What is the best way to euthanize my snails?
- Thread starter Carefree_Dude
- Start date
I wouldn't trust salt to kill these things. Once upon a time, this same tank had brackish water....shoot, these snails have had quite a history...
I first got them in 2007. There were only 3 of them.
Started out with a freshwater tank. i more or less forgot about the snails. peek in on the tank one night, and sure enough, there were many snails.
Eventually, had to get rid of my fish... I washed the gravel in hot water, let it sit outside for a few days. gravel seemed dry (at least on top)...
set up the tank again, have a few fish in it. eventually i notice my snails are back! I don't mind them, as they only came out at night.
I end up realizing some of my fish are brackish fish. SO, I turn the tank into a brackish tank. It was brackish for a good year. snails still managed to survive.
decided it was silly to have a brackish tank with only a few fish that were actually brackish. got rid of the brackish fish, and switched it back to freshwater.
A few months ago, i got some marmimo moss balls. this was a mistake. after i dropped these in the tank, the population of snails exploded. they no longer hid underground. even after i got rid of the moss balls, their numbers just kept building.
Got some clown loaches, which just ignored the snails... got a team of about 50 assassin snails, which couldn't even dent the population.... tried trapping them in a bottle.... pulled out a good 1000 or so every morning, with no dent in population... tried starving them by individually hand feeding every single fish in the tank...
SO, this is a last ditch effort. I'm angry because i found a few tiny MTS in the new tank already. have no idea how they got in there. I removed them, and haven't found any more, but i fear there are more in there...
I first got them in 2007. There were only 3 of them.
Started out with a freshwater tank. i more or less forgot about the snails. peek in on the tank one night, and sure enough, there were many snails.
Eventually, had to get rid of my fish... I washed the gravel in hot water, let it sit outside for a few days. gravel seemed dry (at least on top)...
set up the tank again, have a few fish in it. eventually i notice my snails are back! I don't mind them, as they only came out at night.
I end up realizing some of my fish are brackish fish. SO, I turn the tank into a brackish tank. It was brackish for a good year. snails still managed to survive.
decided it was silly to have a brackish tank with only a few fish that were actually brackish. got rid of the brackish fish, and switched it back to freshwater.
A few months ago, i got some marmimo moss balls. this was a mistake. after i dropped these in the tank, the population of snails exploded. they no longer hid underground. even after i got rid of the moss balls, their numbers just kept building.
Got some clown loaches, which just ignored the snails... got a team of about 50 assassin snails, which couldn't even dent the population.... tried trapping them in a bottle.... pulled out a good 1000 or so every morning, with no dent in population... tried starving them by individually hand feeding every single fish in the tank...
SO, this is a last ditch effort. I'm angry because i found a few tiny MTS in the new tank already. have no idea how they got in there. I removed them, and haven't found any more, but i fear there are more in there...
They probably transferred via eggs in your unwashed bio media. I've found snails can easily end up in filters and breed. I was quite surprised when I cracked open my dad's FX5 on his tank I set up for him and there were about 500 snails throughout the entire filter.
slap a heater on that puppy and keep it at 92 for a few days, or higher, solong as u do it slow ur fish will be fine, i had a pacu, silver arrow, JD, FL gar, achara cat, and i suspected ich and had that tank at 100 degrees F for 2 days and all my fish were fine, my apple snail was toast tho
Yeah, I pulled a massive amount out of my hob when I cleaned it. I thought mts gave live birth though?
yea dude whats up with the snails in that tank? is there something i can do for those guys? he has aquarium salt. just fizz em out? lol
i would just empty the gravel on a tarp or towel on the lawn. the birds will eat them. I'd rather kill a thousand snails and let other things eat them, then just kill them and not let anything eat them. i would just empty out the tank completely and start over. make sure you take your hob apart and get new sponges.
I've had issues with these snails too, even after taking the gravel out and boiling everything. They survived. I have given up on getting rid of them, but I also don't have the population you have going on there. Most of mine have really thin shells so the seem to crunch easy for fish snacks.
I honestly have no clue how they reproduce. I also assume if they do give live birth that tiny ones could have still been in your media when you transferred it. Obviously they're not magically appearing, even if it seems like they are.
