# Is anyway to remvoe snails safely?



## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

I got all kind of snail in my planted tank, I have angelfish laid eggs recently.
I don't want snails eat those eggs in night.

Is any safe method to remove all the snails.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Angel fish are pretty good parents, even at night they will defend their eggs from snails.

Buut... you could try weighing down a piece of lettuce and taking it out a few hours later when the snails are all over it. Also, clown loaches, horse loaches and yoyo loaches will eat snails, but they take a while to eat them (on the order of days-weeks). 

Don't use chemicals to kill the snails as they will also harm the fish eggs.


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## aquatic_clay (Aug 17, 2009)

You could try some assassin snails. They take care of problem snails pretty quickly.

I like zapins idea also about luring them out with lettuce.

clay


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

aquatic_clay said:


> You could try some assassin snails. They take care of problem snails pretty quickly.
> 
> I like zapins idea also about luring them out with lettuce.
> 
> clay


I heard once you introduce assassin snail to your tank, it's hard to get ride of it later.

Thanks Zapins and Clay. I will try Zapins' idea too.
James


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## LVKSPlantlady (Oct 4, 2009)

Loaches are really not good for snail control...I got some skunk loaches for my 10 gal that had a mix of close to 10,000 ramshorns, pond and trumpet snails in it! Worked really really good to get rid of all the snails. Problem was that the skunk loaches would not eat anything else and once all the snails were gone one died...now I have a 5 gal tank JUST for snails to feed these fish! 

Others have stated they used clown loaches, these loaches get very big and can become very mean with out enough other clowns to take it out on,

Yoyo are another option but again they need lots of space and company 5-7 yoyo should be keep in a 40 long for them to be really happy...

Seems the best route may be buying some of those assassin snails everyone has been talking about, the eat every snail they can find and reproduce slowly, that's just what I've heard though, I don't have any cuz I need all the snails i can get to feed the snail eating fish I have!

Also another reason not to buy these fish is they are not captive raised, Almost all the Loaches you see in any petstore are WILD caught!


I've posted this before and i will post it again!


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

LVKSPlantlady said:


> Loaches are really not good for snail control...I got some skunk loaches for my 10 gal that had a mix of close to 10,000 ramshorns, pond and trumpet snails in it! Worked really really good to get rid of all the snails. Problem was that the skunk loaches would not eat anything else and once all the snails were gone one died...now I have a 5 gal tank JUST for snails to feed these fish!
> 
> Others have stated they used clown loaches, these loaches get very big and can become very mean with out enough other clowns to take it out on,
> 
> ...


Thanks, I will take a look on loaches.
One more question, does loaches attack apple snail? I have two good size apple snails which I want to keep.

I hesitate on assassin snails is because some people is talking about hard to get rid of it after all the other snails be cleaned.

James


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## LVKSPlantlady (Oct 4, 2009)

Apple snails will eat your plants! Loaches will not eat big ones but they will eat small babies...

I'm not suggesting you get loaches for snail control! I'm saying NOT to buy loaches just for that!!

Buy them because you want a tank for them! They are really fun to watch!


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## LVKSPlantlady (Oct 4, 2009)

Also any type of loach that would eat a snail would make short work of newly hatched angel fish...


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

Found this snail trap, does any one use it before?

James


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## paleopaque (Jun 23, 2009)

@James He you can make your own trap for next to nothing. just slice the top off of a small plastic soda bottle, inverting it so the cone is going into the bottle, and tape it in place. put some smelly fish food inside the bottle and leave it in the tank overnight. my uncle and i used to catch wild shrimp like this too 
good luck...


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

Got some Ladder Stripe Loaches, let's see.
The good thing for this type loach is max lenght less then 2.5 inches.

Here is the picture:










Some information I found on internet:


> In 2004, fish taxonomist Dr. Maurice Kottelat reported that he considered the Ladder Loach, Botia rostrata, to be a junior synonym of B. almorhae. I have included it here as it is still exported and sold as a 'separate' species and is quite widely available in the trade. Despite this development linking the two species, many people report that these fish are actually much friendlier than B. almorhae. Juveniles sport a black twin bar (ladder like) pattern on a white-gold background, and as the fish mature, this transforms into a net-like reticulated pattern. In the wild, this fish, which grows to 16 cm (6.25 in), occurs in the hillstreams of India and Bangladesh. In the home aquarium they are more likely to reach a size of 8.5 cm (3.3 in).


James


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## feiyang (Jan 27, 2007)

I kept dwarf puffer fishes before, they ate all my snails, and kept finding snails in plants. You can find dwarf puffer for sale in King Aquarium, San Jose.


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

feiyang said:


> I kept dwarf puffer fishes before, they ate all my snails, and kept finding snails in plants. You can find dwarf puffer for sale in King Aquarium, San Jose.


Thanks Fei,

I heard dwarf puffer is aggressive to other fishes. is this true?

I have Angelfish, tetra, danio, etc in this community tank.

James


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## ree123 (Jan 10, 2010)

Good idea for a snail trap! Hadn't heard of this one. There are so many newcomers who ask about snail control. Seems this idea should be published more places, including in the magazines within our hobby. Great suggestion paleopaque.


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## paleopaque (Jun 23, 2009)

ree123 said:


> Good idea for a snail trap! Hadn't heard of this one. There are so many newcomers who ask about snail control. Seems this idea should be published more places, including in the magazines within our hobby. Great suggestion paleopaque.


It seems like not many people have tried it, but it really has been effective for me. Aside from manually removing the snails which often leaves behind the itty bitty guys I can't really think of any other method without chems or introducing more animal. :noidea:


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

Ladder Stripe Loaches do a very good work to clean the MTS in my 29G planted tank.

They are pretty active but not aggressive, it's safe to keep in a community tank even with Angelfish.

I love it.


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

The best way to get rid of snails is to prevent them in the first place. Second is to simply pick them out. Crunching snails works (although you are left with the shells) and fish being fish, with different size mouths, will eventually eat the carcass of the snail.

Traps and lures all work and can be used to make the job of getting snails out of a tank faster, and sometimes easier. Ultimate disposal always is a problem to be dealt with.

Remember two things...snails are just another creature that has their place and they are interesting critters in their own right and we must accept that, also the methods we use to chemically get rid of, usually smaller things are not nice. Killing and disposing of properly is an obligation we all have, whether we want to admit it or not, and putting anything other than bodily wastes into a sanitary system is not appropriate


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## jon021 (Feb 23, 2010)

I crush the snails when i can see them, i also have some assassin snails in teh tank to take care of the ones i can't get to. It seems to have controlled the population but there are still a couple snails here and there


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

A good friend once told me that everything needs a backdoor. The question remains that if you use a bio control agent (a fish) what do you do with it once all the snails are gone (it has to eat?) And also how do you get rid of the shells that are left if you do not pick them out?


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