# Moving Plants Not Snails (Vinegar)



## CThompson (Jul 23, 2007)

Not familiar with this web site, so I hope I am posting it in the correct section.

Some years ago I had a large full on auto CO2 injection planted tank. It was the love of my life (next to wife and kids), but life got too busy and I couldn’t maintain as needed/wanted, and a planted tank not properly maintained can be an eye sore. So I changed it to a fish, fish tank, but my favorite plant Anubias nana “Petite” I couldn’t part with so set a tank up at the time in the only space I had available …outside. There’ve been outside for some years now, I do nothing too them, for which Anubias are perfect for. It can get cold in Sydney over winter, so I had to heat the tank (read $), and believe it or not there can be heaps of evaporation in an outdoor heated tank in winter temperatures. A couple of times I lost…wait for it …3/4 of the water through evaporation. No idea why the heaters didn’t blow up. 

To protect the plants, for some time now I have been wanting to move the plants back inside, and I have ordered a new tank, just a 100 liter octagonal tank to facilitate this.

However I have clockspring snails in this outside tank, and I DO NOT WANT TO move these little …blighters (cleaned up) in this new tank. I read recently on another website that it was possible to dip plants from a tank where snails existed in a 3 to 1 water to vinegar (white or brown) solution and that this would kill not only the snails but their eggs.

It was commented that the plants needed to be dunked a few times quickly for this to be successful.

Now, I have worlds of experience at eradicating snails, could write a book on it (almost literally), but I have never heard of this before. So I am wondering if there is someone who may be able to corroborate this method, and if so if you could please give further details and experiences.


Craig


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

Hi,

I've never heard of the vinegar treatment to kill snails either. 

I did a search on "clockspring snails" but nothing turned up. Do they have another name - ramshorns, maybe?

What do clockspring snails do that is so bad? 

Bill


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

Alum is usually used to kill snails. Or potassium permanganate. Neither will kill eggs though so you'd just have to quarentine them long enough then treat again. I can ssure you vinegar won't work. I tried it. They just closed up and came back when the vinegar was gone.

Or get a puffer. They eat snails like its their main diet. Hang on, snails are their main diet. 

That must explain it.


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## CThompson (Jul 23, 2007)

aquabillpers said:


> Hi,
> 
> I've never heard of the vinegar treatment to kill snails either.
> 
> ...


Clockspring snails only appeared in Australia that I saw about ....10 years back. For a number of years I had no name for them (other than ones I'd have to edit here). I expect they have come from locations not native to Australia.

I then saw on an OS internet site a mention with photo with this name.

Clockspring snails only get to about 4 mm max, are similar in shell construction to ramshorn snails except if you look close enough you will see one side is convex the other concave (ramshorn are concave on both sides). They lay really tiny egg rafts, only a couple of millimeters across, transparent with about half a dozen eggs.

The problem, as with all snails (except for such large ones as mystery snails) is that sooner or later their numbers will get to plague proportions.

If I can't control it I don't want it, and they are harder to get rid of than MBS.

Craig


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## CThompson (Jul 23, 2007)

rs79 said:


> Alum is usually used to kill snails. Or potassium permanganate. Neither will kill eggs though so you'd just have to quarentine them long enough then treat again. I can ssure you vinegar won't work. I tried it. They just closed up and came back when the vinegar was gone.
> 
> Or get a puffer. They eat snails like its their main diet. Hang on, snails are their main diet.
> 
> That must explain it.


Thanks rs79. Appreciate the input. That was the reaction I would expect too.

Craig


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## Grubs (Jul 4, 2007)

CThompson said:


> Clockspring snails only get to about 4 mm max, are similar in shell construction to ramshorn snails except if you look close enough you will see one side is convex the other concave (ramshorn are concave on both sides).


Thanks for posting that - now I have a name too. My 70l is infested with these sub-4mm clockspring snails. I'm also in Australia (Melbourne) so Dwarf Puffers aren't an option.

I've used potassium permanganate dips when transfering plants into other tanks and so far the snails are confined to one tank. I currently hand-pick 20-30 snails a day and toss them in my _Macrobrachium_ tank where at 18C and they seems to shut down and die or get eaten. I'm well and truly losing the battle. I've never seen an egg raft - I was assuming they were live-bearers.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Try some loaches.


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## CThompson (Jul 23, 2007)

Grubs said:


> Thanks for posting that - now I have a name too. My 70l is infested with these sub-4mm clockspring snails. I'm also in Australia (Melbourne) so Dwarf Puffers aren't an option.
> 
> I've used potassium permanganate dips when transfering plants into other tanks and so far the snails are confined to one tank. I currently hand-pick 20-30 snails a day and toss them in my _Macrobrachium_ tank where at 18C and they seems to shut down and die or get eaten. I'm well and truly losing the battle. I've never seen an egg raft - I was assuming they were live-bearers.


Their egg rafts are tiny, and the only place I have seen them laid is on the glass just below the gravel level (3mm grain size , 1-2 grains down).

I don't know if this is the only place they lay eggs as it is feasible that on other surfaces I have not been able to see them due to their size and transparency. But they are definitely not live bearers.


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