# Snail Infestation



## Punk-N (Dec 3, 2007)

I have a snail problem. They must have come in on some plants I bought from Pets Inc. I do try and get rid of what I can see, however now it's become to many tiny little ones and now there are holes in my plants and my tank looks horrible. I've just recently had a bunch of baby cherry shrimp born and I also have neons in my tank. So how do I go about getting rid of these snails without loosing my shrimp or fish?


----------



## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Most snails become a problem when the tank is over feed. Cutting back on feeding will help cut down on the future population. 

To get rid of the current population, add a piece of lettuce. The snails will crawl on to the lettuce, after an hour remove the lettuce along with snails. The only drawback is that your shrimp will go for the lettuce also. 

Loaches will also eat the snails, but they will also eat your shrimpletts. So your best may to be just crush the small ones against the glass as you see them. The shrimp & fish will make a snack out of remains. 

I really don't know if the snails are causing the holes in your plants. Most snails that come on plants do not eat healthy plants. You may want to look into nutrient dificiency's, especially if you are not dosing ferts.


----------



## Punk-N (Dec 3, 2007)

I will try the lettus. There seems to be a divider in my tank, lol. My shrimp stick to the right side, I never see them on the left. And same goes for the snails. Snails stay to the left but not the right. If I use lettus I should be able to shoo of the shrimp if they do go for it. I have been crushing them on the side of the glass to get rid of them but it seems like if I smoosh one.. there's 7 or 8 to replace it within the next hour or so. I just didn't want to loose my lil shrimps, I've been watching them for awhile and it's the first thing in a tank that's ever been born for me, so I've been pretty excited. I'd hate to loose them.


----------



## d.plant (Jan 5, 2008)

can you use had a snail in planted aquariums or os that a big no no


----------



## tkos (Oct 30, 2006)

Generally snail killing meds lead to dead shrimp. Copper based killing agent and all. It is always best to look for a simple, chemical free solution.


----------



## cleek (Jan 24, 2008)

get so yoyo loaches


----------



## jazzlvr123 (Apr 29, 2007)

a balanced aquarium that has no algae growth will subsequently have a VERY low snail population. snail population booms are usually becuase of: overfeeding and or unbalanced fert levels which causes algae growth (a vital food source for snails). Ive had population booms in the past, and just by leveling out my aquarium parameters through less feeding and correcting my fertilizing scheme. I was able to eliminate all the excess food and algae growth that normally turns into snail food, becuase of this there are now little to no snails in my tank all without ever having to physically kill a single snail. but beck it your lazy just get some shrimp safe loaches and they will go to town.


----------



## helgymatt (Sep 12, 2007)

I've got lots of very small snail (maybe a few mm wide). They don't seem to get much bigger...at least they haven't yet. I also have about 50 nerites that I want to KEEP. If I get some loaches to clean up the smaller snails, with they bother the nerites?


----------

