I have a bit of an issue with my 20g long. TThis this is a recently planted tank and everything is thriving. However today I spotted two tiny snails on the glass. Upon further inspection I found no other snails however my anubias had a small hole in a leaf. I removed the plant and found that the LFS I bought it from had packed a bunch of the green potting material into the whole in which it sits. I removed the it and tied it to the driftwood with fishing line. I know loaches are good for removing snails however this is a species scenic tank (pickerel). Any suggestions on another course of action would be greatly appreciated. I know snails are hard to get rid of once they arrive.
Snails!!
- Thread starter OhioMFK
- Start date
I've heard of using your standard aquarium salt (NaCl) has worked efficiently, probably your number one option. another suggestion would be to empty and rinse out an old salt shaker, place lettuce in the bottom of it, then sink it in your aquarium allow 24 hours. the next day, to your surprise, snails feasting on the lettuce. this is more of a repetitive method and may take a while. the final method, as you mentioned, yoyo loaches are very affective in eating snails, this may be your last option. they may have already laid eggs on your plants so be on the lookout for that.
Thanks for the response. I thought i was so careful to. I even quarantine all my new plants. How much salt would be acceptable to add to a fresh water tank before it becomes hazardous to the ecosystem? I have never heard of this method. I will try the lettuce method tonight. I will be watching out for any additional surprise visitors like a hawk.
Now that i think of it, the aquarium salt wouldn't work for all of them because of the snails high tolerance for it, you'd only kill a few. you'd pretty much be nuking the tank with salt in order to get rid of them all lol. the lettuce method will work to control your numbers, do that tonight and check tomorrow morning and keep me posted. the best method would be to look into a yoyo loach to do its job for about a month. remember also, less food=less snails. minimize the food that will be made available to the snails and you can kill a few off. they are a pain to get rid of from what i hear. keep in mind that they tend to eat at your silicone eventually causing leaks in the joints of your tank over a long period of time. hope this helps.
Will do, unfortunately these is quite a bit of food for them in the tank. Pickerel require a lot of natural plants for cover as they are ambush predators. I have pictures of the tank on my profile. I will try the lettuce method and post picture results in the AM. I'm not even sure about adding a yoy loach would be right pickerel tend to eat anything a third of their size. However it is not unheard of them to attempt to each prey to large resulting in their deaths. Thanks again.
do you know what type of snail? coloration? shell shape?
i have tons of MTS in my tank, but have no problem as they really only eat the detritus and leftover foods.
my clown loaches on the other hand make it so that any plants in my tank end up nubs or few-leafed with holes everywhere. *shakefist*
i have tons of MTS in my tank, but have no problem as they really only eat the detritus and leftover foods.
my clown loaches on the other hand make it so that any plants in my tank end up nubs or few-leafed with holes everywhere. *shakefist*
I'm at work currently so i can't take a picture of what is most likely looming for me in the tank when i get home. They were brown in color, and a 1/16 of an inch to a little over that. Shell shape was sstandard to make estimation. ( I am not familiar with snail species) I can tell you their shell was crushed easily between my thumb and index finger, I originally thought I had dirt on the inside of my tank somehow. I hope that helps.
None of the common pest snails eat plants...if your hole is in an anubias especially, its probably a nutrient deficiency
I actually think snails are very, VERY helpful to the success of a planted tank, they help eat up organic wastes that the plants can't use and convert them into waste that the plants CAN use. My only planted tank without snails (my 75 seems to be resistant to snail population forming, gotta fix that and get the MTS popping in there) gets algae problems due to decaying material like dead plant leafs and the like.
I actually think snails are very, VERY helpful to the success of a planted tank, they help eat up organic wastes that the plants can't use and convert them into waste that the plants CAN use. My only planted tank without snails (my 75 seems to be resistant to snail population forming, gotta fix that and get the MTS popping in there) gets algae problems due to decaying material like dead plant leafs and the like.
