genie

Someone here on this forum said that if I put a penny or a copper pipe in my tank infested with snails that they will die. Is this ok for the betta and oto? A penny seems like an easy solution- provided I cleaned the penny.

Phloxface

No, it will kill your fish! Copper is VERY toxic to them! Remove the snails by hand whenever you see them. That should slow them down until you rarely see any. Never let it get so full of snails that you can't even keep up with manual removal.

COBettaCouple

copper is toxic to snails and fish.. if you remove your fish and use coppersafe, it would probably kill the snails, but then you'd have to clean everything super good and start over on the cycle.. it would be better to just temporarily remove the fish and clean the decor and bake the gravel.. and keep the filter housing in water to at least keep alive the bacteria in it for when you put the tank back together.

genie

ok, but I have heard of copper meds How does that work with the fish.

OH, and the snails are sooooo small it is impossible to keep up with them. I had one, and then a million like overnight.

Phloxface

The medication Coppersafe contains chelated copper which is stable and remains at a safe level for fish when used as directed. Any amount of copper is harmful to snails. Lava's tank is infested too. I think I may treat his tank with Coppersafe and see if it kills some of the snails. He had a problem with parasites a couple weeks ago so another dose of Coppersafe as a preventative won't hurt. The snails on the other hand could kill him since he cannot swim well and I have seen them swarming right around the back of the filter where Lava sleeps. I'm worried they will get all over him and kill him, or that he'll try to eat one.
If you ever use Coppersafe make sure you remove any live plants. It WILL kill your plants.

COBettaCouple

Thanks for the clarification there Phloxface.. believe it or not, i can't get coppersafe locally and was remembering what the bottle said wrong.

chickadee

Just please be aware that if you have scaleless fish like Cories, Otos, Loaches, Eels, Sharks, etc. that they cannot take the Copper either. I wish they could as it would have made my life a lot less complicated.

Rose

Shastam

I saw an additive called Had a snail that is supposed to be safe for fish, but rid your tank of snails. Has anyone here heard of that before? I also have an infestation of snails from my new plant! I've thought of trying that stuff, but wondered what anyone else knows about it first.

chickadee

I used two bottles of it and the snails had a good laugh and just kept breeding but my otos hated me.

Rose

COBettaCouple

LOL.. that reminds me of an old looney tunes cartoon where fleas were having a happy winter wonderland after being sprinkled with anti-flea powder. Sounds like another product that's pretty much water with a label.

Shastam

Well thats good to know. Those pond snails breed so fast I'm sure they can keep up with anything!! I'm thinking I'll try a couple loaches in there and see if they can clean up. Since its only a 5.5 gal tank, any suggestions on loaches that will be ok with smaller spaces for a short time?

chickadee

The Dwarf Loaches get to 2" but will not kill the snails, the Yo-Yo loaches (or Pakistani Loaches) get to 3" and go after snails with a vengenance but you could not keep 2 of them in there permanently. I would get 2 of them and get ready for a show and a half as they are CRAZY WILD but plan on a bigger tank to put them into when the snails are gone and plan on taking everything out of the tank except the heater, filter, thermometer, and gravel (no plants, no decorations) for them to be able to do a really good job. They will dig in the gravel and make a real mess. It would be my advice to take it all out of the tank and do a really good gravel vacuuming before adding them. You will have so much entertainment you can pack away the television for the next month. They are hilarious.
Toward the last when the final snails start to hide clear at the top to get away from them I had to get paper towels and remove them manually to help a bit but they were great and took hundreds of them out and even ate the eggs.

You will love them and I thank Gunnie for suggesting them. I also own the Dwarf or Sidthimunki Loaches but until the Yo-Yos taught them how they did not eat snails. Now I have 7 little snail-eating machines in my tank. (Damon is a feisty little Betta but he has no idea what he is going to be going in with )

Here are some pictures of the Loaches in the corner in a huddle and going after snails and snail slime. The snails seem to go to this corner as this is where the otos usually got fed. (there are also 2 otos in the tank but they get fed elsewhere now)

Rose

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Shastam

Thank you for the suggestion. I have a couple gold weather loaches in my coldwater tank, but any excuse to set up a new tank is fun! I was talking about setting up my 30 gal again, so here's a great excuse, and I can get rid of these snails too!!! I'm going to make a trip to the LFS and look around for some yo yo loaches!

chickadee

If you cannot find them:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...fm?pCatId=1109


You would have to order 4 or at least $29.99 worth of fish they have but they would be to you on Wednesday and they would be very healthy.

Rose

Eskielvr

I use a trace element fertilizer for my live plants, and it contains a very teeny tiny amount of copper. I have corys, otos, cherry red shrimp and a mystery snail and it doesn't hurt them. Of course I also keep the carbon in my filter so the amount the plants don't take in gets filtered out.

I almost got a bottle of had a snail, but ironically it says on the back not to use if you have live plants. I was thinking "but that's how you get the snails to begin with!". The store associate told me it's not a very effective product, either.

Sorry to tell you, but you really only have 1 option and that's to remove them by hand everytime you see one. I've been having to do this for a while now. If they're too tiny to see, don't worry about it, they'll get bigger and easier to squish.

And please, don't bake your gravel, unless you want to start your tanks cycle all over again. You'll kill off most of the good bacteria that live in it.