Getting rid of snails safely
- Thread starter jft
- Start date
I only know how to get rid of them the fish route (as in fish that eat them). Those would be pea puffers, yoyo loach, clown loach, zebra loach, other puffers as well if the snails are larger like mystery snails or what not.
Get a piece of lettuce, rinse it off, stick a fork thru it and drop into the tank (fork is simply there to weight the lettuce down). Wait a day or so and it will be swarming with the pesky snails. Remove said fork stabbed lettuce with the snails attached and toss into the trash. Rinse and repeat till snails are gone.
If you are looking for instant gratification, I have nothing to offer. But if you can accept a gradual reduction in the snail population, I have found Assassin Snails to be a perfect solution. I got a small number of them a few years back, and distributed them around my tanks, which always have a good population of Ramshorn and Pond snails. The Assassins don't breed like mice and overrun you, but they do whittle away at the population of the other snail species to a noticeable extent.
I didn't get them for the purpose of eliminating other snails; I got them because I like snails in general, and had enough that I figured the Assassins would do well. They are very good-looking snails.
A simpler control measure is simply squishing any snails that wander near the surface and providing the fish with a meaty, high-protein snack. You'll never get 'em all this way...not even most of them...but you can control the population somewhat. I gradually stopped doing this as the Assassins started to do their thing. Fortunately, I still have a couple Assassin-free tanks that can produce all the snails I need to provide my turtle with his favourite mobile snacks.
If you use the lettuce-baiting technique, I've found that using the trapped snails as food offerings on platform-type bird feeders attracts Robins, Chickadees, Nuthatches, etc. better than almost any other food. I hate the wasteful idea of just pitching them into the trash...but I live in the country, where a slimy pile of snails dropped onto a bird feeder can't offend nosy neighbours.
I didn't get them for the purpose of eliminating other snails; I got them because I like snails in general, and had enough that I figured the Assassins would do well. They are very good-looking snails.
A simpler control measure is simply squishing any snails that wander near the surface and providing the fish with a meaty, high-protein snack. You'll never get 'em all this way...not even most of them...but you can control the population somewhat. I gradually stopped doing this as the Assassins started to do their thing. Fortunately, I still have a couple Assassin-free tanks that can produce all the snails I need to provide my turtle with his favourite mobile snacks.
If you use the lettuce-baiting technique, I've found that using the trapped snails as food offerings on platform-type bird feeders attracts Robins, Chickadees, Nuthatches, etc. better than almost any other food. I hate the wasteful idea of just pitching them into the trash...but I live in the country, where a slimy pile of snails dropped onto a bird feeder can't offend nosy neighbours.