dvc_r

When your in the hobby long enough you are bound to get a snail outbreak.

A few months back I had a rough time getting the snails out of one of my tanks from a plant I purchased at the LFS. I did all the suggestions including buying a few yo-yo loaches but nothing helped. The snails and egg "slime" where everywhere including in the filter.

I have three large clown loaches in anther tank but I didn't want to use their "help" because the tank was a 30 gal Hex which is way too small for them. To make a long story short, I broke down and put one of the clowns in the tank and in one week it was snail free.

Someone suggested using a bleach dip for my plants. Mix a ratio of 20 to 1 and dip for a few mins. After doing a bunch of web surfing/research, I decided to dip it for one min, The end results were most my new plants melted away in a few days!

Sorry it toke so long with the background... but here is my question:
If I put a bunch of new plants into the tank that has the three clown loaches, how long should I keep the plants in (for the loaches to clean off all the snails) so I can put them in another tanks? I'm really concerned because the tank I have in mind has all my Discus in and I don't want snails infesting my Discus tank. Also I can't put a clown loach in the Discus tank for fear of hording all the food during feeding time.

sirdarksol

Some plants (crypts, for example) don't deal well with bleach dips.
Potassium permanganate is more gentle snail dip.
A few days will probably kill all of the adults. A week or two will probably finish off any young that hatch.
As far as having snails in you discus tank, they likely won't have much room to survive in that tank. From what I've heard, discus tanks need to be kept extremely clean, which deprives snails of their food.

Dark_Rider2k3

so wait.. a brown-ish slime that can clog up the bio filter.. that's from snails?

ugh then! I am constantly dealing with that crap >_>. And I do have snails but they are not bothering me.... yet

dvc_r

No, it's a clear slime. Origionally I wast trying to pull out the snails maually twice a day, I was pulling out 50 a day! Then I went to change the HOB filter and found half the problem, they were everywhere in the filter. The snails climbing up the sides of the filter, stuck in the filter floss, and as I reached in to clean it, all the sides where filled with clumps of "gel". It was hard to see because it was clear. yuck!

Dark_Rider2k3

ohhhh i see. YUCK!

Juan and Sylvia

I'm having a problem with snails too. Except they're not out of control like yours. What about putting in some ick meds that kill invertebrates. I've been tempted. I have a melon discus and a ram in my tank but no catfish. Do you think the meds would hurt them? I know they are sensitive.

dvc_r

I would NEVER put meds in a Discus tank unless ABSOLUTELY necessary! Ick, (Ichthyophthirius multifiliis) is a parasite and I don't think it's considered an invertebrate (although I see where your going with this).

Putting meds in for sick Discus is usually frowned upon (water changes usually keep Discus healthy). Putting meds into a tank with healthy Discus would be crazy... (with all due respect). For the well being of the fish, if you want to experiment with this idea, I suggest doing it in a quarantine tank. Also I suggest researching how Ick med actually works in killing the parasite. I don't thing it's eating away the outer "shell" of the protozoa if that's your reasoning

Nate McFin

I had to treat for ICH (after heat and salt failed) I used Coppersafe and it didnt hurt the snails even a little bit. Snail removers dont work either and can cause more harm than good. My take on pond snails is this...once you have them they are there for good. Fight to control the population. No plants go in my tanks anymore without QT.
BTW I have a group of assassin snails in the mail as we speak. They eat other snails at a rate of 1 per day. They reproduce a alot slower than pond snails and are much nice to look at. I will post some photos when I get them and results of how succesfull they are later.

sirdarksol

Actually, most parasites are inverts, as well. All invertebrate means is "doesn't have a spine."
Most anti-parasite meds target the lack of spine (basically, unprotected nervous system) and thus will kill both parasites and our pet inverts equally.

dvc_r

I new I was going to open a can of worms with that statement!

So you are claiming the ich meds will cure/solve J&S's snail problem... "SAFELY"?

sirdarksol

Nope. Never used the word "safely."
I merely gave information that indicated that both snails and ich were invertebrates, and thus would be sensitive to treatment that would harm invertebrates.