Long time update

[pmcsomething]

So I have been gone for awhile now. School, relationship issues and what not.

I have a huge snail infestation. I scoop them out with the net, then feed them to my little brother's yellow belly slider. It seems like they come back 10 fold.

I have an algae problem, that I am working on fixing, thinking about the dark method and no lights for a day or two.

Here are the current residents in the tank.

3 Bolivian Rams
4 Oto's
6 Neon Tetras

It is a 30g, planted tank with 1 big piece of driftwood and a smaller piece. I will take pictures tomorrow.

I am going to try the lettuce method and try and rid the snails that way, I just don't want the otos to get into the jar and eat the stuff.

More later:

 

[brian1973]

pmcs..where have you been..good to see u back.

 

[pmcsomething]

I got out of a relationship, lost my job and then rededicated myself to school full time. I spent sometime in a funk of being miserable and what not. Oh well, life is rough, get a helmet.

So onto the effin snails.

Would pulling the diftwood out and letting it dry out kill most of the snails that are on it? I am thinking of pulling the plants and washing them too in some sort of snail killing solution, which i will take suggestions for. The only thing that I am worried about is harming the fish. I don't want to mess up the water for them.

Suggestions?

Here are pics.

Yes I know I need to clean my tank.

 

[MissFishy]

Tough call, taking out the wood and drying it out will definitely take out a bunch of the snails in one swipe. However, you want to make sure that when you put it back in that it will again sink and not float, re-soaking driftwood is a pain in the butt. There are several things you can do with the plants, lots of snail killers out there that you can soak them in before readding them to your tank. In the meantime, should probably cut back on any food you're feeding the tank, I find this is the most effective. Just make sure all food is eaten before coming anywhere near the bottom of the tank, then the population naturally gets smaller as there is nothing to eat. I've also found that my trumpet snails have drastically cut back on the pond snail populations.

 

[MatthewLaw]

what types of snails do you have?

I need snails for my puffers BUT it depends on their type. Thanks!!

 

[jo3olous]

nice tank btw

 

[kaneda33]

I'll apologize for being unable to answer your question on snails...but how do your bolivian rams get along with one another? I was thinking of getting those a while back and thought you could only have one or two of different sexes in a tank.

 

[pmcsomething]

I have two males and one female of the rams. Which should be opposite, two fems and one male. They all seem to get along. No nipping of the fins. I just added 3 pea puffers to see if they help with the snails. I just need to sit down one weekend and really clean my tank. I have been slacking off and need to get some more plants in there, get it back in tip top shape.

 

[AlyKat]

You could always throw a clown loach in there...that'll take care of them! I've got snails in my 20 and will grab a handful and throw them into the 55...yet, I've never seen a snail on the walls of the 55...LOL!

 

[pmcsomething]

I was afraid the clown loaches might mess with my other fish, mainly the Rams.

 

[DesignsOnYou]

I don't think that clown loaches generally mess with other fish. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Mine are fine with everything in my tank, including my 2 GBR's. But, they will get too big for your 30 gallon, and they like to be kept in groups. They are slow growing, but I'm not sure how long they'd be ok in a 30. Unless you have a friend with one, then you could join the borrow a loach program. Haha. That would probably be stressful on the fish anyway.

 

[misterking]

No they're probably one of the most peaceful loaches - there are more aggressive ones but clowns definately aren't! But I do agree they get way too big for your 30 gallon even if they are quite slow growers, I wouldn't put them through it. Unfortunately I don't know much else in terms of what can keep your snail population down... I've always done it manually when a couple have come in on plants! I've heared flying foxes are quite good at getting rid of snails...

 

[AlyKat]

Clowns are totally non-aggressive...and I do agree that they will eventually get too big for a 30...but they are pretty slow growing, I think they'd be ok until MTS sets in...