# Copper treatment for snails??



## TheLoachGuy (Oct 17, 2006)

Thread title says it all. I picked up some plants with snail eggs attached at the GCAS auction. They're tiny now, but I want em gone. I could release some loaches into the mix, but I dont want to disturb my juvi angels that are in the tank.. Any recommendations othre than the bottle of coppersafe I'm about to buy?

Ive got crypts, jungle val, bolbitis, java moss and fern.

thx.. 

Jeffe


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Since picking them out by hand is out of the question I would be prepared for some water changes after you kill off the snails. Once they die, they will begin to decompose in the tank. It may not be much of an issue depending on the size of your tank. 

I did a quick search and here are some of the directions for Copper Safe:

"CopperSafe may cause an adverse reaction with some sensitive invertebrates. Invertebrates without an exoskeleton such as jellyfish, anemones, etc. should be removed before treatment. CopperSafe may be harmful to plants, amphibians, and snails. Any sudden change in aquarium conditions can be hazardous. Make changes gradually. For aquarium use only."

I think I would be a bit leary of using it in my tanks though you do have some fairly hardy plants in your tank. I would definately remove any shrimp if you have them in the tank just in case.


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## TheLoachGuy (Oct 17, 2006)

no shrimp there and I doubt that i'll add them seeing as its my angelfish grow out tank. The tank is a 75 gallon with a couple sponge filters and a emperor 400, and large eheim attached. Not the typical plant tank i'm sure, but for some reason the plants there always thrive. Might have something to do with the 60lbs of flourite and the 140 watts of light on it. 

i'll be executing the lil buggers tonite!

thanks!


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## Rob Tetrazona (Jun 21, 2005)

Jeff,

I second the prepare for water changes. I recently re-did my planted 75 due to the 16 bags of plants I sold at the GCAS auction and consolidated the plants from 2 75's into 1 tank. I even dried it out. No snails. A couple of weeks later, snails were present. I Had-A-Snailed the crap out of the tank, didn't water change for probably a week, and the baby java ferns started getting yellow and more yellow and more yellow. I did a bunch of water changes and kept a good eye on the ferts making sure I had enough N in the tank. I'm still waiting for a sign of the ferns to snap back out of it, but they are slow growing. 

Not sure if this helps, but the snails are back. I'm questioning if the chemicals are even worth it. If I could do it all over again, I think I'd start out a new or redone tank with the film canister with small holes poked in it technique to catch them when they are small. They don't have to be very big to lay eggs again.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Keep in mind also that snail populations get out of hand in many cases due to overfeeding. I find them a great indicator of feeding amounts; I can actually visibly increase and decrease a snail population by changing the amount I'm feeding to the fish.

So if you do have a large snail manifestation, I'd suggest manually reducing the population (a piece of lettuce in over night will attract lots of them and in the morning you can take them out) and then reducing the amount you feed. You'll still have a couple here and there but few enough that you'll have to look hard to find them. And they'll help with cleanup and some algae. 

Much better than pouring poisons into the tank!


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## JRJ (Feb 9, 2005)

I had the same problem in one of my grow-out tanks for plants and moss. Very tiny snails - hundreds, if not thousands of them. I decided not to go the copper route. I added five 3/4" skunk loaches and within 24 hours I couldn't find a single snail. I'm sure this doesn't mean that they are gone. If I took the loaches out, in a month I'd start seeing snails again. I find skunk loaches kind of obnoxious, but snails more objectionable. I'm going to try to find some "dwarf loaches" which I've heard are less agressive and stay small.

Why not try loaches instead of poisoning your tank? You are the "loach guy" after all. 

FWIW, when I receive plants, I soak them for 2-3 minutes (time depending upon how delicate I think the plants are) in a 19:1, H2O/bleach solution and I never have problems when I do that. Soak after the bleach in a 3X/H2O declorinator solution. Moss doesn't do so well, but most plants don't seem to fair worse for it. Here's a link on it and other disinfection methods:

Aqua Botanic-Disinfecting Plants


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