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yes, shrimp will be affected as well. if your friend has another tank they can move the shrimp to until the snails are gone that would be best. all inverts (snails, shrimp, worms, etc) are affected by copper treatments

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

you could... but why buy chemicals when you could just go to your piggy bank (or jar, or whatever) and grab out a few pennies? it works just as good and doesn't really harm your plants or fish in any way

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

Can't you just buy stuff to get rid of snails?

Yes, the post-1992 1p and 2p coins are copper-plated steel:

http://www.royalmint.com/talk/specifications.asp

[span class="edited"][Edited by AndyCLS 2004-09-10 10:55][/span]

Thanks Moondog.

Anyone know if english pennie are made of copper?

are english pennies made of copper? if so then yes it will work

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

Thanks alot.




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

Does the penny trick work with englih pennies?

no, i don't think any fish will be harmed by using copper pennies none that i know of, unless there are invertebrate fish

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

I'm asking this question again, maybe someone will help me:- Are there any fish that will be harmed when using 99.9% copper US pennies?.




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

Fortunately I don't have to worry about shrimp... the ones we had in there mysteriously vanished one by one. Then my husband admits he forgot to feed the fish that weekend. Oops. Again, thanks for all the replies! We're digging thru coin jars this weekend for old pennies.

-Beth

Copper will kill snails, shrimp, crayfishes, and many varieties of plants.

Okay, so after a major leak in my 5g (about 1/3 of the water on the floor and soaked into the desk), caused by snails in the filter... I would like to take care of this snail problem once and for all. I have heard that old copper pennies will do the trick. First of all, does this really work? How many pennies for a 5g tank and how long should I leave them in there? Also, will the pennies harm/kill my fish? If so, I can temporarily move them into my 55g until the snails are gone. And just to let everyone know, this little tank is heavily planted with 2 amorous male platies and about 40 small snails (that I can see, I know there are prob more baby ones in the plants). Thanks a bunch,
Beth

Just curious by inverts do you mean shrimp as well? Too many snails is a problem my friend has been having. I'd like to suggest the idea but she has shrimp in the tank. I don't keep shrimp or have any snails so it has never been a problem. I also don't mean to steal the post but while it's up...
Thanks

my experience was that the snails just kind of shriveled up and left empty shells behind. if you have too many then you will want to remove some of these before they foul the water, but i literally had 100+ snails in my 10g but didn't notice too much change in water quality

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

When the snails die from the copper, What would happen if a fish eats the snail? I don't think a poisoned snail would be good for a fish. I'd remove the dead snails quickly. But if you have a snail explosion your fish aren't eating them anyway.

Okay, we will be trying this shortly to get rid of these snails. Thanks to everyone for replying-I appreciate it.

Beth

i put about 8 in my filter in my 10g and i had no snails within 2 weeks.

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

I have herd of this method being used in the garden, instead of pennies, you put a copper band around the base of a plant that you want protecting, and the garden snails wont go near it, so it sounds as though this may well work, never thought about using it in an aquarium.
I too have no idea how many to use, but the idea of filling a stocking with them sounds quite good.
Good luck getting rid of them, and do tell if the pennies work

I've heard that people used to hang a sock of pennies in a tank to cure ich, before commercial ich medications were available... Copper will kill inverts long before it kills fish, but sorry I have no idea how much copper it takes to kill fish.

I'm so adjective, I verb nouns!