Ways to get MTS out of tank?

[fishdance]

Snails can't tolerate water temperatures over 45 degrees Celsius overnight if fish can be removed.

 

[CrazyPhishMan]

what if you have a tank with a huge colony of MTS that you want to move to another tank?

for instance, i have a tank w/ a pair only with lots of snails that i would like to move the snails to another tank with some loaches already in it. does leaving a piece of lettuce in the tank overnight make it easy to pull snails?

 

[skjl47]

what if you have a tank with a huge colony of MTS that you want to move to another tank?

for instance, i have a tank w/ a pair only with lots of snails that i would like to move the snails to another tank with some loaches already in it. does leaving a piece of lettuce in the tank overnight make it easy to pull snails?

Hello; MTS are amazingly hardy in some respects. I have torn down a tank putting the gravel substrate into five gallon buckets. The gravel will be wet but not necessarily soaked as i try to pour off as much excess water from the buckets as i can. I know for sure the MTS have stayed alive for weeks in the buckets of wet gravel. It may be they stayed alive for months but i was not keeping score. When I set up a tank using the gravel again i would have MTS in the new setup.
Note- I always clean old gravel before reusing. I get a few buckets, a small rod ( usually a cut off mop or broom handle) and a water hose. I dip a half gallon of gravel or so into a bucket and hit it with the hose and then stir with the broom handle. Pour off the detritus and repeat until fairly clean. Then put the clean gravel into another bucket. I have had the MTS survive all of this.

My post does not answer your question directly so i will add that i think the lettuce transfer ought to work but have not tried that.

 

[Midwater]

+1 for loaches.

Even small loaches like chain loaches will get rid of MTS, and a large hard shell is merely an enjoyable challenge.

 

[GolemGolem]

Hello; Being a tank of less than three gallons a tear down is easy. Perhaps if space allows getting a five or ten gallon replacement would be even simpler.

The MTS are livebearers meaning the offspring are born alive rather than from eggs. I have not searched to see how small they can be but imagine they are small enough when young to be missed on nets and other things such as plants.

A reported simple way to remove snails is to drop a bit of lettuce in a tank and leave it a while. Probably during the dark. Then lift out the lettuce with snails attached. I have not tried this myself so cannot say how well it works. Sounds reasonable.

One additional point is being such a small amount of water ( under three gallons) with small fish and lots of snails there is a possibility of high nitrate levels. It is very good you do WC several times a week. The snails add to the biomass of the tank which adds to the ammonia to nitrites to nitrates cycle. This is why i mentioned a new tank with only the two fish or a cleanout of the existing tank. The two fish alone are likely pushing things without any snails at all.

In a larger tank a few snails are good, in my view. They eat any excess food. I think it is better to have excess food pass thru the gut of a snail rather than to decay. I like snails.

The lettuce trick is how I used to get them from my angel tank into my green spot puffer's tank. It was great at getting a mess of snails, it never got all of the snails.

 

[altums85]

Dwarf puffer fish

 

[fishdance]

The internet is full of stories on how tough these snails are. They close up watertight if chemicals or lack of water or oxygen is sensed. I've had them survive 8 years of dry gravel storage personally for example.

For very large tanks, I scoop the gravel out with a fish net and spread thinly on steel roof sheets in the very hot Australian sun for 7 - 10 days to cook then rot.

 

[Sirtrashcan]

Thanks to everyone for all the advice!

Snails can't tolerate water temperatures over 45 degrees Celsius overnight if fish can be removed.

How would I get water that hot overnight?

 

[Sirtrashcan]

Dwarf puffer fish

I've tried to feed MTS to my pea puffers, but they wont go for them because of the shells. They tried one time and never went for them again after that.

 

[duanes]

Have you considered adding a couple assassin snails? Anentome helena.
They may not completely rid the tank, but could significantly reduce and hold down MTS populations