# Pest snails finally getting to me.



## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

Started out with 1 HUGE pest snail (think its a bladder snail, could be pond snail. didnt look into it that much) and now I have about 1k of them in there crawling around especially at night.


here is the trick, I have 1 nerite, shrimp, and chopstick snails (which I all dearly love) that i'd like to keep. So how do I kill off the PEST snails? I watched some videos on traps- etc. And im working on that now, is that about all I can do? this is in my 40b and I am not going to invest in other fish to wipe out the problem.

they have sadly moved on to eating my plants!


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

hmm, regular pond snail don't eat healthy plants. odd.
You can also throw in a lettuce leaf. Wait till it's covered in snails and remove.


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

DutchMuch said:


> Started out with 1 HUGE pest snail (think its a bladder snail, could be pond snail. didnt look into it that much) and now I have about 1k of them in there crawling around especially at night.
> 
> here is the trick, I have 1 nerite, shrimp, and chopstick snails (which I all dearly love) that i'd like to keep. So how do I kill off the PEST snails? I watched some videos on traps- etc. And im working on that now, is that about all I can do? this is in my 40b and I am not going to invest in other fish to wipe out the problem.
> 
> they have sadly moved on to eating my plants!


We have second tank up and running with convicts so when the snails start getting to thick we put something food wise in the tank to attract as many as possible then scoop them all up and feed to convicts it thins them out and the convicts love ya for it but that requires you to have another tank

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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

mistergreen said:


> hmm, regular pond snail don't eat healthy plants. odd.
> You can also throw in a lettuce leaf. Wait till it's covered in snails and remove.


if you go to my journal and look at the pics I just uploaded, you can my rotala indica 'true' got munched on, I watched it being munched on as well. Very healthy plant to


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## Gerald (Mar 24, 2008)

I find that Lymnaea snails often eat soft-leaf plants in my tanks, but Physa, Planorbis, and Melanoides do not (other than dead decaying leaves). Lymnaea are really bad on my Cape Fear spatterdock (Nuphar) in an outdoor tub.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

ok I need help for real now
cause last night I had blyxa japonica
and this morning its almost gone

and theres like 50 snails on all of it
so wtf do I do


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Traps not working?
Every time you see a snail, crush it.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

lol noted!
kind of what ive been doing, I crushed about 50 so far- hope im even having an effect lmao


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Do you not have any assassin snails? How about a puffer or some loaches?


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

Michael said:


> Do you not have any assassin snails? How about a puffer or some loaches?


Well Michael I was really thinking about a puffer- but I have other fish and some other snails of which I really adore. Fish wise I heard puffers and mainly aggressive fish? As for assassins, same reason as puffers- I got other snails I love in there!


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

I wouldn't recommend loaches in a tank with foreground plants. They'd wreck it.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

and it looks like michaels assassins, puffers, and loaches just got shot down LOL
SORRY MICHAEL YOU'LL GET EM' NEXT TIME! lol


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

hmmm
is their a fish out there in this majestic world that only eats very small snails, no shrimp, and no big snails, and is to territorial lol


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

so I did a bit of piddle paddle reading on assassin snails- seams like its sadly the only option left.
Slow breeding rate
whats the consuming rate for its prey however? And would they indeed kill my chopsticks? not so worried about my cherries... I know they can eat cherries but- theres a lot of hiding spots and room to roam.


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## plazuk (Nov 24, 2017)

DutchMuch said:


> hmmm
> is their a fish out there in this majestic world that only eats very small snails, no shrimp, and no big snails, and is to territorial lol


Well, apart from the shrimp eating and territoriality, all of my bettas like to snack on the smallest snails, keeping ramshorn population in check. They do not eat the big ones. 
I had a couple bettas that were not interested in shrimp but most of the others would massacre the shrimp.
May not be an option for You, it's just my two cents =)

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## Tsin21 (Oct 12, 2017)

As per my experience, my tank before had a population explosion of bladder snails, mts and ramshorn; as in snails everywhere. So I started with 2 assassin snails and then added 3 more since 2 wouldn't dent the population in a 15 gallon tank. But then, they also started breeding. I can find assassin snail eggs (they look like tiny pillow cases) on the driftwood and mosses. Once the eggs hatched (after around a month or so) that's when the decline of pest population is noticeable. Now, zero pest snail and more than 20 assassins. And that all happened in a span of less than a year. The assassins will start with the smallest snails first then move on to the bigger ones once they got rid of the smaller ones. So your chopsticks will probably be safe as long as there are smaller pest snails. But once those are finished, they'll be back on the menu for the assassins. As for now, I'm actually having trouble right now breeding the pest snails in a separate tank just to feed the assassins and I'm afraid of keeping any fancy snails with my assassins.

I once saw at the lfs a group of assassins ganging up on a golf ball size apple snail.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

I have used Botia Striata loaches to control snails, with very good results. 









They didn't bother my plants. I always fed them at least 3 times a week with algae wafers, hoping that would meet their needs for salads.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Loaches like to uproot/sift the substrate. That's more of the concern. Deep rooted plants are fine but the small roots foreground plants will float around the tank.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

mistergreen said:


> Loaches like to uproot/sift the substrate. That's more of the concern. Deep rooted plants are fine but the small roots foreground plants will float around the tank.


plus I really wouldn't want to add anymore larger fish ( over 1") so thats out for me.
Currently WTB some assassin snails (5)


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## ObiQuiet (Oct 9, 2009)

DutchMuch said:


> so I did a bit of piddle paddle reading on assassin snails- seams like its sadly the only option left.
> Slow breeding rate
> whats the consuming rate for its prey however? And would they indeed kill my chopsticks? not so worried about my cherries... I know they can eat cherries but- theres a lot of hiding spots and room to roam.


In a 100g, I have assassins and a large, growing pop of cherry shrimp and they have not in 3 years done anything to the larger nerite snails. I do think they would get the chopsticks though.

In my case, didn't have any small snails to preserve. What happened was:
1. Had an exploding population of pond snails
2. Added 3 assassins, then 5 more
3. The pond snail population didn't budge for a few months, then dropped very quickly to zero.
4. At that time the assassin snail population exploded. I gave about 60 to the LFS. Took 5-6 months to level out again.
5. Since then the assassin population has stabilized. I can count about 15 visible ones easily, but there are not so many total that anyone really notices them.

Now, three years in the assassins, nerites, and hundereds of pin-head sized snails that only come out at night seem to be in equilibrium. The shrimp popluation is growing.

The only part of that that's relevant for your case is that my experience predicts that you won't be able to keep the assassin population low enough to preserve your chopsticks.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

Thank you very much for information it helped so much! thank u thank u! 
I have 1 large nerite who I guess ill keep in the tank, during the day just watch carefully. Hopefully they realize there is more fish to fry! easier fish to at that.


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