snails

10 posts

Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


bigduke45123
 
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2008 1:19 am

snails

by bigduke45123

What is the best way to get rid of little snails in my fish tank? I put two yoyo loaches in there but they don't seem to want to eat them. I read that puffers eat them and want to know what other people do to rid there tanks I dont really want to use salt due to the fact that I have a few ghost shrimp in there


miami754
 
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:18 am

by miami754

I'm surprised to yoyos didn't work. Did you feed them while you were wanting them to eat the snails? If you feed them fish food then they can get used to that and they won't hunt down the snails. If you were feeding them then I suggest just not feeding the tank for a week. Any other fish you have in your tank will be fine (in fact it is good to go a week without food every once in a while) and the yoyos may get hungry enough to go after the snails.

I always used to use yoyos when I had a planted tank with snails.


bigduke45123
 
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2008 1:19 am

by bigduke45123

thanks miami754 I have been feeding them but I will go a few days without feeding and see if that works. I got some plants from the pet store is how the nasty little guys got into my aquarium. I also have a blackish hair looking alge on my plants any ideas about that?


a1k8t31524
 
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 5:10 am

by a1k8t31524

i personally do not see snails as a bad thing, i have lots of plants in my tank and i have snails all diffetent kinds pond snails, ramshorns, and MTS
but i do not have an overpopulation because i dont over feed ....
they are great part of my 55gal ecosystem
so i keep them
as long as you do not over feed the other inhabitants
you should be fine and do your waterchanges


Tmercier834747
 
Posts: 887
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm

by Tmercier834747

When I got my first live plants shortly after getting into the hobby, I wanted a way to eliminate snails just as you do, so I went out and got a 5gal tank and a dwarf puffer. (just a note, I don't recommend this setup--better might be 10gal with 2f 1m puffers as a species only tank). He will eat, and overeat any snails I put in his 5gal even today. I never had any interest in eliminating all the snails from my other tanks, just getting rid of the surplus.

Since then I've learned to control my fish feeding. Excess food means excess snails. I only overfeed my other fish now so I'll have -some- excess snails to feed my puffer, not a population explosion. =P

On that note I have to agree with a1 that snails can be handy and a good part of your little ecosystem.


bigduke45123
 
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2008 1:19 am

by bigduke45123

thank you guys I do tend to over feed just a little bit but I change my water every week and tend to do a little more than just 10% I probly do more like 25%-40% and my fish seem to really like it a lot. I did get a puffer and he seems to really like chomping down on the snails. You guys have been very helpful and now I just have to clear up the black hair looking alge and it should be lookin about perfect in my veiw.


yasherkoach
 
Posts: 1306
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2008 1:24 pm

by yasherkoach

I agree, do not overfeed and you will have your snail population steady and low

every Sunday, I fast the entire tank (no food), every other 3 weeks I fast the entire tank for 3 days...it helps to clean out the fish's intestines plus it helps the tank settle and it gives the ghost shrimp, snails and frogs time to clean up any unintended debris

puffers I think I read somewhere grow up to 1 foot long, plus the puffers will eat any snails, so you will wind up having to purchase snails to feed the puffer...so I think if you do not overfeed you should have no problem

beisdes, it is a good thing to have about 40 snails in the tank (40 gallon plus, that is), it helps to clean the tank


BurgerKing7704
 
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:03 pm

by BurgerKing7704

What type of puffer did you get?? Most are Brackish or saltwater and wont be healthy in a freshwater tank. Shrimp should control your hair algae. Clown loaches are also really good at snail control, plus they look cool(eventually get huge though).


yasherkoach
 
Posts: 1306
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2008 1:24 pm

by yasherkoach

true, clown loaches will also do the trick with snails, but they do get huge


Tmercier834747
 
Posts: 887
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm

by Tmercier834747

Dwarf puffers don't get any larger than an inch and are purely freshwater so I hope that's what you meant when you said you got one. They are extremely effective at eliminating most common ''pest'' snails like ramshorn and ''pond'' snails. They struggle a bit more than other puffers in regard to malaysian trumpet snails though. I don't think it's best to completely eliminate the population anyway which is why I house my puffer in a species only tank and take snails to him from the other tanks.

A clown loach would eventually get way too large for duke's tank. It's the general recommendation of people with a great deal of experience with clowns that they need a shoal of at least 5 (at a POSSIBLE 18" (many make it to 12" in captivity) a piece ----- thats asking for a lot of room) and are best housed in 70-90gal or more of fast moving well filtered water.

The only other commonly available species of puffers that stay relatively small are figure eights and green spotted puffers which are best suited to brackish environments.

I should have noted in my last post that puffers of any species can be very tenacious with the wrong tank mates and their bite is as bad as their bark. Even my little dwarf puffer (who's less than an inch long) I refuse to keep with my 3" long German Blue Rams because I know what it could lead to.

snails

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