The war on snails.... help?

[skjl47]

some folks just plain and simple don't like snails.

hello; I do get this and have know a few folks who feel the same way. Not wanting snails is fine and a personal choice.

I was trying to point out that a very large snail population, one that becomes unsightly and may even jam impellers, is related to excess food in a tank. I have had MTS out and about in droves during daytime and often clogging up my power filters. Also ramshorn snails everywhere. Just too much food.

If all the snails in a tank are killed or some how removed then the issue of excess food will remain. A very aggressive WC and vac schedule is a possible remedy.

In the few tanks I have run without snails it was useful to have some small bottom feeders. Cory cats are good. I especially like the kuhli loaches as they can and do get into very tight places. These are small fish and bite sized for some bigger fish.

I have gone to two or more fasting days each week for adult fish. I came by this over many years of being gone for a few days from time to time. Even when I was still overfeeding I would come back to find my tanks looked much better. The fish had scoured up the more fresh excess food

 

[Fat Homer]

soooo lucky dude. im proud to announce my piranha tank is snail free for little over 3 weeks now LOL all my others are fine. I didn't even share my gravel vac or nets from that tank to the others so as not to transfer eggs somehow LOL

The problem is my planted tank has quite a a lot, so im still trying to get under control...

 

[DOOB]

puffer fish luv to eat snails and are pretty cool lookin fish. seem to leave plants alone too. I found loaches eat the plants as much as they eat snails

 

[koipie doll]

Hello; I guess it depends on how quick you want the snails to be gone. Given time the loaches will grow and likely get the population under control.

I have been keeping tanks over 50 years with snails in my tanks. For nearly two decades some of my tanks were overrun. It took me a while to get the food source they use under control. I now use so much less fish food over time than before and have a useful sized population of snails. It may be worth considering such an approach.
If the snails are killed off and the excess food is still being added to a tank then what becomes of the excess food? It decays and rots in the closed system of the tank. Since the bottom line is there is a direct connection between a large snails population and excess food, then it makes sense to do something about the excess food rather than the snails.

I feed sparingly once a day. Have 1 dwarf gourami, 2 clown loaches and one albino bristle nose pleco. Can’t feed algae pellets(only1/2 of one) because snails start climbing all over pleco. Don’t have another tank to put loaches in . This ones a 29 gallon. My 125 has 2 shubunkins in it. They’re pretty big and would probably eat the loaches, or at least nibble on them. I got the loaches to eat the snails. Think the population is a bit less, but there is still a good sized population of large ones that couple up all the time. Hoping the loaches will catch up with them as they get bigger. I don’t really hate snails, but this is just getting out of hand. My poor pleco!

 

[monkeybike]

My planted tank snail control is:

Blue botia x 2
Sun Loach x 3
Yoyo Loach x 3

Still see some mts if I stir up the stand but not in the abundance they were. They may get in from the shared sump with my 180 though.

 

[skjl47]

climbing all over pleco.

I feed sparingly once a day

hello; If this feeding sparingly once a day is a recent thing then you may have reduced feeding enough. It takes a long time for the reduced feedings to have the desired effect. First the snails will feed on their own dead as the die back continues. Next is the snails will dig deeper and more thouroughly for what organic food stuff may still exist in the tank.

hello; That you have a pleco is another issue with snails. Plecos are to a substantial degree vegetarians. This can mean that their digestive system is not very efficient. Could be that pleco poo still has as much as 50% of the original food values left after passing thru the pleco. Not much you can do about this as the pleco needs enough food.

Seems to me that the practice of putting some lettuce in the tank at night and then scooping it out with all the snails that are on it the next morning might help. Even this will take a long time to be effective.