Snails and fish

8 posts

Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


darkruby
 
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:00 am

Snails and fish

by darkruby

I have a 55 Gallon aquarium with a huge snail problem, they are all over the place. I learned that a Clown Loach is the best way to get rid of them BUT I dont want them to get to big for I have Almost no other fish in the aquarium and I cant afford to buy anymore. I dont want to use a snail killer for I consider that cruelty, unless you can prove me wrong. Im in a mess.


LeviNHeidi4480
 
Posts: 46
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:26 pm

by LeviNHeidi4480

I have been told by several fish people that Goldfish are excellent at getting rid of Snails. This may be the cheapest route to go. I thought about getting a couple snails but decided against it because of the possibility of an overgrowth of the little critters.


darkruby
 
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:00 am

by darkruby

Hmm, sounds like a great idea but what do I do with them after I am done for they are not exactly great in community warm tropical tanks.


LeviNHeidi4480
 
Posts: 46
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:26 pm

by LeviNHeidi4480

This is true, but I have one in my community that is doing great (maybe I was just lucky). If you have a small aquatics store nearby, I would ask them if you could purchase a couple and return them later. Simply explain your situation, and they may even give you a couple dollars credit upon returning them. Larger Goldies sell for more money, so if they get good an fat on the snails, they may be happy to take them back. A local pet shop that I go to has offered to do this for fish we have trouble with. It's worth a shot!


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

by Tmercier834747

After diving into a planted tank headfirst with little idea about what exactly it entailed, I soon realized that most places you buy plants from sell you the added bonus (doh) of hitchhiking snails. After a bit of research, I found a very suitable solution.
Dwarf Puffers.
They are purely freshwater, can survive on a diet of snails as a staple, (frozen bloodworms or live blackworms are more suitable -staple-). They are happy in a 5 gallon suitable living space, acclimate well (to an established tank) and mine in particular will gladly eat 10+ snails in one 'sitting'. You could pull off two in a 6 gallon tank but the recommended maximum is 1 dwarf per 3 gallons of water. Furthermore once they are adults there's no guaranteeing there won't be a great deal of sparring matches, especially if you don't have a great deal of foliage in your tank. There are several other suitable tankmates including Otocinculus. Some varieties of shrimp are also ok. Be careful in your choosing though, as Dwarf Puffers can be very aggressive and size is not a discriminating factor when picking prey.
If for some reason you get into keeping larger 'apple' snails as pets, I would not recommend one for your DP tank as mine ripped my snail to pieces and had I not removed the snail who was 3x the size of my DP, it would probably be dead.
So I went out and bought a 5 gal eclipse with lighting and filtration in the hood, picked up blimpie, and he's been happily eating snails for 5 months, the supply of which comes from my 16gal planted, as no snails survive long enough to reproduce in Blimpies tank. lol
They can also be very entertaining to watch and have one of the biggest ''personalities'' of freshwater fish I've witnessed, including cichlids.

Edit: As you have a budget problem, and 1 dwarf puffer probably won't be able to eliminate a growing population of snails from a 55gal? by itself, one of the best ways to 'ease the pain' is to take careful notice of your fish feeding. Snails will often rely on extra fish food as a means of survival, and if there is a large excess, will also breed more, as there is a better chance their young will have more food to survive on. Take careful note of any excess food your fish may not be eating and adjust accordingly. Obviously this won't remove all the snails already overrunning your tank but if you do find a suitable budget worthy solution will help to stop them from getting out of control so quickly.


darkruby
 
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:00 am

by darkruby

Thank you so much, all of you, but expecially Tmercier83. You have all given me great ideas and will ( depending when I get a job) put it into action for I have a 10 gallon tank setup and it will do well!
Thanks.


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

by Tmercier834747

Oh and another cost-effective solution that completely slipped my mind...

Lettuce. You can either blanch it by boiling it for a couple of minutes (but not too long as this will just make it dissolve into your water column, yuck) or just place it dircetly in your tank in the evening just before the lights go out and let it sit overnight.

When you get up in the morning a large population of snails -should- have accumulated on the lettuce and you can remove many of them along with it. This is of course a cheap, repeatable and effective way to thin them out.
If you find that lettuce doesn't work there's several other veggies the snails may enjoy more, I leave to you explore the www for that information. :) Good luck.


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

by miami754

The #1 way I have found is a yoyo loach. They only get to be about 6" and are peaceful (but very active) so they are fine for your 55g aquarium (although by the time they reach full maturity, they may need a bigger space due to their high activity level) and they have tons of personality. Whenever I do planted tanks, I put 2 yoyos in there. You will never see a single snail after they enter your aquarium. They are great fish.

They do, however, like to be kept in groups of 2-3, as a sidenote. If you introduced 2 then I guess you would be introducing 12" of total adult fish which would limit the rest of your stocking, but they are really great in their own right (in other words, they are fun and solve your problem).

Snails and fish

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