The war on snails.... help?

[SwampFins]

So I ran out of ideas and decided to tear down my lightly planted 90 gallon tank.

I have been fighting mts for months now and not only have they not died but I have so many now that when you look at the tank at night, it looks like I have a snail substrate. They also form floating snail islands at the surface and now they started climbing on my fish! No joke

I've tried under feeding for over 4 months, I do 50% water changes weekly, I got 3 clown loaches 2 months ago, and I've tried fishing them out manually with lettuce but they just keep multiplying like crazy.

So before I start losing filters due to snails getting stuck in the impeller I decided to remove all the sand and make the tank bare bottom for now.

I'm thinking of maybe getting tiles and keep it bare bottom going forward.

My question is, will keeping it bare bottom help with the snail problem long term? Also, is there a way to treat chemically for snails without harming the fish or the current tank cycle?

I'm really running out of ideas here lol

 

[DOOB]

I just did my piranha tank with seachem cupramine for the soul purpose of ridding it from snails I opicked up from plants placed in the tank. 1 month it took but am now snail free for few weeks. did not mess with the tank cycle and all the plants are doin fine. 3rd time in the last 25yrs ive done this with copper and it works great. they were in my filter too and the main reason I got on the job. snails are dead within the first week or so, but u need to continue treatment for few weeks after cause copper wont kill the eggs. u need to let em hatch and let the copper anailate them. I hate the friggin things myself. some people luv em

 

[SwampFins]

Interesting definitely checking that out.

Did you get any ammonia spikes with them dying off?
Also, is the copper treatment same for the fish in the tank?


Thanks

 

[Kittiee Katt]

The only way I've been able to control snail population is either with goldfish (my goldies love them some snail) or setting up a second tank for my plants and severely underfeeding (twice a week) with thorough gravel vacs after feeding as well as usual maintenance. Plants usually get a bleach dunk before going back in the main tank to make sure I'm not reintroducing snails... It takes a loooong time before you start seeing any fruits from your labour, but damn does it feel good when you finally win.

 

[theskibag]

I introduced some assassin snails to try and control my Malaysian snail problem. Starting to do a decent job

 

[duanes]

Loaches have nothing on the Paretroplus menerambo or maculatus cichlids from Madagascar.
I would move my menerambo from tank to tank, each so snail infested at night I couldn't see thru the glass, and within 24-48 hours, MTS snails were no where to be found. Snails are their primary diet in nature, and they crush small snails, and for those to large to crush ,have their flesh extracted from the shell by the Paretroplus can opener like teeth.

These cichlids are not hard on the eyes either, with their lunate caudal fin, although they get quite large, so require some space. My menerambo easily hit 15", and in the end I had to more my shoal of maculatus to a 500 gallon kiddy pool. They can be aggressive with each other in too small of tanks, but usually ignore other non similar species


menerambo below

 

[koipie doll]

I’ve got the same problem. I’ll try the copper as my tank is too small for a cichlid (20 gal). My goldfish are too big to loan out to the small tank. I’ve got baby clown loaches there now, but not cutting it. Maybe cuz they’re too small. Good luck to us both. Let me know how this works out for you.

 

[koipie doll]

Will the copper harm the plants or make fish photo sensitive?

 

[skjl47]

I've tried under feeding for over 4 months

Hello; Back in the 1970's I had the same sort of situation you describe in my tanks. It took me several years to get down to a feeding schedule that kept the snail numbers down. I now have both MTS and Ramshorn snails in all me tanks but I keep the populations reasonable with a lite feeding schedule.
While you have reduced the feeding, it must be that there is still plenty of excess food available for the snails. Snails need food to exist in large numbers. I not only feed only once a day but do not feed at all two or three days a week.
If you have been feeding too much for a long time it will take a while for the snail population to reduce. First they will continue to feed on what organic food materials remain. As they start to die back they will feed on the bodies of those that die.
My take is you are still feeding more than the fish will eat.

 

[Gourami Swami]

I had a snail problem in my planted tank, and introduced a dwarf puffer. The puffer decreased the population noticeably, seems the ramshorns were decimated, and the MTS declined but continued to survive. I believe the MTS have a harder shell for the puffer to break.
Whether or not this is a good idea for you, will depend on what other fish you have. Dwarf puffers are snack-sized for many fish. Some people say they are very nippy and will bother your other fish- that hasn't been my experience