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I have heard that putting older copper pennies in a tank filter will clear said tank of snails in a somewhat short time. Has anyone ever tried this? I have one tank with a horrible snail explosion, but the tank is only a 10g so buying a clown loach is really out of the question.

On another note, I've also heard that a larger goldfish can do the trick. One LFS supposedly uses them to clear overrun tanks, but most of the staff there can't even tell the difference between male and female platys. Can a goldfish survive a molly tank (with slightly salted water)?

John

yeah, put a few pennies (4-8) in your filter and you should be snail free within a month, depending on how bad you're infested. make sure you use US pennies minted before 1982 for best effect.

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

hehe, its not just clown loaches that will eat snails, any of the botia's... still too big for your tank though i think.

i have never used copper pennies before but a lot of people seem to swear by it. just keep in mind i'm pretty sure it kills all the inverts not just snails and the copper is hard to remove from the water if you change your mind and want to add an invert.

keep in mind you are allowing something to basically decompose in your tank. if the pennies are old enough, it will kill snails. it may also kill copper-sensitive fish.

copper will kill any inverts, depending on the levels.

this includes shrimp, snails and crabs.


if the tank is big enough, a goldie could survive, will the LFS rent you one?

I dont know about their effectiveness, but i'd say that the botias are out of the running, what with the salt and all. I dont know how their skin would handle it.

are the snails becoming a problem?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

The snails are getting to the point that I fear a hostile takeover.

The tank has 7 balloon belly mollies and some live plants. I know to pull as many snails out as possible to alleviate the number of rotting snail carcasses. This is my only non-sandy bottomed tank, and the only one without MTS's. These snails are not the usual little round-type you get from plants. They are actually very similar, but with much wider, rounded rectangular openings. Kinda like a french horn...sort of. Rather brown in color, and much harder/sharper on the fingers when you smash them against the side of the tank to kill them. I've recently had one shell prick my finger to the point of blood when crushing them against the glass. This was at about 3/16 inches in size. Brutal!

I've seen very few in LFS's. They leave eggs everywhere, mostly on plants and in the joints of the tank, in little patches.

I don't like them.

JOhn

i am not a snailaphobe by any means, but i enjoy using different aquatic creatures to combat their numbers. i currently have six red-clawed crabs in my 125gal communtiy tank that seem to get off on killing mts. there are a few snail holdouts around the top of my tank, but the crabs make short work of any that venture within their claws. my recent addition of dwarf puffers has also eliminated most of the baby snails (i think the dwarfs are too tiny to eat the bigger snails).

imo- the crabs claws' are too small (at least the red-clawed) to harm most fish. i have never lost a fish to a crab. they are also rather slow when compared to fish.

the downside? they are escape artists, and i recently discovered they have a huge appetite for dwarf hairgrass.

i am not suggesting you run out and buy these guys, just saying that there are several living options that may work out better then chemical additions. i am sure other members can name several other species that work well.

I'm thinking, in the long run, of adding a small group of cories to help keep the tank cleaner. Copper - cories - bad?

John

alot of people swear by copper pennies.... i swear by my female betta! my brothers tank was being taken over by ramshorns before we got her and now there are barely any! watching her hover over them and hunt them down is very entertaining too!

they are small (perfect for ur tank) and efficient IMO.

cories will be fine with copper in the water.

and not all bettas will eat snails...

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

Just out of curiousity, what exactly do you mean by slightly salted?

Slighty salted - like with a spoonful of Doc. Wellfish salt per 5 gallons as per the carton instructions. Of course, that would be bad for the cories, so I think I see where you are going with that question, good one.

I think perhaps the female betta idea is worthy of a try...

John

Actually, that amount of salt really doesn't have any negative affects on the fish, and is arguable whether it really is beneficial for the fish. You should be able to put just about any fish in that tank with that little amount of salt.

Being a brackish tank keeper, I consider slightly salted to be around 1.005 SG, or 1 cup of marine salt per 5 gallons.

Last edited by puffer_archer at 06-Nov-2004 09:14