Snail invasion, help!
- Thread starter Slippery K
- Start date
Yep it's all about managing them. It wouldn't b practical to tear down my 500g which is the only way to really rid them. You would be surprised what eats them. I had a blood parrot eat them, tons of cichlids, even my 19" ray will hunt them, she actually knocks them off the glass then sucks them up at the bottom. Just saying, I've lost sleep trying to figure out how to rid myself of them but gave up. Hope u find a cure!
One trick i've heard works, is basically putting the boiled cucumber / lettuce into a bottle and then removing the bottle in the morning... basically same idea as if you just left the vegetable in the water, except, in the bottle you "may" catch a few extra ones...
I don't know how big your tank is, but there are many fish that could live with your knife and eat all the snails. I have a ton of malaysian trumpet snails in many of my tanks and they are the cleanest tanks I have. The snails clean up the fish waste and aerate the substrate from constantly turning it over. I personally like that there is more life in my tank then just fish.
When you say a "big" clown knife what do you mean. To some a 12 inch is big, I just lost a 20"+ royal and I have seen others much larger than mine. Point is there are lots of fish that can go with the knife which can limit the population. If you kill them all off you will have an ammonia spike that could cause issues. Most omnivorous cichlids, motoro stingrays, any freshwater puffer, and of course large clown loaches would all work in your tank. If you have a knife that can take down a 7 inch clown loach you need to post pictures of him.
My advice, if you really can't stand them then trap them and remove them. Killing them in the tank will only cause massive problems. I would leave them if I were you and slow down on the feeding of the clown knife, he may try escargot if he gets hungry enough.
When you say a "big" clown knife what do you mean. To some a 12 inch is big, I just lost a 20"+ royal and I have seen others much larger than mine. Point is there are lots of fish that can go with the knife which can limit the population. If you kill them all off you will have an ammonia spike that could cause issues. Most omnivorous cichlids, motoro stingrays, any freshwater puffer, and of course large clown loaches would all work in your tank. If you have a knife that can take down a 7 inch clown loach you need to post pictures of him.
My advice, if you really can't stand them then trap them and remove them. Killing them in the tank will only cause massive problems. I would leave them if I were you and slow down on the feeding of the clown knife, he may try escargot if he gets hungry enough.
I had an outbreak too. It was bad. I had a 5g with fry in it so I just threw them from the 20g into the 5g when I found them. No joke about a couple months after I started doing that I had over 1000 snails in the 5g of all sizes. I finally broke down that 5g tank after the fry were gone. The 20g still had snails though. Just be aggressive. I would pull them out whenever I saw them. Also do the cucumber trick everyday or every other day for a while. Just keep pulling them out. Could take months. But about another 3 months after doing that I didn't have any more snails. All gone. I haven't seen a snail in 8 months now. I don't know that they are gone for sure but I haven't seen them. Non of my fish are snail killers either. I'm upgrading the 20g to a 29g and I'm starting fresh though. Have the 20g waiting and cycling the 29g. When cycling is done I'll move the fish only. Then wash thoroughly any decor being moved too. The gravel is not being moved over so I'll boil that and then store for later. Using a different filter too. No live plants currently although I believe that's how I got the snails too a year ago.
Good luck with yours.
Good luck with yours.
^^AGREE^^
I do think an over population of anything looks bad but if you could somehow manage a small population, snails are very advantagious to a thriving mature tank.
Just a suggestion, you may consider a mature Geophagus Jurupari. They get 10" and sift the sand constantly and eat snails. Your RCK isnt going to eat it either.
Just measured my rck, hes 18" give or take a quarter inch. I dont have the best lfs in my area either so that adds to the difficulty of everything. Im gonna try the boiled cucumber in a plastic drinking cup or something. I think a small ray would greatly benefit my tank, but id have to rearrange decorations and live plants.
I dont have asand substrate, I have 1/4" to 3/4" river rocks (peastones at garden centers). Would that make any difference?
