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Greetings all, short and sweet,having a little problem with burrowing snails in a planted tank.Suggestions w/o plant or pleco damage.Been fighting them for some time now doing everything short of teardown. THNX

I added dwarf (chain) loaches to my tanks that had snail problems. They were small enough to not push past a male BN to eat his fry, but big enough to wipe out the snail problem in about a month and a half. They just picked them off day and night as the emerged from the substrate.

Once they cleaned a tank out of snails I moved them on to the next one that had an infestation.

Thnx for the reply, have tried a few different types of "botia" with out erradicating the problem. One thing to be considered is the tank is 180 gals, chock full of plecos and cory's so there are alot of bottom feeders.

plecomanpat, what exactly is the problem the snails are causing?

yes to what prior poster said. what problems?

are they Malaysian Trumpet Snails? i purposefully added some to all my tanks as all my tanks have sand beds, i love them.

Hi guys, the problem is that they are chewing up my Crypt. Moehlmannii, though they dont seem to bother the C.Wendtii,or C. Balansae

I have a snail problem (mts) I added an assassin snail, I need to get another but the lfs only had one live one when I got mine. They're tan with a chocolate stripe and dont breed out of control like the mts do. I have a 55 so he's been a very busy assassin. They're not expensive, mine went for $2.99.

Snails, oh my goodness this is my specialty it seems. I so graciously introduced them to my tank as well through live plants. I have a Discus tank and I also have a few corys and plecos in my tank too. One thing I can tell you is never ever us any kind of medication that kills snails, you will also kill many fish in the process.

I have been battling this for a few years now to rid every snail I can. I even had the burrowing kind and tearing your tank down will not help as they have eggs all over the place and you will not get every single one out.

As suggested use loaches. The best loach I have found but be prepare to find a new home for him when he gets bigger as they are aggressive is the
Yo-Yo Loach, very aggressive snail eater and in my opinion the best. Next best and a much nicer lovely loach is the Clown Loach. They are suppose to be in schools but I only have one and he is very comfortable with the cory cats, he was bought to do a job and he is doing it very well. At any one time I might see 1 or 2 snails till he discoveres them and they are gone.

I have tried the Assassin snails, you need alot of these guys to do any good and they are not cheap. If you go this route do not have any loaches in there or they will have an expensive dinner.

Many people like snails in their tanks, I cannot stand the look of them and they multiply way to much for me.

Good luck

I added MTS on purpose love them as long as you keep your tank clean they never come out of the gravel and constantly turn it over.
Helps you see if your overfeeding also. Guess everyone to there own. Watch loaches though as there a pain to catch when you finally want rid of them and mine loved corys eggs.

MTS have never touched any of my plants even in highly planted tanks.


Good Luck

I have some wanted (large nerites an inch around; medium Tylomelania rabbits about half- 3/4 inch long) and unwanted snails (pond, mts) in my tank. Will the loaches or assassin snails eat the wanted snails?

I have never had a MTS harm any of my plants either.

to each their own. I love the little ice cream cones!

They are a great indicator of overfeeding and of a water problem. And pretty cool to watch.

I wont or wouldn't introduce chemicals to any of my tanks to control pests. I had a colony of 5 clown loaches and they did get rid of some snails but when it came to feeding time they are much more aggressive than most cory's and plecos,so trying to keep my L#s fed was difficult and feeding more which in turn had to do water changes more often,not to mention fat,lazy loaches.Assasin snails only work at a snails pace(forgive the pun).I am aware of the obvious remedies and have tried them for years.I recently tore down a 29 gal planted tank. Left a small puddle of water in the center of the gravel for 2 days and picked out over 250 snails,those are just the ones big enough to grab. Just fishing around for something outside the norm somebody might know.Thanks to all for your responses and ideas

I find these snails a real benefit, and add them to every tank I have. A profusion of them is a sure sign of overfeeding.

I have not found them to damage plants, but if they are definitely damaging a particular species, I would just omit that species from the tank. Plenty more to choose from, and it's a lot easier than a biological or chemical eradication programme.

I added the dwarf (chain) to my tank loach snail problem. They are as small as a man rather than the National Front to push past him to eat fried, but large enough to eliminate the snails in about a half the problem...

Hi all,

are they Malaysian Trumpet Snails? i purposefully added some to all my tanks as all my tanks have sand beds, i love them.

I do the same, as suggested they are a very useful barometer of your tank management. I also add Red Ramshorns if the water is hard enough (MTS survive at low pH/dGH/DKH, but Ramshorns don't).
MTS don't eat live plants, so I think you need another culprit for the damage to your Cryptocorynes. You may also find that even mollusc eating fish are reluctant/unable to tackle them as they have enormously thick shells. The only fish that can deal with them are those with enormously powerful crushing teeth, often referred to as a "pharyngeal mill".

They are very easy to catch at night, a net baited with a prawn will attract hundreds of MTS.

cheers Darrel