Pesky snails

Joyce8025 · Post by **Joyce8025** » 10 Dec 2006, 19:16

What can I use to kill snails in my tank? I have been smashing each one with my finger and thought that I only had a few but now babies are appearing. I hate to use chemicals, but is there anything that I can use that won't hurt my plecos? If I have to I shall simply continue to smash!!! Thanks everyone. Joyce

pictus_man_77 · Post by **pictus_man_77** » 10 Dec 2006, 20:46

Clown Loaches

There's nothing better, at least not that i know of

Crazie.Eddie · Post by **Crazie.Eddie** » 10 Dec 2006, 21:57

Yes, do AVOID using chemicals. My experience with them seems to only stun the snails, but kill fish. Clown loaches work and have heard of successes with yoyo loaches also. Loaches are much better in small groups, since they are nervous fish and safety in numbers.

You can also some lettuce in the tank over night. I would place the lettuce in a small bottle or container with an opening small enough that the plecos cannot enter. Then just empty the collection the next day.

I'm assuming the snails hitch hiked on the plants, so whenever you get any more plants, it's best to either bleach dip the plants (not the roots) or soaking completely in PP (potassium permaganate), which what I like doing. I normally like to make a strong solution (dark purple) of PP then soak the plant in the solution for about 20-30 minutes, then add dechlorinator or hydrogen perozyde, which are both used as nuetralizers for the PP. This then turns the water brown, which will stain any snail eggs. It is supposed to kill snail eggs also, but I like to remove the eggs, just in case.

rahendricks · Post by **rahendricks** » 10 Dec 2006, 22:12

Zebra loaches do a good job and stay small if clowns get to big for your tank. Loaches are like cories in that they need to be kept in groups. What kind of snails are they? If they are Malaysian Trumpet snails the loaches won't eat them. I haven't found anything that will. I've heard dwarf puffers will but they also tend to be fin nippers.

grandhorn · Post by **grandhorn** » 11 Dec 2006, 00:44

I'd like to weigh in here since I've just had some serious battles with snails. As stated, if perhaps in the very very beginning one notices a snail or two, fish such as loaches or puffers might be a practical and natural route to eradicate them. However, if a large colony is established and is geometrically multiplying, this will do little good at all.

First off, I agree that it's no good to treat with chemicals while the fish are in the tank. It may be necessary to remove the fish from the tank altogether and tear it completely down at this stage. Not everyone has this luxury I know. Please note that overfeeding your fish can be a great treat for snails and cause them to be even more prolific. If there isn't enough food for them to begin with, they can't get an edge over your tank. In my case I haven't overfed but my wife was feeding them unbeknownst to me when I was at work. Also she purchased some plants from the LFS which is where the snails came from to begin with. I still love her though!

I tried to NOT take down the tank by first moving my fish out. Once this was done, I took all the filter media out and any decorations, wood etc. but I left the gravel in the tank. I then added 1/2 gallon of bleach (into a 55 gallon tank....) and waited. 24 hours later the snails were still having a ball! 36 hours later and another 1/2 gallon they were still all over. I then completely drained and refilled the tank and added 8 oz. of Copper Safe. 24 hours later they were STILL there and happy. I added the remaining Copper Safe for a total of 16 ounces and waited another day. Still ALIVE! I might add that I was constantly stirring the gravel bed during the entire time to flush them out and to make sure I had an even distribution of solution throughout.

At this point, I threw up my hands, drained the tank and took out all the gravel and threw it out. I've had to boil all of the housings for the filters and sterilize every surface. The tank is a new set up now. No one could believe the extent through which the snails survived at the LFS or a large national supplier with on staff marine biologists. I sent the LFS a picture of the snails on the glass while the water was so blue-green from the copper it looked like a moldy milkshake!

I've been joking that the snails I've been at war with should be used by the War Department or something. I do have a question for you guys and gals, though.

How long can Malaysian Trumpet Snail eggs remain fertile while in a dry environment? How long can the snails themselves remain alive dry? I ask this since I have some huge pieces of wood which are way too large to boil and I can see already that bleach won't work. Besides, I don't think I'd put the wood back in the tank if it had absorbed bleach.

Is my wood now ruined? I haven't been able to find an answer anywhere on this point.

Second, I have 8 L7's in that tank. I don't want to expose them to the nitrogen cycle again so I am thinking of putting water from one of my 125 or 150's in that tank and using filter media from one of the canisters as well to avoid it. Any thoughts on how successful that is likely to be? Or suggestions?

Best advice possible. Don't put ANYTHING in your tank you aren't sure of where snails are concerned! Don't overfeed! React early to the snail threat!

Sorry for the long post.

Gozza · Post by **Gozza** » 11 Dec 2006, 12:10

Ive had simililar with snails, I once emptied the tank and gave it a heroic dose of pottasium permagninate and some survived after being in that water for a week! This piece of wood that you have have you tried scubbing it with a wire brush or similar? Ive just had an idea, do you have a spare tank or bucket big enough for the wood? Put the wood in there. Get some ammonia, you can buy it by the bottle for cleaning things. then fill the bucket with water and a few drops of ammonia. make sure its a high concentration. that should kill the snails. leave it there for a week or so, obviously dont put the wood straight back in your tank because it is likly to have ammonia residue on it but you might be able to use it as a source of ammonia for cycling other tanks, eventually filtration bacteria will oxidise it into nirites/nitrates anaway. leaving no harmful residues. you could also nutralise is with some filter media take from you main tank. One thing to remember though is that high levels of ammonia will kill the nitrobacter bacteria so it is essental to add some more filter media when the ammonia levels drop and the nitrites rise. It would best to be careful with this method when trying to kill snails, ammonia is dangerous stuff, be careful with it.

grandhorn · Post by **grandhorn** » 11 Dec 2006, 15:25

Thanks Gozza. I was considering your plan when I got a call from my friend across town who owns a restaurant. He says he has a huge pot that will fit the wood so I'm going to haul it over there and put it on the stove for a couple of hours. That should kill the wonderful little guys! I read somewhere that these snails/eggs can last long periods of being dry. I'm not sure if that's true but I don't doubt anything at this point! Cheers!

Joyce8025 · Post by **Joyce8025** » 11 Dec 2006, 19:21

Thanks, everyone, for the info. I am certain that the snails came in on a plant from a LFS that said that the plants were "clean" - fo fish, etc. NOT! I wash my plants but must have missed a couple of snails or eggs. Shall continue squashing them. I don't have a clue what kind they are - they seem to stay relatively small, adults no larger than approx. 3/16". I shall try the lettuce method in a tiny jar! Thanks! If it isn't one thing, it is another. Joyce

snowball · Post by **snowball** » 11 Dec 2006, 23:33

grandhorn wrote:How long can Malaysian Trumpet Snail eggs remain fertile while in a dry environment? How long can the snails themselves remain alive dry? I ask this since I have some huge pieces of wood which are way too large to boil and I can see already that bleach won't work. Besides, I don't think I'd put the wood back in the tank if it had absorbed bleach.

Is my wood now ruined? I haven't been able to find an answer anywhere on this point.

MTS are livebears and adults seem to be able to survive weeks if not months in a dry state. I know someone who spread buckets of MTS infested gravel out on concrete in the summer sun for three weeks yet the snails survived this and reappeared after the gravel was submerged.

The wood may well have some snails on it, however as they are livebearers you shouldn't have to worry about eggs. If you can put the wood in a bare tank you should see any snails that are on it as they will start moving around it.

As for the bleach, soaking the wood for a week or two should render it safe for use. I have treated wood collected from mangrove swamps with pool chlorine and had no lasting effects, other than the bleaching effect (which can usually be scrubbed away with a wire brush to reveal the wood's true colour).

Finally there is the option to surrender to the snails, and accept that they don't really do anything bad in small to moderate numbers. MTS are regarded as beneficial by many, in that their gravel tunneling activites do help to aerate the substrate. They do not eat healthy plants, rather they prefer to much on dead or dying vegetable matter, and of course excess fish food.

good luck with your battle, whichever way you go

grandhorn · Post by **grandhorn** » 12 Dec 2006, 03:28

Hello Snowball,

I can accept what you say about the benefits of the snails themselves. I guess what troubles me is the fact that I have my plecos in there and they are almost always in contact with the bottom and bottom surfaces of the tank. So when I see the horde of snails come up through the gravel I think that the fish must be agitated by that. Literally, there were really 10's of thousands of them all over every surface. Looking down in the gravel bed it was literally alive and moving.

Honestly I was picturing how I would feel myself in there with them crawling all over the place. I have to believe that would be a bother to the cats. Plus the increased collective bioload of so many worries me quite a bit.

But thanks for the information on the dry tolerance of the snails. Really in their own rite they are indeed remarkable and needless to say resilliant little creatures!

Joyce8025 · Post by **Joyce8025** » 12 Dec 2006, 14:16

For about a month now I have been noticing black specks on the leftover food that I remove each AM. Am I seeing baby snails, or something else? This morning there was nothing on the zucchini. Have decided to only place one type of food in daily. Have to purchase a tiny bottle to try the lettuce method. Shall give it a try.

rahendricks · Post by **rahendricks** » 12 Dec 2006, 17:09

I agree with Snowball, the benefits they provide to the substrate out weigh the nuisance of them. In fact I've added them to tanks where I didn't feel the substrate was good enough. Failing to find a biological control for them, that control became me. When I feel they're in there a little too thick I thin them out. After the lights have been out for a while they tend to crawl up to the surface. I go in with a net and scrape them off the glass. As to whether or not they bother the fish, I don't think so. I've never been to a South American river but the ones here are full of snails and all matter of things you really wouldn't want in your tanks. Having snails in your tanks probably makes them a little more natural.