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i might be ordering alot of plants from his guy off of ebay. now with alot of plants there will probably be snails. and i dont want these at all. so i plan to add them to a new tank that is bare. i guess i could add some clown loachs to take care of it, but is there another way.

You could do a bleach/water dip and rinse them in tap water while rubbing the leaves to get rid of any snails/eggs. I think the bleach:water ratio is something like 1(bleach):5(water) or something like that. I've forgotten since I never use it anymore because some slipped through when I was lazy....so no point wasting time trying to get rid of them anymore.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

i was looking at a non chem way. my eye has swelled up these past few days from mis use of chems. i am alittle freaked out.

If you don't have a tank with loaches or puffers to toss the plants into for a week then I don't know any 100% certain way to get rid of the snails aside from chemicals. You can rinse the plants under tap water and rub any eggs or snails off the leaves and stems. This works pretty well but you may miss a few eggs or tiny snails. I gave up keeping pest snails out of my tank but added mts to compete with them. So far mts population has grown and pest snails that chew on my plants leaves have decreased. I've only seen 1 baby pest snail in 2 weeks and little to no plant damage

i guess i can move some clowns from theere tanks to this 10 for a few days.i dont think any harm can come from that. will they know waht to do? will they go after the snails right away.

you could try paradise fish?

I would move the CL for a week & don't feed him, so he will search for the snails & do a great job for you. IMO there might still be some Snail survivors & you cannot be 100% sure you're Snail free.


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Usually I toss the plants in the tank with the loaches instead of having to move the loaches. It's alot less stressful on them and the plants do fine for a few days under low lights. Plus it requires tearing the tank apart to catch yoyo loaches

You can do a dip with alum.....it's technically a chemical but it's used in food (for pickling I think ), basically harmless. Here are the directions, I've never done this myself.

[link=alum dip clicky]http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/articles.php?action=viewarticle&artid=24" style="COLOR: #36af30[/link]

Alum Dip

The Alum dip is more for killing microscopic bugs. Use at 1 tablespoon per gallon of water. Soak the plant for at least an hour, longer soaks of 2 to 3 days are needed to kill snails and snail eggs. For snails and snails eggs a 2-3 hour soak in a stronger solution of 3 tablespoons per gallon of water is a better choice. Alum isn't nearly as effective as the prior two for killing algae. Alum is aluminum sulfate and Alum USP can be obtained from a compounding pharmacy or grocery stores. (It's usually with the spices, herbs and pickling supplies).

That page also gives instructions for using Potassium Permanganate, yes it *IS* a chemical, but as long as you take the necessary precautions there's not a whole lot to worry about. I would suggest the potassium permanganate dip just because it will probably be the most effective.

You can also use a hydrogen peroxide solution, which is reasonably harmless as long as you don't drink it or use it as an eye wash.

Loaches will work to some extent after the snails hatch but if you're that concerned, dipping is the way to go.

The best way to kill snails BEFORE they get in is Potassium Permanganate.. Bleach is too harsh on your plants and some nasties can gargle the stuff and still live. Alum is effective (maybe) but why wait 3 days when you can be done in 10 minutes ?

Remove any visible snails/eggs by hand, then...
Get some potassium permanganate, use gloves and a mask (or tie a shirt/towel around your face, and some plastic tongs (I used chopsticks), and old clothes.. Mix in bits of P Perm.. until the water turns a darkish purple. Submerge your plants in for 10 minutes, then remove into your rinse pail with water and extra dechlor.. give em a few good swishes to rinse, ready to plant. The batch you mixed may be effective for another day or 2.

I use a 2.5 gal tank as my 'dipping station'. Any plant under a foot long fits no problem, and don't have to waste powder mixing a larger batch..
This totally got rid of all snails during my tank swap..
Good luck !



The Amazon Nut...

you may not want snails in there since they eat plants, but if you get Malaysian trumpet snails they dont even touch the plants other than to clean them.

For snail elimination i have found dwarf puffer fishes immediately effective, no snail irrelevant of size is spared, even now i actively have to find snails for them.

They even kill snails they have no intention of eating, although their usage is not generally recommended for community tanks if you have multiple tank syndrome as i do it is not impossible to keep them in a tank for the reproduction cycle of a snail- typically a few months to totally and completely iradicate them, and then move them on.And puffers have the advantage of being cheap.

Puffers are sensitive to water quality tho and will not survive a tank that doesnt have established and stable water chemistry.

I also found banded tiger loaches to be excellent snail eaters, but they can be monstrous fin nippers, so better to combine them only with much larger fish, and not have too many of them.

Another tip for those who's filters are so efficient that they dont need to have the media changed often - check them! Once i found 200+ baby sails in the bottom of my eheim thermofilter, despite the heating element,and the impellor, who were obviously able to free migrate back to the tank whenever they wished. So dont forget to empty your filter and change the media if you have had a high snail infestation.

I generally use alum on my plants and haven't had a problem with snails in months. *knocks on wood desk*

I wouldn't mind using the Potassium Permanganate, but I just know I'd wind up purple ... which, you know, isn't a BAD thing, but people would look at me funny.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Winding up purple wouldn't look so bad
But it's more likely to stain brown, which is not so attractive : (

How long do you do your alum soak 3 days ?




The Amazon Nut...

hello
have you thought of giving the plants a salt bath for a few days?not at brackish levels but even lower levels will kill snaills. you may keep the plant in the salt bath for day as im not sure how long it will take for them to die. last tim i had an outbreak of ick i tries the salt and heat method. when i first added the salt ll the snails dropped off the glass and shut themselves in. when i moved them to another tank it took a couple of hurs for them to come out and their foot was shriveled up. they went back to normal after a while but they were only in the salty tank for 5 minutes. i guess it works the same way as on leeches.

A lot of plants are really intolerant to salt so in general I wouldn't do it unless you know the level of salinity the specific plant can handle for any length of time. The only time I could see using salt is a very strong dip for a very short period of time. As has already been mentioned, potassium permanganate and alum are much more effective.