Today I killed an aquarium. . .

[AlaskanCorydoras]

. . . intentionally.

My 15 gal tank has been many things. . . it has been an isolation tank, it has been a plant growing tank, it has been an acclimitization tank, and it has been a Pleco Zombie Appocolypse tank.

But what it has always been is full of snails. The snails came in when I first planted the tank back when it was new. And since the tank is really too small for me to put some yoyo or clown loaches in, I mostly just ignored them. Until today. In a couple days I'll need a nursery tank, so I am left with the problem of needing the bugger again. The only problem is that there are SO many snails in the tank they could actually breed faster than I could pull them out by hand. And since the tank is planted, I'd rather not use harsh chems.

So I dropped the PH down from 7.4 to 5.8. In under 5 minutes.

The snail eggs instantly turned white. The snails themselves took a bit longer, but within 15 minutes all of the buggers were dead. So 90% water change, and neutral PH buffer and wait to see if the plants made it. . .

[fishbguy]

That might have killed the plants....

If you didn't have any shrimp or anything in the tank, you could have also used copper.

[racoll]

Good technique and definitely one to consider as a potential solution if you don't want to use chemicals.

However, for snails to multiply to that degree, they need food, and lots of it.

I had snails in all of my tanks, and their numbers were kept nice and low due to food limitation.

Your snails could be feeding on algae or uneaten fish food, or probably both.

Might be wise to consider the amount you are feeding, and see if that makes any difference. It did for me.

[Jools]

At last count I have nine species of snails munching through my fishroom, everything from the benign to the malicious. I find fish to eat them is the best bet, for small tanks skunk loaches work well as anything else means lots of dead, rotting, snails.

The pellet food in a jam jar works well, but is by no means failsafe.

Jools

[drpleco]

botia striata (zebra loches) are great snailers, too, and stay small as well. I love skunks, but they can get aggressive for some folks. I never had that problem, but I had a good sized group and I think that helped. I actually like having snails and find them good insurance against overfeeding. The eggs are also great pleco food.

[andywoolloo]

I like the snails too. I have malaysian trumpet snails in all my tanks for the sand, and they really do give you a heads up on over feeding and water quality. I like to watch them too.

[sidguppy]

I think you reallu nuked that tank....such a mass dying of snails releases a load of toxins from the dead snails and that goes instantly.

yes, the plants will die. possibly all of them.
it takes a plant more time to die, so they might look still alive, but expect a lot of slimeing to happen in the next days

and you likely killed all the beneficial bacteria......

so there's little left: the water's screwed up, the plants will die, the bacteria are dead.
the biological equilibrium needed in all tanks is a goner.

you might as well set it up again; empty it, add new sand, start all over.
because no fish is going to survive in the poisonous goo that's now left of what was once tankwater.


the title of the topic definitely fits.

[AlaskanCorydoras]

If that happens, it happens. I'm not going to sweat it too much. OTOH, the biofilter on the tank is just fine, since I turned off the filter for the duration. I vaccuumed up all the snails I could find to reduce the tank's toxic load, but I won't be terribly surprised if my wisteria and the single javafern sprig die.

[L number Banana]

Hi AlaskanCorydoras,

Maybe for future tanks you could look into getting a freshwater dwarf puffer? They're only the size of a pea but will completely clean out any and all snails in no time. You can't really mix them with anything else -take all your fish, shrimp etc out and large snails will still get eaten too, just one bite at a time. As long as you supply the snails, DP's don't need their 'teeth' trimmed. Any small tank can be kept as a de-snailer tank. But watch it, they're intelligent to the point of freaky If you don't have a good snail supply, they'll beg. Swimming down to the snail shell and back to the glass to look at you and keep doing this until the silly human gets the hint.
Here's more info http://www.dwarfpuffers.com/

Cheers,
Tana

[AlaskanCorydoras]

The only tank I've had a problem with is my 15 gal. I consider it too small for most snail eating fish, so I pretty much just let them go. Since it was also the tank I was isolating my newcommers in, I had to feed 'em. And since the majority of my newcommers were bottom feeders, the old rule of "Anything they can't eat in 2 minutes" doesn't work too well.

Anyhow, now that the tank is clean again, I'll look into some of the smaller loaches and the like. I want the tank to be available for possible quarentine, so putting in an agressive fish, regardless of how cute (And dwarf puffers are cute!) isn't really in the works.

[L number Banana]

Hi AlaskanCorydoras,

The tank is huge for a dwarf puffer but he'd be a bad choice for an isolation tank. Puts a whole new spin on 'isolated', the DP would be isolated in the tank fairly quickly

[apistomaster]

I raised a large number of Betta sp "Mahachai" in a 29H that was over run by pond snails(Physa sp). As soon as the Betta became large enough they wiped out nearly every snail. These are a pretty cool Betta sp. Endangered in the wild, they are extremely easy to raise in captivity. they are one of the bubble nesting bettas and may be kept in mixed sex groups. Rather than fight they rely on bluff displays to assert dominance. A very pretty wild Betta sp, especially during displays and spawning colors.
They are better suited than many of the Loach spp or pea puffers for snail control in small aquariums. I keep a group of 7 in a 10 gal tank with 6 T.espei Rasboras and a couple of Kuhli loaches. I raised 500 from one pair. they refuse to eat their own fry and spawn every week.
I ended up feeding the smallest 300 to my Peruvian Scalares and split the remaining 200 between the 29 gal and a 40 gal breeder. No snails live in either tank...anymore.