Clearing a 180gal Full of Mylasian Trumpet Snails...?

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Mastiffman

Mastiffman

Gambusia
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Nov 2, 2010
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What's gang...

I've been fighting these little bastards for some time now (months) and I done fooling with them but want to make sure that they don't come back...

I went as far getting some Clown Loaches to go in the tank with the 50+ tropheus but they didn't have any affect on the Snails. I saw them eating some of them but there's just to many.

I Decided to Setup a newly aquired 110 gallon wide to put the inhabitants of the infected tank in. I have a whole new setup with a new but established FX5 and some live substrate in the 110g.

I'm not worried abuot killing off the BB in the entire tank and filter as I'm prepared to disinfect (so to speak) the entire setup! So... My Questions are these:

- After removing the Substrate (CaribSea Reef Grade Aragonite) and picking through every last millimeter of it to remove the actual snails...
Will rinsing the Substrarte thuroughly with hot water be enough to kill off any left over eggs?
- If the hot water rinse will not be enough what would be the best method to ensure there is no reinfection of the Tank with these suckers?

Thanks a lot and I look forward to your brainstorming with me...

Andrew C.
 
I would somehow let your substrate completly dry after the hot water rinse. Not sure the best way to do this but if any eggs make it thru the hot water, letting the sand dry completly might dry out(kill) any live eggs? Just a thought. Good luck.
 
What about putting a CL or 2 in the 'disinfected' tank...they'd certainly take care of the few left over eggs that would happen to hatch. I had a pretty severe outbreak in my planted 29, 3 3" or so CL's took care of it in less than a week...making the awesome clicking noise the whole time! I think that's the happiest my loaches have ever been, only clicked once in their new 75 gal home. :(
 
Tworottz72 said:
I would somehow let your substrate completly dry after the hot water rinse. Not sure the best way to do this but if any eggs make it thru the hot water, letting the sand dry completly might dry out(kill) any live eggs? Just a thought. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Well there is about a 2.5in Bed of it that covers the bottom of my 6ft x 2ft 180gal tank... Might be kind of hard to do I would think... But I want to completely stripe the tank either way...

oneyedfish said:
What about putting a CL or 2 in the 'disinfected' tank...they'd certainly take care of the few left over eggs that would happen to hatch. I had a pretty severe outbreak in my planted 29, 3 3" or so CL's took care of it in less than a week...making the awesome clicking noise the whole time! I think that's the happiest my loaches have ever been, only clicked once in their new 75 gal home. :(
Click to expand...

Nice. I have 2 CL's but they are only about 2.25in at this point... They were making much of a dent in MTS population... I wonder if there is a Range of Temps that they will die off at....?
 
Hello; I believe the MTS are livebearer snails. The offspring will be small and hard to see. I have had snails survive in buckets of damp gravel for a very long time. It can take many months, perhaps years, for the gravel to dry in a bucket even if open.
Not sure of the best way to kill them, but the substrate will likely need a very thorough cleaning to rid it of decaying organic material.
I recall a post about someone using a snail killing chemical, perhaps with copper in it? I seem to recall that the snail killing chemicals tend to persist and may cause problems later on.
Heating may work if the mass of substrate can be raised to a high enough temp. I doubt that hot tap water will have enough thermal energy to raise the temp that much.
Perhaps a strong chlorox solution will work. I have not used it, but have read several posts of members who have cleaned tanks and such with it. I use a strong salt paste (table salt without iodine) to clean my tanks. Perhaps a strong salt solution will kill the snails with a long soak? I do not know for sure but suspect it will. Perhaps a test batch of substrate to find out? Either way a good rinse should clear the clorox or salt and leave the substrate able to be re-used.
 
If you don't want to let it sun dry then boil the sand with water in batches. The boiling water will kill everything. Or you can put the sand in a big lasagna dish or something and put it in your stove and bake it at 200 F for about 20 min that should sterilize it as well.
 
That would do it for sure! I just don't have the time or space to do it. Wife would be even more difficult to deal with! lol-jk

I purchased like 12 Assasin Snails and they are working on it. I know becasue I see empty MTS shells in groups... So it ma y take a while but I think that I may have to do another cleaing of the MTS in due time.

Also the AS don't reproduce very heavily either so no big deal there...
 
First thing in the morning it was hard to see through the glass of my 150 gal tank until they feel to the substrate the Maylay snails were so thick. I put in a few Paretroplus menerambo, and in 3 days the snails were no where to be found.
MaySecond002.jpg
 
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