Snail problem

[johndirst]

I will have to try the lettuce, but I am not buying the reduction of feeding to reduce the population. My point being that the snails were somewhat visible when the tank was stocked, but once I removed the fish, the tank sat without fish for two weeks (and obviously no feeding ) and the snail population exploded. There are only about 50-100 larger snails, but there are a tons of babies everywhere.

I do agree it is more cosmetic than anything, but my FX5 was caked with these things :/

Btw, the snails look something like this

 

[skjl47]

I will have to try the lettuce, but I am not buying the reduction of feeding to reduce the population. My point being that the snails were somewhat visible when the tank was stocked, but once I removed the fish, the tank sat without fish for two weeks (and obviously no feeding ) and the snail population exploded. There are only about 50-100 larger snails, but there are a tons of babies everywhere.

I do agree it is more cosmetic than anything, but my FX5 was caked with these things :/

Hello; A couple of things may be going on. One is that the snails are being seen more since the fish were removed as they are out seeking food. When I had a large population of MTS they would be visible on the sides of the glass all during the day. My take is that the ones visible were not finding enough food as the gravel was already loaded with them and were seeking food in areas were they would not normally be found. Another things is that you have not been adding food for two weeks and this has made the snails even more desperate. They will be gleaning anything eatable from all over the tank and will out and about and seen more.

Having been thru this several times over a few decades and learning the hard way, I can assure you that the excess snail population is in some way related to their food supply. There is either a natural supply of excess food such as plant matter or algae or, as I suspect in your case, an excess of food that the fish do not eat. Sounds like you are trying to increase the size of some fish and may be putting in more food than the fish can eat. The snails in such a case are actually doing you a big favor by processing the excess food and thus are likely helping to keep the water quality better than it would be without them.

I also have some suspicion that the excess feeding may well be affecting the general water quality over time. I suppose that the working theory is that by feeding the fish a lot that they will grow faster and/or get bigger faster. I guess that if you are doing a quite large amount of water changes, then the water quality may stay good. It may well be that by feeding too much, as indicated by the large snail population, the growth of the fish may not be optimum. It may be possible that a feeding schedule more closely tuned to what the fish can actually eat will result in healthier fish over time.

There is one other issue to consider in the event you decide to kill off the snails. The use of toxins that kill snails will result in a massive die off and the rotting snail bodies will contaminate the tank in the short term. I also suspect that some of these toxins can have a lingering effect. Tis method might be best if you are considering a total breakdown of the tank.

good luck

 

[johndirst]

Great point about them looking for food, I hadn't thought of that.

Over feeding isn't really the case as I had the fish on a strict pellet diet and have their feeding schedule down as to avoid the common problem you mentioned, but of course I did not mention the algae problem I am fighting in the tank due to several windows in close proximity which would explain what you are saying.

I never use chemicals in my tank, I have found that cycle patience and proper care will allow you to get good/stable parameters. I do regular water changes and param checks (I have an excel sheet to proof it - hehe).

All in all, great advice and thank you for the guidance, always appreciated!

 

[lubz]

Assassin snails help. But don't get a pair..... I got a pair to stop my snail issue and now I have overpopulation of assassins..... Washed my canister filter and found a colony of 50 in it.

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[Anchovie]

A couple of clown loaches won't bother your grow outs and would be happy to eat the small snails for you.


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[Fighter Fish]

I will have to try the lettuce, but I am not buying the reduction of feeding to reduce the population. My point being that the snails were somewhat visible when the tank was stocked, but once I removed the fish, the tank sat without fish for two weeks (and obviously no feeding ) and the snail population exploded. There are only about 50-100 larger snails, but there are a tons of babies everywhere.

I do agree it is more cosmetic than anything, but my FX5 was caked with these things :/

Btw, the snails look something like this
View attachment 928671

Yes that is what he snails look like and I had the exact same problem tank sat empty, not even water in just the substrate. I put water back in for my grow out only to find an explosion in snail pop. I think I will try one assassin snail and maybe 2 clown loaches. I am not using toxins as I don't want to harm my other fish. Growing out 4 azul pb and 2 tatf.


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[Fighter Fish]

Oh and my tank is over filtered with a very high flow of water and the water is pristine.


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