aquarium dunce

Help!! I am overrun with snails. I have tried the lettuce in the tank overnight and only catch a few. Maybe I have some super smart snails lol. I am now leaning toward buying a couple of drawf loaches to help out. I have never bought any fish online... but looks like that will be the way I have to go.... on one around has any in stock. Any advice for online buying or any other suggestions to get rid of the snails? Thanks for the help.

nater

I have a dojo loach that likes to eat those little pond snails and their eggs. Dojo's seem common and if you look around you may be able to find one locally.

Lucy

I can relate. lol I have a 1og that has snails froma plant. The plant is long gone but the snails just keep coming. It's gotten so I don't mind them too much any more.
I found feeding less helps cut down on the population.
Personally, I wouldn't get a fish just to take care of a problem. I don't know much about dwarf loaches but I don't think they eat snails. Some one correct me if I'm wrong on that.
From what I read they do best in groups of 5 or more. I'm not sure youi have enough room in your tank for that many.

My suggestion is cut down feedings and remove manually.

jdhef

You could always get one of those Assasin Snails. They apparently will not reproduce and will eat all the other snails.

Jackie Frost

When we had this problem and I was a child my father would transfer all of this fish to a bucket and then empty the tank of water. He would then boil about a gallon of water and then pour that into the tank. (Cruel ...but very effective.) Naturally he didn't return the fish until the tank was cleaned out and cooled.

Meenu

What would this do to the cycle? It seems like it would kill the bacteria in the gravel.

If you know anyone with a loach, maybe you could borrow for a while until the problem is gone, and then return it?

Jackie Frost

You got me there. I would also think the hot water might damage the tank. (Tanks are not made for extremely hot water.) But I do remember the fish surviving. However we were far from aquarium experts. Shoot, this was the 70's. We didn't even have internet.

Nate McFin

Assassin snails would be very effective and are much nicer to look at than Pond snails. They do reproduce though especially if they are on a meaty diet. The good news about them reproducing though is that they are in pretty high demand and can easily be sold via forums or traded at your LFS.
All this talk of the 70's makes me want to listen to some AM radio.

omnitheforsaken

A snail infestation is a problem for me too. At least you got some snails with the lettuce trick. I did it and managed to catch a whopping 0. I have to say your best bet is to get the assassin snails. I've finally managed to get some and I'm just waiting for them to come in. If you don't want to go that route, you could always get an oscar or loach, of course then you have to worry about either the oscar eating your fish or the loach outgrowing your tank.

aquarium dunce

We only feed once a day and looks like it all gets eaten within 4 minutes... except for the sinking wafers for the cories. I have tried to manually remove the little annoying things with water changes...usually around 20-30 each time but the little suckers keep coming lol. I guess I will try to find some assasin snails to see if that will work.

Beth1965

I'm butting in here a bit unwelcoming im sure--i dont know if overfeeding causes a snail infestation (ive read it but dont know it)--if your feedings last for four minutes, you must be overfeeding you fish, no?

aquarium dunce

I am just trying to guess.... I feed them frozen food.... the small blocks I cut into very small pieces smaller than a pea and give one piece a day. Is that too much for 6 cardinals, 2 platies and 5 cories? Well plus the 1 algae wafer and 2 shrimp pellets .... maybe that is too much??

Kitsune

Assassin snails are great. They do reproduce but veeery slowly compared to other snails. I got some for my tank just cause I thought they looked great (I didn't even know I had a snail infestation) and I now find empty pond snail shells everywhere. And I think I've only seen one snail baby since I got them well over a month ago.

And as was previously said they are something that a lot of LFS are willing to buy. Or you could sell them on aquabid, they sell well there too.

CichildFan

You can try yoyo loaches...they don;t get as big as a clown loach and they are apparently better "snail eaters".

I have 2 Electric Blue Jack Dempseys that took care of my snail problem day one. :-) For a community tank I would go for the yoyo loaches though.

aquarium dunce

thanks