killer snails eating my L134 eggs?

[aalund]

I have 10 adult L134 and for the last 2 years I have noticed that I sometimes have eggs but I have never seen some fry... I have a lot of killer snails (Anentome helena) more than 200 snails

Can they eat the eggs?


And how do I catch the snails?

thanx

[CUPfishhead]

Not sure about the assassins but I had regular ramshorn snails in my tank to reduce the hardness. I have seen them eat partially developed eggs that they somehow managed to get at the eggs after I scared the male off to check on them he must have not got back to them quick enough. I'd make sure you feed some extra frozen food for the snails to munch on instead of the eggs, just incase.

[Mike_Noren]

Just curious what you mean by "regular ramshorns", this or this?

[Oliver D.]

Hi,

Anentome helena definitely eats eggs. Here you can find some nice photos from these snails:
http://www.spec.at/2012/02/23/anentome- ... bschnecke/
In the photos the snails eats eggs from Corydoras. Peter has also made a video, but i can´t find it at the moment.

Some other snails also eats eggs. Some years before i have made this photo:

This eggs are L 134, but no one hatch, because the snails was faster...

[Zeno]

Eggs attacked by snails ...
Maybe not what you are waiting about but i find this a very nice picture.

Greetz, Zeno

[wrasse]

Yes, snails eat fish eggs.
Snails are difficult to kill, anti crustacean meds are strong stuff and dead snails fowl the water.
You could lower the snail population... Slice of sweet potato added - remove it each time it is covered with snails.
But, to eradicate snails... Put fish in a bucket and save as much tank water as possible, empty the tank, discard the substrate and plants, place any tank decor in hot water... Very hot. Clean the empty tank. Thoroughly inspect your filters for snails and eggs.

[Bas Pels]

Emptying the tank for a few days might work as well. But than I'm talking about keeping the tank dry for at least 3 days, and changing the sand

As long as the sand is moist, snails will survive

[chris.west.curtis]

Maybe they will.Some keepers kept some killer snails with shrimps,and they found killer snails can eat dying shrimps.

[pleco_breeder]

If you're going to go to the trouble of actually sanitizing the tank, the easiest way is to bleach it. I recommend removing a portion of the filter media to restart the tank, and all the fish to a bucket for the time it's being treated and provide a good airflow in the room with the tank to let the vapors out. A 20% solution for 12 hours will kill most anything that may be hidden in the substrate. I do not recommend trying to save plants because they are usually covered in eggs, at least in my tanks, more than anywhere else. I have assassins in a tank filled with subwassertang and wouldn't imagine trying to get all the eggs out of that tank.

Larry

[Jaz]

I'm keeping Melanoides tuberculata in my tanks. I've only read from few books that they will only eat eggs when they are no good. Haven't seen them eating live ones even if our L134 dad kicked the eggs out.

[sturiosoma]

Irecommend getting a botia loach like a yo-yo or zebra loach there's no dangerous chemicals no tearing down your tank and they will get every snail.

[Jaz]

Well thats true, if you wanna get rid of snails, forget the chemicals and other stuff. Use the fishes, they are much better.

[aalund]

thanx for the answers

I started by removing as many snails as I could ( 200-300-400 snails )
now every evening I remove as many as I can see, and I think I continue for a while to see what happens.... And today I saw a 1!!! small fry in a cave!!! yeah

now this means war against snails...

must admit that a small fish eating snails seems like a good idea

[Oliver D.]

I have Melanoides tuberculata and Melanoides granifera in all of my tanks. I´ve never seen them eating good eggs. Hypancistrus, Peckoltia, Corydoras, Synodontis, Lophiobagrus... no problems - the eggs hatch between the snails!
I give this snails also to the breeding tanks after the fishes have spawn. The snails eats a lot of the dirt...

[Firestorming]

Be careful with loaches though, they will eat snails for sure, but they will also force their way into spawning caves and eat eggs too if they can manage it.

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I'm keeping Melanoides tuberculata in my tanks. I've only read from few books that they will only eat eggs when they are no good. Haven't seen them eating live ones even if our L134 dad kicked the eggs out.

Ingo Seidel recommends Malaysian Trumpet Snails (Melanoides tuberculata) for egg cleaning with Loricariids, and they are safe. I can't keep Anentome helena as my water is too soft, but they are carnivorous and will eat eggs. I've never had any problem with Red Ramshorn ("Planorbis" rubrum) snails either, although the jury seem to be out on these.

cheers Darrel

[Mike_Noren]

I've never had any problem with Red Ramshorn ("Planorbis" rubrum) snails either, although the jury seem to be out on these.

I'm increasingly suspicious of these, I've never seen them eat any eggs but I also never seem to get any fish reproduction in aquaria with these snails.

As an aside I'm surprised to see what appear to be bladder snails (Physa sp.) attack fish eggs in Oliver D.'s photo above, that was one type of snail I would have bet was egg-safe.

[CUPfishhead]

My regular ramshorn are Helisoma trivolvus the red variety that you had first, not the larger striped kind. I have snails in every tank that I own except one. I also have the smaller brown black style (Physa 2 different sp) and also Melanoides the MTS snails. While doing research on snails we found that Physa would reproduce faster but the ramshorn (helisoma) and species close to MTS (stagnicola) would eath their eggs. The MTS similar sp. would eat all 3 types of eggs including their own. this study was done with limited other food which may have accounted for the higher egg predation rate. If anyone would like to read our study and how they affected each others population here is the abstract of the paper that was published in Oikos http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... x/abstract

[dw1305]

Hi all,

My regular ramshorn are Helisoma trivolvis the red variety that you had first, not the larger striped kind. I have snails in every tank that I own except one. I also have the smaller brown black style (Physa 2 different sp) and also Melanoides the MTS snails. While doing research on snails we found that Physa would reproduce faster but the ramshorn (helisoma) and species close to MTS (stagnicola) would eath their eggs. The MTS similar sp. would eat all 3 types of eggs including their own. this study was done with limited other food which may have accounted for the higher egg predation rate. If anyone would like to read our study and how they affected each others population here is the abstract of the paper that was published in Oikos http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... x/abstract

That is useful to know, I've noticed that Apistogramma females are very keen on removing any snails in the vicinity of her spawning cave. It would make sense that they eat any eggs that they can. Fish like Killis with very tough eggs, or Cichlids/Loricariids with parental care (where MTS are safe), are an exception rather than the norm of egg scatters with softer eggs and no parental care.

cheers Darrel

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Sorry if this is reviving an old topic, but I've got some anecdotal evidence to add to the Red Ramshorn debate. I've recently had Corydoras fry appear in the tank at the back of the lab. Corydoras hastatus have been in the tank for several years and I very rarely see the adult fish. There are also a few spare Corydoras pygmaeus in the tank for about a year, which I see more frequently, and they spawn fairly regularly, although again only in the last couple of week have I seen any fry.

The tank is exceptionally weedy, and has some Planaria, Asellus, probably some Leeches etc, as well as some fish that might eat eggs or fry (Dicrossus maculatus, Ancistrus L100, Copella arnoldii), these have all been resident long term.

The only real difference I can think of is that I don't have Red Ramshorn snails at present, I assume this is a pH effect, because the numerous MTS are showing a lot of shell attrition on the older shell whorls, and the last few Ramshorn shells were almost white and very fragile.

Again it isn't in any way conclusive (lower pH/dKH may have stimulated egg laying in the Cories or I may have been using cooler rain water for water changes), but my suspicion is that the Ramshorns were eating the eggs.

Here are a couple of C. hastatus fry (centre of photo).



cheers Darrel

[Valb68]

I just had ramshorn snails kill two ancistrus fry in the egg yolk stage. I'd been watching them hatch and become wrigglers, had shooed a couple tiny snails off the one not quite hatched but they came back a few minutes later and they had eaten part of the yolk sack on the one fry and it was dead pretty sure they've killed both of them. Such small snails, I had no idea they would do that.