Getting rid of snails without killing plants

[Gillie]

Does anybody have some advice on getting rid of snail without killing my plants? I've noticed that products made to kill snails contains quite a bit of copper, so those are out of the question. I have tried using a pvc tube capped off on one end for a trap(which works ok as long as the apistos aren't spawning) and of course plucking them out by hand. I also had to move my plecos to an empty grow out tank because the snails get to the veggies and wafers before they do.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all
Flubenol is a pretty efficient snail killer. It had no effect on the Camallanus worms it was aimed at (although Levamisole did), but it killed all the Malaysian Trumpet Snail, and the tank remained inhospitable to snails for some time afterwards, also killed all the Planaria.

I only have MTS, which I like, but if they get out of hand I use put in extra cucumber in an aquarium net placed on the sand and fish them out for 3 or 4 nights, if you don't mind coming back every hour or so after lights out you can catch a lot in one sitting.

If you think you have a lot of MTS, be very careful with water quality, because you will have 10x as many as you think you have.


cheers Darrel

 

[ed seeley]

If you've got lots of snails then you're feeding too much! Cut the feeding back and the numbers will naturally reduce.

If you want to get rid of some a bit faster then I would couple this with syphoning off all the snails you can see every time you do a water change. If you use cheimcals then you will rapidly kill off all the snails and their bodies will rot down effecting your water quality.

 

[Gillie]

I do syphon off what I can during my daily water changes and the fish in the tank get a small amount of bbs once a day and the plecos would get a few peas during the day and a wafer at night. The snails eat the pleco's food and devour my plants. With my daily water changes a quick kill with chemicals wouldn't be out of the question I can just change a little more water every change. I just need to get rid of them before it's over for my plants.

 

[chris1932]

Sera makes a snail trap that works very well. I have cut the numbers by 70% with just the trap. Botine loaches work very well also but keep to striata, as tey stay small.

 

[jmtrops]

Fluke tabs kills them all and any hydra you might have too.

Jim

 

[georgedv]

My favorite Clown Loaches. I always keep 2 five gal buckets w/java moss and snails to feed my loaches. When a tank breaks out, I get my duo in there and in a few days they clean it all up. The only draw back is that these loaches can reach one foot in length.....after many many many years.


g

 

[Gillie]

Thanks for the replies. I ended up ordering some assassin snails to see what they can do, if they don't produce satisfactory results I'll try what was suggested here.

 

[Csababá]

do snails make water quality bad?

Dw1305,
what do you mean by that? "If you think you have a lot of MTS, be very careful with water quality"
Thx

 

[dw1305]

Mts

HI Csababa,
I only meant that if you killed your snails, a large proportion of the MTS will be under the substrate when they die. I'd agree with Ed that killing your snails probably isn't a good idea, although I think the large number Gillie has is probably as a result of feeding vegetables to her Plecs, rather than general overfeeding.

I think tanks are more stable with MTS, although you can't put them with blackwater fish, the only downside I can think of is that if their poplation really had exploded, they would significantly increase the bioload of the tank.

cheers Darrel

 

[Csababá]

Thank you, I thought there was something wrong with MTSs. Do they suffer in blackwater?

 

[Gillie]

Darrel, I believe you meant his plecos : )
Anyway the main problem is the ramshorns that are also eating my plants. I rarely see the mts the probably don't compete well with the ramshorns.

 

[ed seeley]

Are you sure the snails are eating your plants? I have both tropical ramshorns and the bladder snails in my planted tanks and they don't eat healthy plants. Small holes in the leaves can be a sign of a potassium deficiency!

 

[bigbird]

I do three things if I encounter this problem
1. Put the feeding pellet/tablets on a small plate, then the snails will gather on the plate and remove the plate and slowly you will get rid of them
2. I also have 2loaches which Iuse ,they love the smails
3. Stop feeding too much.

hope this helps cheers jk :biggrin:

 

[WaterChangeWarrior]

I've not found many fish that don't enjoy a crushed snail meal now and then...actually have put many cory cats into spawning condition working snails into the diet! For this reason I look at a manageable snail population as a good thing rather than a problem. Just a few here and there when they start to get noticeable in the tank seems to keep them under control.

 

[Gillie]

Are you sure the snails are eating your plants? I have both tropical ramshorns and the bladder snails in my planted tanks and they don't eat healthy plants. Small holes in the leaves can be a sign of a potassium deficiency!

I've watched the little buggers dessimate one of my hygro kompact. They seem to gather, munch and move on. I was able to remove a good number of them and did a quick dip in bleachwater, a short soak in saltwater and then thouroughly rinsed the plant.

 

[dw1305]

Sorry, unhealthy plants? MTS and pH

Sorry Gillie,
With apologies, there aren't many Darrels in the UK, and it can be either a boy or girls name, so I should know better.

I think Ed might have a point, I might be tempted to try a a lot more light and/or a very limited amount of plant food (one of the total ones - NPK Fe Mg Ca + traces)

Csababa MTS can extract calcium from water where the pH is below 7, (a lot of snails can't), but even for them at some point the water will be acid enough to erode the shell more quickly than it can be formed.

From the Skeptical Aquarist:

"A snail shell, like all mollusc shells, is built up in three layers. The inner two are structural; they are formed of calcareous crystals. The patterned organic outermost layer is protective; it helps keep the calcareous inner layers from being dissolved in acidic environments. Often snail shells become pitted anyway, in very soft acidic waters. Melania are more resistant than most snails to shell degradation; usually the pitting is visible only at the smallest, thinnest, oldest part of the shell, the tip of its cornucopia."

Blackwater is calcium and carbonate poor and acidic, so it will be inhospitable to all snails. Adult MTS may be able to survive for a limited time, but shell erosion will eventually kill them.

cheers Darrel

 

[Microman]

I put 8 snail eating snails(Anentome helena) in my very well planted 360Ltr Discus tank to combat a snail problem and i must say that the results have been outstanding.
I now have no visible snails to speak of and as an added bonus the Anentome helena have been rather prolific in the breeding department despite what i have read about them reproducing at a very slow rate. Just moved approx 80 to the LFS where i work.....
They also do very well on any high protein diet so no problems when their natural food source dries up, they feed and do very well on any uneaten Beef heart in my tank.
From my experience i would certainly recommend them....
Mark...