Freshwater Snail Question

girlina4x4

Member
Putting the copper-based snail killer in my tank won't hurt my peacock eel, right? I literally have a thousand snails.


 

sepulatian

Moderator
Mystery snails are a pain. They keep right on reproducing. You may want to manually remove the snails. You will end up with all of those dead snails in the tank, which will cause a large ammonia spike, and you will have to remove the shells anyway. Copper medications are not good for any eel. I would skip the med.
BTW, he is very cute!
 

keebler

Member
+1 on coralkeeper...those things are great. Not a very great pic, but they look to me to have pointed ends which would make them Malaysian trumpets. That doesn't really matter, but I would go for manual removal via algae disks. My 2 cents...
 

girlina4x4

Member
Ive tried vaccuming them out but that only gets less than half of them. I started out with TWO snails in AUGUST
that came in on the plants I bought. The are driving me crazy and I still see algea in the tank which I could just scrape off with a mag but I don't want to smoosh the snails. My cory cats eat everything off the bottom so Im not worried about keeping it clean. Plus, I think it looks ugly to have a tank covered in brown splotches.
What is the algea disc method?
I can always put the eel in my other FW tank but he like the pirate ship in this tank. Maybe a temp move while I kill the snails, then do lots of water changes and put him back in?
I really hate these snails!
 

girlina4x4

Member
Oh, and they keep climbing into the filter intake and get caught in the impeller, which blows my filter motor. I dont want to replace anymore. I havent been able to find a screen small enough to keep them out
 
U

usirchchris

Guest
Originally Posted by Girlina4x4
http:///forum/post/2851960
I really hate these snails!
How big is the tank...Is it feasible at all to just pull them out by hand? Might take a while, but if they are driving you mad
 

mboswell1982

Active Member
take the eel out, take out whatever fish you want, put them in separate tank, then, take tank to the yard, dump out, rinse out thoroughly, then, go to fish store, buy new sand, new rock, whatnot, refill tank, make sure all plants and decorations are snail free, possibly boil all decorations to kill any and all snail eggs, and buy new plants,instead of reusing old plants.
tada, no more snails :p
 

girlina4x4

Member
Haha I like your style. Its an 18 gallon. The only place around here with decent plants is petsmart and im pretty sure all of their plants would have snails in them!
I could pull them out by hand, but I would probably miss a couple and be stuck with another hundred in a week.
 
U

usirchchris

Guest
Originally Posted by Girlina4x4
http:///forum/post/2851984
Haha I like your style. Its an 18 gallon. The only place around here with decent plants is petsmart and im pretty sure all of their plants would have snails in them!
I could pull them out by hand, but I would probably miss a couple and be stuck with another hundred in a week.
Hmm, and no known predator?
OOOHHH!!! find a freshwater puffer...if they are anything like the salts they will be gone in ten minutes...err you can borrow my stars and stripes...he would be done in ten and it would be like a freshwater dip!
 

mboswell1982

Active Member
Originally Posted by Girlina4x4
http:///forum/post/2851984
Haha I like your style. Its an 18 gallon. The only place around here with decent plants is petsmart and im pretty sure all of their plants would have snails in them!
I could pull them out by hand, but I would probably miss a couple and be stuck with another hundred in a week.
go with my idea :p an then just dip the plants in something to kill any an all eggs, inspect em if you have to with a magnifying glass LOL
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by Girlina4x4
http:///forum/post/2851960
Ive tried vaccuming them out but that only gets less than half of them. I started out with TWO snails in AUGUST
that came in on the plants I bought. The are driving me crazy and I still see algea in the tank which I could just scrape off with a mag but I don't want to smoosh the snails. My cory cats eat everything off the bottom so Im not worried about keeping it clean. Plus, I think it looks ugly to have a tank covered in brown splotches.
What is the algea disc method?
I can always put the eel in my other FW tank but he like the pirate ship in this tank. Maybe a temp move while I kill the snails, then do lots of water changes and put him back in?
I really hate these snails!
Use a net, or your hands. Pull them out and keep up on it. I am surprised that your eel doesn't go for them. He must, maybe you don't notice it. Get a clown loach. They LUV some snails. You still have to remove the shells though. For the algae, pick up a small pleco.
 

keri

Active Member
Originally Posted by sepulatian
http:///forum/post/2852151
Use a net, or your hands. Pull them out and keep up on it. I am surprised that your eel doesn't go for them. He must, maybe you don't notice it. Get a clown loach. They LUV some snails. You still have to remove the shells though. For the algae, pick up a small pleco.
Clown loach got rid of my snail problem too - (I'm rather fond of my beautiful planted tank NOT being full of snail holes!!) Just be sure to pass him on when he outgrows the tank, they can get really, really big. :)
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by Keri
http:///forum/post/2852162
Clown loach got rid of my snail problem too - (I'm rather fond of my beautiful planted tank NOT being full of snail holes!!) Just be sure to pass him on when he outgrows the tank, they can get really, really big. :)
They grow to about 4-5 inches max. Not enormous. They are great snail eaters though.
 
Originally Posted by sepulatian
http:///forum/post/2852168
They grow to about 4-5 inches max. Not enormous. They are great snail eaters though.
Clown loaches can live YEARS though and they get really fat and look cool. I have a friend that has 2 that are 8 years old and around 8" long.
However all you need is a freshwater dwarf puffer. I don't know what other fish you have in the tank, but larger freshwater puffers can cause complete chaos. Get you a dwarf puffer (they only get like 1-1 1/2" max) and throw him in there. One of my dads tanks had the same outbreak as yours and I bought 3 dwarf puffers from Petsmart for like $1.79 a piece about a year ago and now he has ZERO snails. They eat all those smaller snails but are too small to cause any harm or harrass anybody else. Plus they are a blast to watch.
 

keri

Active Member
Originally Posted by sepulatian
http:///forum/post/2852168
They grow to about 4-5 inches max. Not enormous. They are great snail eaters though.

Nope
In the home aquarium they typically max out at 7-10" but in the wild (and in VERY Large aquariums) they will easily reach 11-13.
Unless you are talking about a different clown loach?
I'm referring to these.


There ARE smaller types of loaches that eat snails as well but I like the clowns the best :)
If you get a puffer be sure he doesn't pick on your eel, they aren't picky when it comes to dinner :) He will decimate your snail population but make sure the eel has places to hide away from the puffer and watch them carefully.
 

sickboy

Active Member
+1 on the Clown Loach! He was my favorite fish, when I had freshwater. Come to think about it, after he died at a ripe age of 7yrs is when I decided to buy a new tank and go the saltwater route.
 

jaymz

Member
I didnt read through all of this, but seeing as your eel is scaless it is easily threatened by any chemical in your tank.
I have had this problem get a couple small loaches or botias (bow-tea-uh)
Skunk Botia Stays small great snail eater.
Yo Yo loach pretty
Red tail botia
These are all good ones
Dont get a clown loach no metter how pretty they are. they are ich magnets and need to be in groups and get 12" and fat as a cat.
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Hm, I have never seen a clown that large. Apparently I was mistaken on how large they can get. I honestly don't think one would grow that large in the eighteen gallon though. Botias are cute guys too. They are jumpers so be sure that the lid is secure.
 

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by Girlina4x4
http:///forum/post/2851960
Ive tried vaccuming them out but that only gets less than half of them. I started out with TWO snails in AUGUST
that came in on the plants I bought. The are driving me crazy and I still see algea in the tank which I could just scrape off with a mag but I don't want to smoosh the snails. My cory cats eat everything off the bottom so Im not worried about keeping it clean. Plus, I think it looks ugly to have a tank covered in brown splotches.
What is the algea disc method?
I can always put the eel in my other FW tank but he like the pirate ship in this tank. Maybe a temp move while I kill the snails, then do lots of water changes and put him back in?
I really hate these snails!
If you drop an algae disk in they'll all congregate on the disk. Then you pull the disk out. Works with lettuce too.
I had some guramis that would eat the snails. Funny thing is they cleaned that tank spotless.
I also think some puffers would take care of that...
 
Top