FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Clown Loaches & Yoyo Loaches eat snails & also Puffers do, but i don't recommend Loaches in a small tank, as they grow big, but their grow rate is slow.

I cannot help you with Puffers, sorry.

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

I have tried lettuce, loaches, you name it (I never tried chemicals). Nothing worked really well, and my blood pressure soared in sync with the exploding snail population boom. I finally found a web site that said red-clawed crabs like snails, so I put 3 in my 150 gal long tank. They decimated the snails within a month- and the snail population was massive.

They were too slow to grab other fish (most of the fish in that tank are less then 3" community fish), but they would snap like mad when grabbing sinking pellets. They do not breathe air, but their Houdini-like knack for tank escaping was their fatal downfall.

actually, the penny method worked great! i am now 99% snail free, including eggs of course, i lost all the blackworms that had been living in the gravel for 2 years now, but the betta wasn't interested in them anymore, so i guess it's ok

---

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

Ghost shrimp eat snails, they are supposed to get rid of the eggs too.

Okay I looked at my other meds and none of them will kill ich, so I'm not going to dose them. I'll try some pennies

Fake Adam! You're not banned anymore?

Anyway, I find that the best way to get rid of snails is to just put something in that they like to eat, and then remove it when it's covered in snails. Also, crushing them on the side of your tank works very well. Tetras love to eat crushed snails.

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

some plants are copper sensitive moon. what plants are in the tank? i would suggest loaches tog et rid of excess snails, or dwarf puffers but that is only if there is tank space to accomedate them and won't be overstocking your tank. Botias sids are good for smaller tank and adorable as can be, and from what i have heard they eat snails. hard to find though might have to go hunting online for them

[span class="edited"][Edited by Megil Tel'Zeke 2004-06-26 11:05][/span]

Some meds will kill inverts. I have a heavily planted betta tank. A few weeks ago the betta got Ich and I thought that dosing with meds would kill the snails (it says on the bottle that it WILL kill them and other inverts)...but the snails are coming in full force! It's been about 2-3 weeks with full dosages of "Aquari-sol" and they're still alive! I'm gonna try another med tomarrow.

If meds won't kill the snails, then I'm gonna throw some pennies in there.

yup, my clowns keep the snails in check. Only have a few larger snails

ok, i put 8 pennies (100% copper) into the filter about 20 minutes ago. we'll see how long it takes to work *holds breath*

---

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

besides taking them all out by hand i want to get rid of all the pest snails in my 10g but the tank is home to a betta and a cory and lots of plants and i'd prefer not to have to move them if i don't have to.

---

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

one of my fish died and the snails covered it overnight but no way did i even get a third of the snails with that scoop. ]:|

---

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

I've heard some people place a leaf of lettuce in the tank and leave it in overnight, then pull it out in the morning, covered in snails. Sounds good, but never worked for me. The snails I had must have been warned or something.

I pull out the floaters... whatever doesn't float gets munch on until it does... or until it gets vacced up with a waterchange.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

well, american pennies have been 90% zinc since about 1982, but i have some older pennies i can throw in there. am i supposed to remove the snails as they die off though? or should i just leave them for the fish to pick at?

---

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

I haven't had any adverse reactions from my plants. I tossed a small handful of pennies into my filters a month or so ago. I don't know if I have a couple particularly stubborn snails or what. *shrugs* When I went to clean my filters, the pennies were kind of rough and a bit pitted, you can see where the copper has dissolved a bit. Just keep an eye on them... pennies only have a thin layer of copper on them. Once that's started to wear away, I assume you'll have to replace them.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

but will the plants react to the copper at all? if not then i will try that for sure. how long do you keep the pennies in? all the time?

---

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

Right... there's some fish that eat snails, but I don't which would be happy staying in a ten gallon. I'll leave that up to someone else to suggest... I know there's loaches and such, but I've never kept them.

You could start up a dwarf puffer tank and then your snails won't be pests anymore... they'll be free food!

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

That was really Cute
dont Siamese Algae eaters eat snails?

Pennies? Snails don't like copper. Granted, putting pennies in your tank isn't exactly a science, but I found it dramatically cut down on the number of snails in my tanks. Instead of pulling out a dozen snails a week, I maybe pull out three or four a month.

I'm sure there's a better way to dose copper and/or get rid of snails, but this only costs you pennies.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~