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I have snails all over my tank. They are nasty pond snails. I know they came off my plants, but I don't know how to get rid of them. What can I do to get rid of them. I only have a 25 gallon tank. so loaches are out of the question. What else would work to get rid of them? Please help they are starting to hurt my plants. I love my wisteria and don't want to lose it.



Christina

Christina,

I am not a friend of chemicals, so I have 2 natural options for you:

1) Use your hands to get as many as possible
2) Place some vegetable in the tank (on a string) and give it some time. They will come to eat it, pull out the veggie, remove the snails from it, and do it again and again.

Neither nor will get rid of all snails, but remember that they also eat algae.

Ingo

Last edited by LITTLE_FISH at 14-Nov-2005 13:10

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

There are a couple things you might want to try. I understand if you do not want loaches to take care of the problem simply because you do not like loaches... however, there is a species of laoch that may do well in your tank (drawrf chain loaches, they're usually called) if you actually care for this kind of fish. Other than that try putting out a piece of lettuce in the middle of the tank on the bottom - for some people, this has worked as the snails crawled out onto the lettuce to start muching. Then simply remove the piece (this may work with you: wisteria kind of looks like lettuce, right )

If not, I've found a remarkably efficient wayt of getting rid of snails in my tank was when I removed all the old substrate and changed it over to something else. That sure got rid of 'em. Not very practical in your case though, I guess...

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Back in the saddle!

You can "loan" a Clown Loach & take it back whenyou don't see more Snails. My Clown Loach did wonders in my tank & ate all the Snails i could see.


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Nowherman- I liek loaches, I jsut do not know of a loach that is going to stay small enough for me to keep because I only have a 25 gallon tank. I would love to have one.
Maybe when I get my 55 gallon tank up...

I could see if the lfs near my house will be so kind as to "loan" me a small one for a week or so. They "loaned" me 3 mollies to cycle my tank, They said whenever I wanted to I coudl return them.

Maybe that will work.
In the meantime, I will ahve to get a piece of vegetable for them...


Christina

Get a small Clown Loach and he will have fun. I still have a small CL in my betta tank see photos he cured the problem very quickly. Even if you give him away this will be the safest and cheapest way to go.

Have a look in [link=My Profile]http://
www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/profile.asp?userid=6741" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link] for my tank info


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Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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Okay, How fast do loaches usually grow? I am planning on setting up a 55 gallon in a couple months... As soon as I move and get settled, so I coudl eventually move him over to that. I would jsut get him and move him later if I knew that I had time to move him over later but I want tom nake sure I have plenty of time and he is going to be okay in my 25 until then.


Christina

What else is in yor tank? Bettas will eat snails, my tiger barbs also cleaned out the last snails I got with plants.

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

The reason I got the small CL was the Betta was not even worring the snails.

Clowns grow very slow but they can put on a growth spurt all of a sudden.

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Well, I bought 2 small clown loaches tonight, I did not want the one to be lonely. I think I will just let them take care of the snail problem and take them back in a week or so. I just looked at information on here about them and it says they can get to be almost a foot long! I had no idea! I figured maybe 6 inches but not a whole foot! I don't think I can keep them, even in a 55 gallon, I think they still need more room than that. I will just get some yoyo's later on and maybe some candy loaches, if they are available around here, and leave it at that. They do not get near as big as the clowns. I do love the way they look though. I hope they are gone soon. My wisteria is getting a bit brown around the edges, and I don't like that. Well, we will see how it goes because I ahve PLENTY of snails in the tank to keep them full for a few days atleast.

BTW I bouht clown loaches because that is all they had at the pet store I went to tonight. I will go to another one to find the ones I really want later I guess.



Christina

You can also throw some pennies in the filter... the copper will kill most of the snails (but might also cause algae if there's too much copper in the water).

If ya throw a couple MTS (Mylasian Trumpet Snails) in the tank, they'll kill all/most of the other snails. MTS are so prolific that they're usually the only small invert left in the tank after a year or so. I started with like 5 MTS in my 29, an' now I've got atleast 300.... like 2 months later

BTW, MTS don't eat plants...they'll eat algae, an' crap...they'll dig around in the gravel an' stir it up (helps eliminate the risk of hydrogen sulfide)... eat extra crap layin' 'round...etc. They're GREAT in planted tanks

Well the loaches seem to be working, the only question now it how long before my plants start to look better from all the damage that the snails have all ready done?


Christina

Hi,
Actually, now that the snails are under control by the
loaches, you have another problem.. weaning them off snails
and back onto "fish food."

I must speak out against the use of copper pennies to kill
off snails. There is nothing, in anything I've seen that
says that for X nr of gallons, add Y number of pennies.
Copper is toxic to some fish and plants and down right
deadly to others. Every medication that kills snails or
even Ich, uses copper, specially, chemically, adapted
for use in an aquatic environment and comes with
very specific instructions about how much to use, when
to use it, and how to remove it when no longer necessary.

Tossing in a handfull of pennies is a possible shortcut to
a disaster.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

If someone does end up resorting to chemicals to kill snails I highly recommend cupramine by seachem. I dosed my tank(accidentaly dosed the tank twice what it said), killed the leeches and any other inverts in there, then put on chemical filtration for a few days and tested the tank with ghost shrimp. Now I have baby ghost shrimp. Cupramine is kept in solution and won't leave a copper residue behind along with being very safe to fish but is still effective at killing any inverts such as pest snails. Since it stays in solution it can be removed by chemical filtration within a few days. Seachem suggests leaving it in the tank for 2weeks but all critters invading my tank were dead in 5days.

The reason i got the loches in the first place is because I found the snails after I had been gone for aout 24 hours. The thing is I was treating my tank for ich when the snails popped up, so I assumed that even if I did try the chemical approach, which I don't like to do, it wouldn't have worked. Most of the snails are gone, and the loaches still ahve a few small insignificant ones but I don't think I will have much of a problem getting them back to fish food if I keep an eye on them. If I have to I will get some brine shrimp or something liek that for them to eay.
Do you guys have any suggestions on things to feed them if they don't seem to like the flakes?


Christina

I'm not sure about clown loaches, but my yoyo's love sinking shrimp pellets. I got them for my snail infested 10g and after a few weeks eating the snails, I put them in my 55. They used to be shy but now everytime I feed them they are out after the pellets. I think CL's are so cute...too bad they get so big. I'd get some for my 55. My Yoyo's are just as cute though. Good Luck! :%)

*Kristin*