snails....

[thesquishy]

Just a quick question...ive got a snail infestaion in my tank with my gars and was wondering if that snail treatment that gets rid of them would harm my gars or even my bichirs in any way if I add it to my tank...the snails are anoying and mulitply'n like crazy and I want them gone.
Thanks for any help in advance

 

[chrisfraser05]

personally I'd try to avoid any chemical treatments as they are pretty strong!

Try getting an assassin snail, they are cheap and will eat any snails smaller than themselves.

Better to have one or two med size snails than 200 small ones.
Also to reduce the numbers you could bate them. Put a leaf of lettus in the tank at lights out then pull it out in the morning, you should be able to pull quite a few snails out this way allowing an assassin or a pair of them to finish them off

 

[OllieNZ]

+1 For assassins at least when they breed you can sell them

Ollie

 

[Madding]

No meds at all - too risky to the sensitive gar.

How big is your gar/s?

 

[RedDwarf]

You could also try some snail eating fish to help control your snail population, one of my favorites is Megalodoras uranoscopus.

 

[GhostShrimpMan]

Yea no meds, get an assasin snail or maybe even some pea puffers (if the gar allows) and they will munch all night long :]

 

[E_americanus]

assassin snails sound like one of your best options, but i have never tried them. i would avoid any of the chemicals as they are bound to have some reaction from the gars (primitive fishes in general do not react well to several meds that may work with other more derived fishes).

i've had snail infestations in the past, and really the issue is primarily aesthetic; the snails help break down uneaten food and actually help maintain the biofilter balance in the tank. also, you can put in as much lettuce, etc that you want, but that will never eliminate the problem from your tank...for every 50 you may see above gravel, etc...there are usually 100 more hiding.

puffers are not a good idea as they will either harass the gar, or if the gar is big enough, it will just eat the puffer.

good luck with what you choose to do, but i'd stay away from chemicals--
--solomon

 

[thesquishy]

Thanks everyone, found some assassin snails on aquabid hopefully they will help and they are alot better looking then the anoying ones I got lol just wondering if the bichirs will eat them...
The Gars are about 17-18" now...little puppys begging for food all the time too lol