Pennys to kill pond snails?

[SANND]

Somebody told me to throw penny's into a tank that has a load of pond snails in it. Has anyone else heard of doing that and does it work?

 

[Breene]

Somebody told me to throw penny's into a tank that has a load of pond snails in it. Has anyone else heard of doing that and does it work?

Just be sure to aim at the soft part. *thumbsup2

uhh but realy I have no idea... i dont see what it would do.

 

[hyunelan2]

I think the logic behind the legend here is using the "copper" in a penny to kill off the snails. Copper has a negative, sometimes lethal, effect on a lot of bottom-dwellers and inverts. I am not sure if there are sufficient levels of copper in a penny to do this, as modern pennies are only copper-plated (over zinc). Even if it were, I wonder how many other 'bad things' are on a penny. If you really want to put copper in your tank, they do sell copper chemicals at your LFS - you might want to go read the precautions on a container to see what you need to look out for.

Clown loaches kill snails pretty good too.

 

[Mushroomman]

Never heard of it but I can guess. The theory behind it would be to get copper in the water (toxic to most inverts if not all) but pennys arent only copper, and might not dissolve well in water, so I dont see it working, and if it did, itd kill more than the snails.

EDIT- looks like hyunlean beat me to it

 

[Igor The Cat]

Clown loaches kill snails pretty good too.

And Copper kills clown loaches pretty good.

cheers

-Java

 

[FishyTT]

Copper is not safe for your fish. Just get a couple of clown loaches. I used to have lots of pond snails in my tank that hitch hiked on my plants. The clown loaches took care of them very fast.

 

[Igor The Cat]

^^ DONT just buy a couple of clown loaches, buy over 6, as they are very much gregarious fish. but houseing 6 12inch fish isnt easy, so for most people i would go with something like a yoyo or smaller botia.

cheers

-Java

 

[SANND]

Well it's a 5 gallon tank so I think the clown loaches are out! He's insisting the pennies work but I'm pretty sure he's pulling my leg. As soon as I throw them in, he'll be the first to bust out laughing "i can't believe you fell for that!!"

The gourami likes to eat the babies so maybe if I just crush the bigger ones for him, he'll eat those too.

Thanks for ya'lls replies!

 

[amd]

this is true, it will kill them, HOWEVER it takes a ton of pennys, the chinese resturant had this problem with the pond out front so the have a sign that says "metals hurt the fish, please no coins!" so reallt it only becomes an issue when theres a TON

 

[Igor The Cat]

this is true, it will kill them, HOWEVER it takes a ton of pennys, the chinese resturant had this problem with the pond out front so the have a sign that says "metals hurt the fish, please no coins!" so reallt it only becomes an issue when theres a TON

part of that problem is that some largerfish (espcially goldfish and koi) will eat the coins and they can possible digest it.

cheers

-Java

 

[dreamguardian1]

Copper Does Kill snails

So we had bought some live plants and with that moss ball came about 200 badby snails in a tank with 1 Pleco, 3 Zebra daniels and 3 neon Tetras, we tried puffer fish first and that didnt do enough so the pet store advised a copper penny but also warned us it could kill the fish but its 50/50 chance. Well all the snails but 1 are now dead after 1 week and we lost the Neon Tetras, its a toss up if it was the penny or old age because they ere 7 months old in our house and no telling how old from the pet store but to lose 3 Neon Tetras back to back is no coincidence. However, the Zebrasa nd Pleco are just fine so now that only one snail is left we are removing the penny. But it DOES WORK. So lets sum it up 1 Copper Penny killed 199 snails (yes i counted them), and POSSIBLY 3 Neon Tetras in a Ten gallon tank. Left alive and healthy are 3 Zebra Daniels, an 1 Average Sized Plecostamus and 1 baby snail in a ten gallon aquarium with a real moss ball.