# Getting rid of snails



## dianainOH (Mar 21, 2009)

Hi guys, It's been a couple of months since i set up my two npts (55 and 29). They are both doing well, but the 55 is doing better, since I have added fish to it. It is fairly heavily stocked, I overfeed the heck out of it (I have fat fish!) and my water quality is great. The house plants growing out of the back have doubled their size, and I throw away double handfuls of hornwort weekly. I am getting some algae, but not a lot considering that it is in front of a window. I thank all of you for the help you gave me when I was setting up. This really is turning into a happy experiment for me.

I was going to take some pictures, but I have had a minor (so far) ich outbreak, and my treatment is turning the water brown. I am treating with Kordon's Ich Attack, and I have a uv sterilizer on the way. I know a hospital tank would be a better fix, but right now I just can't do it. Fortunately I caught it very early. I have a couple of itchy barbs and one clown loach that has two or three spots. I think the ich attack is working; no one is getting worse and no new spots have appeared on the loach, or on any of my other fish. Amazing, since I have four clown loaches. I've been treating for three days and the plants seem fine with the meds so far. I have noticed that the fish really are healthier in a NPT. The ich just doesn't seem to be as virulent as it was in my old style tanks.

I am getting ready to stock my 29, but I plan on having cory cats rather than loaches as bottom feeders. I am having a pond snail problem in that tank, and I'm not sure if the cories will take care of it. What I would like to do lure the snails into a container so I can drop them into my 55 for my loaches to snack on. I seem to remember reading about someone baiting snails with some type of fruit or veggie and luring them into a jar. Does that sound familiar? Does anyone have any other ideas for catching snails efficiently? Thanks!


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## Crispino Ramos (Mar 21, 2008)

PM member Ethan318 - she sells moss that attracts snails, the snails gather in the moss but don't eat the moss, cling to it, making it easy to scoop the moss and shake out the snails.


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

I wish I have your problem. I love to have a lot of pond snails. Just can't seem to grow many. The one's I do have are getting pretty big. The ramshorn snails are getting to the size of those mystery snail or whatever snail they sell at LFS. I have a ton of the trumpet snails. That might be the reason the other pest snail(which I love) aren't multiplying. The pond snail is my main live food I have for my fishes. Too bad I don't have much. I just grab one and crush the shell and the fish will chomp them up with vigor. The trumpet snails are a lot more trouble, I have to use a plier or something to crush the shell. And the pliers will get rusty and messy, so I don't do it. Most efficient way is to put some food in the water and it will gather. Maybe try semi heated vegetable slice as they don't foul the water very quickly and the snail should gather. Never tried though.


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## clearleaf (Oct 4, 2008)

Believe the standard trick is to place a slice of zucchini(usually blanched) under (or on, if you've weighted the veggie) a little plate or coffee mug or whatever and leave overnight. In the morning you'll have a small collection of snails attached to the veggie and you simply remove.

Of course I'm a clutz and they would all fall off as I tried to lift the veggie out of the water. But then just went and vacuumed them up. Which always made me feel even guiltier.

Generally they are good for a natural habitat, but I can understand how disturbing it can be when the population gets out of hand.

PS: If I had the problem again I would do more than one piece of zucchini, perhaps several spread around the tank. I was always underwhelmed with the amount I caught with just one slice.


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

Try rotating different vegies. Partially cooked seems best. When you find the one that seems to work the best then add that one perhaps once a week to attract enough snails to feed to the Loaches without removing all the snails, this way you continue to have breeding stock. Fish like vegetables, too, so do not be alarmed if all your 'snail bait' is gone in the morning. 

Zucchini: Blanch or microwave in a little water. When the white part is not totally clear, but is no longer white it is done. 
Orange and many other fruits (melon, strawberry, banana): Serve fresh, thin slices. Fish eat the same part of the orange that we do, snails go for the rind. 
Peas, Lima beans and similar: If you start with frozen just defrost and pop them out of their skins. (in my tanks the fish always eat them before the snails). 
Green Beans: Slice lengthwise. They will still be sort of firm when they are done, just not as firm as raw beans. The young beans inside can be served like peas. 
Pumpkin, hard squash like Butternut, yam, sweet potato: Bake to about the same tenderness we like. Baking keeps them drier, less likely to fall apart in the tank. Can also be boiled, but this makes them a bit mushy. 
Green, leafy vegies: Softest (Spinach, red leaf lettuce) Blanch for only a few seconds. These should not even wilt. 
Firmer leaf vegies: (kale, chard): Blanch just a few seconds more. Also should not wilt.


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## clearleaf (Oct 4, 2008)

Diana: you rock.


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

> Diana: you rock.


Yea, the chair I use at this computer wobbles.


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## dianainOH (Mar 21, 2009)

I will try baiting w/some veggies under a plate. If that's too slow I will take Crispino's suggestion and try to get some moss from Ethan318. I am not disturbed by the snails; but they are starting to make holes in some of the plants. There is NO algae left in the tank, and any decomposing leaves are gone almost overnight. I'm afraid that the population is getting so high that the plants won't be able to compete. In addition to pond snails, ramshorn snails and trumpet snails, I have two mystery snails that I bought for my other tank after the loaches ate all of the smaller snails in that tank. I figured that they would be too large to get eaten. I was wrong on that one. The next morning I found all four loaches surrounding one of the snails picking at it while it huddled in it's shell. All they needed was little do rags and they would have looked like a gang doing a mugging. So now the mystery snails live in the 29.
This morning I noticed a thin red worm sticking up about an inch out of the gravel waving back and forth. I'm not sure what it is, but it looks disturbing. To me the waving looks like prey seeking behavior. Anyone have any ideas on that one??? 

BTW, Diana K , I want to come to your house for dinner. I'd be happy eating your snail food!


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

I have occasionally seen the odd worm in the substrate of some tanks, but they don't bother anything. If there are so many they are always out on top it is getting too crowded in there. Mostly the fish will eat them, if you give them the chance. Skip feeding the fish for one day a week and let the fish hunt through the tank for things like this. 

Some fish (besides Loaches) will also eat pond snails. Crush the snail shell and drop it back into the tank. Some fish learn how to open the packaging themselves after they have tasted escargots. 
Loaches (Clowns and others) will pester the larger snails until the larger snails will not come out of hiding. My Clowns eat garden snails within 24 hours of dropping one in the tank.


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## WhiteDevil (May 7, 2009)

know anyone with a dwarf puffer you can use for a few days if that?


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## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

What are you doing with the 29? Compressed CO2? Plants? If the plants are either tough or plentiful, you can always temporarily drop in some kind of botia spp. Yoyo loach much on small snails just fine. If you've got a bunch of high end, delicate plants, my favorite way has been to attack their shells. Just change the water out with 100% RO, replace the minerals via ferts to maintain osmotic pressure via GH (50ppm will do the job, standard EI stuff) with very low KH, bubbling in the CO2 until it gets down to around 6.0-6.5. I maintain my parameters at this level 100% of the time anyhow, but a month or two of it will wipe out snails and their eggs IME.

*edit* oops, didn't see which area of the forum I was on. Go with the yoyo loach, even dwarf chain might work. Puffers are very good if you've got absolutely no stock currently in there; I'm sure a LFS would oblige.

-Philosophos


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## WhiteDevil (May 7, 2009)

A dwarf will be fine as long as it has a source of food, once the snails run out get it out of there quick.


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## pkeeler (Apr 26, 2009)

If there are no fish in there, why not lower the pH to around 5.8. That will, supposedly, dissolve the snails. If it doesn't, we will at least put to rest the idea that you need pH > 7 to keep snails


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## wkndracer (Mar 23, 2008)

Lowered KH to 2 degrees on two injected tanks (with fish) and every ramshorn was gone in less than 30 days. There were bunch's of snails because they had something to eat, with the snails gone I've had a nice algae bloom.


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

Cories do not do great work on snails. Loaches are better, and generally decent in a community tank. 
For a 29, though, only the smaller Loaches would work (sids, Kuhlies) and they are not as fast at controlling the snails. I think these smaller Loaches just eat the smallest snails, so you are getting rid of the babies, but the breeders are still there. 
Skunk Loaches can be very aggressive. Puffers can be very aggressive. Same comments about both: OK with no other fish in the tank, but neither species are good community fish. 
Keeping the 29 going as a snail breeding tank for the Clown Loaches is OK, too. Just use whichever bait you found worked the best perhaps once or twice a week.


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## dianainOH (Mar 21, 2009)

I think I'll stick trying to control the population rather than tinkering w/the water chemistry. I don't really mind the snails, I just need to cut their numbers a bit and reduce plant damage. I do like kulis and I 've never owned sids, so they might be an option. I could bait out larger snails for the clowns in the 55 and keep smaller loaches in the 29 to control offspring. Do you think kulis or sids will harass my mystery snails??


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## JKUK (Feb 16, 2007)

I always use assassin snails, (Anentome helena) in planted tanks as I find loaches can be too destructive. Not to mention near impossible to catch without destroying your plants. These little guys will eat just about any other aquatic snails, even ones much larger than themselves. A simple natural cure.


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

That is the problem. Anything you add that attacks snails will attack the pet snails as well as the pest snails. 
Best solution may be a 2-part approach. 
Do not overfeed the tank (excess fish food feeds snails) and harvest the snails for Loach food.


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