rest on, since they are bottom feeders. If you'd rather not, you could try this method that I've heard to be effective: Use sliced cucumber and/or lettuce. Weight it down with a plant weight, stick it in a clean bottle (don't use soap tho) so the fish can't munch on it, and wait. The snails will flock (do snails flock? ) to the vegetable and you can easily dispose of them. If you put 3 or 4 of the bottles in the tank for a few nights in a row, you should make a serious dent in the population. However, be warned that the likelihood of you getting ALL of them is pretty much slim to none. Hope that helped and good luck

><>Dani<><

The lettuce trick does work, it's amazing how quickly the snails find it. I also watch for their eggs, which are often on the glass, and dispose of them.

I've found dwarf loaches (Botia sidthimunki) take care of snails. There is varying information on how large they get...I've seen anywhere from 2" up to 6". I've had mine for approximately four months and they're maybe 1.5" long. What makes them a bit different from other loaches is that while they are bottom feeders they also spend a good portion of the time in the middle of the tank as well. Very social and again like most other loaches should be kept in groups of at least three.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Penny trick Moon???

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

cheers for the replies. i'll try the bottle trick, but have to fine one with some hole to stop my clown pl*co eating it.

Penny trick?? please explain i've heard of it before.


shekoi

www.blooming-brilliant.co.uk

If you put a few pennies in the aquarium or filter, the copper will kill the snails. Only problem is, it has been known to hurt fish and plants as well. Some people have had success with it, others haven't.

><>Dani<><

if you want a small fish that takes care of snails my female betta does a brilliant job of taking care of the snail population in my tank!

thats just IME tho.... duno how much luck every1 else has with them because they arent usually mentioned as snail eaters

If you try the lettuce trick, make sure you leave it in for a while. It took the snails four days to find the lettuce in my tank, but once they did, they all clustered on it and it was rather nasty-looking. But after that there were almost no snails in the tank at all.

As far as the "penny trick" is concerned, IMHO you shouldn't do it. If you're going to do something like that, go get Coppersafe and measure it out. There's no way to tell if, or how much, copper is dosed by a penny in the filter.

Last edited by Silverlight at 29-Oct-2004 10:21

If they don't find the lettuce or cucumber right away, leave the bottle in the same spot but replace the vegetable. I've heard they find it pretty fast, but obviously that's not always the case. You wouldn't want rotting plant matter in your tank. Yuck!

><>Dani<><