snail buster

TheFighterFish

TheFighterFish

Large Fish
#1
Feb 10, 2006
854
2
0
Bay Area, CA
#1
As some of you know, snails are a real pain especially the ones that keep spawning and soon populate your tank. That is what has happened to me and I think its time for them to kiss my tank goodbye. With that said, I'm planning to strip apart my tank and leave room only for my fry.

I want to first drain the water halfway, take out the fry (probably put them in cups or something not to small...then drain all the water out. I probably will save some of the water, cause I don't want to refill the tank and also disrupt the water conditions. I'll move the tank outside and take out all the gravel along with the snails. I should add I'm not putting any gravel back. I'm leaving the substrate bare. Afterwards, I'll move the tank back to my room, fill it with water and let it sit for a while. Then when things look right, I'll add my fry.

Is anything wrong with my plan?
 

F

Firebug

Large Fish
#2
Jun 15, 2004
841
6
0
Colorado
#2
Have you tried just feeding very lightly for a few weeks to see if that will kill off the snails? I've had a problem or two with snails as well, and lightly feeding and removing any snails I did see helped me loads..but I suppose it all depends just how infested your tank is..
 

Pure

Pure

Elite Fish
#3
Nov 1, 2005
3,216
7
0
Jacksonville, FL
#3
Are these MTS or regular ol pond snails? Either one you will also need to clean out your filter. How you totally get rid of them depends on what they are. For MTS your plan seems good, but without rinsing out the tank you really won't know for sure if you got them all. When they are born they are teeny tiny.

For pond snails I'm afraid bleach is going to be your only hope. I've done this before and it is what was needed to totally kill any eggs you may have missed. That's in the filter as well, so running the filter with a strong bleach mix in the tank is what is needed.

Now this will totally kill your cycle. So before you do this you need to get yourself a large sponge filter. Order it online if you have to. Let it run in your tank for at least a month. Pull it out when your ready to do this. Take it to a bucket of old tank water and carefully clean and inspect it. You want to make sure there are no snails or eggs on the sponge.

Then when you set it back up you have a cycled filter to run in the tank wile your real full time filter cycles.

Doing it like this you will normally see a bacteria bloom, but most likely will not see any cycle spikes.

The whole time all this is going on you can keep your fish in a 20 gal rubber-maid container. WalMart has them for like 6 bucks. Keep the heater and the sponge filter in there until ready to put the fish back in the tank. Make sure to check the heater for snail eggs also.
 

Last edited:
VirgoWolf

VirgoWolf

Superstar Fish
#5
Feb 16, 2006
1,933
4
0
Michigan
#5
Lotus said:
I personally think a few snails are a good thing
Click to expand...
Few being the key word here LOL. I have a few in a couple tanks and it's great, but the tanks with the giant columbian ramshorns, red ramshorns, and pondsnails are rediculous, I am just waiting for a guy that is supposed to take most if not all of my snails since he has multitudes of puffers and loaches, and waiting to switch the growing fry (not fry anymore) and the rest of the little guys into one tank so I can irradicate 90% of all snails! LOL I am probably going to keep a couple red ramshorns, but I'm switching to all mystery snails after this! LOL
 

TheFighterFish

TheFighterFish

Large Fish
#6
Feb 10, 2006
854
2
0
Bay Area, CA
#6
Whoops,

I'm sorry I didn't mention this. THey're Ramshorn snails. A lot of them. If I could guess, I would say 30+. Most of them are still very small because whenever I see a potential spawner I remove the thing.

As for lightly feeding, I'm raising fry and was suggested to give multiple feedings per day. I use Hikari first bites.

Pure: I just wanted to remove the gravel and snails, but you bring up a point...there could be (and probably are) snails in the filter. But bleaching the tank is a bit harsh to me at least. I only two more weeks until I leave the country and let my friend take care of my fry, so bleaching it, having a mini-spike (possibly) is not the best of my options. THanks though.

Lotus: Haha. I was going to PM you but thought this might make a good thread for others weary of their snail infestation. I'm kinda worried that by taking out all the snails, will this make water conditions change drastically. Like you said, it keeps the tank clean. If I removed the snails and continued feeding my fry, would this affect my water?

Virgowolf: haha, at one point I even thought about buying puffers. But with that many snails in my 5 G, I'm afraid that it would eat itself to death.

Again, haha (Sorry, I don't use lol). This could have all been avoided if I just said no to the guy who offered me "free snails." From two comes thirty...
 

J

Jennifer

Large Fish
#8
May 11, 2006
230
0
0
39
Guelph, ON
#8
While on the subject of snails...I have also had a problem with them, I just recently tore down my tank to remove them all however a few managed to stow away on my plants. I've been picking them off but its a pain in the ***. On a recent thread someone wrote that loaches eat snails (?) What is the smallest loach? Do they need to be in a school? (I have 29g but already have it pretty well stcoked and I also have other bottom feeders).

(FighterFish I hope you don't mind me tagging on to your thread!)
 

Pure

Pure

Elite Fish
#10
Nov 1, 2005
3,216
7
0
Jacksonville, FL
#10
That's what a snail tank is for. ;)

The bleach thing happened when I was at my wits end and snails where over running all of my tanks. I would even see them eating eggs, of what ever fish had recently spawned. :eek: It was when a rams horn was munching on some Go Obo Gudgeon eggs I lost it. I even went as far to bake my gravel (eco complete) in one of my planted tanks to make sure I killed all of the MTS that where in there.

Yes with going out of town, bleaching isn't your best option. If I were you I would just use the lettuce trick to get their numbers down.

all this over 30 snails pffft 300+ is what I call out of control. :p
 

Pure

Pure

Elite Fish
#11
Nov 1, 2005
3,216
7
0
Jacksonville, FL
#11
Skunk loaches will make fast work of snails, they stay under 2 inches, but do need to be in groups. Only problem with them is they are mean nasty little Bas****. And will shred any fish with any kind of long finage.
 

J

Jennifer

Large Fish
#12
May 11, 2006
230
0
0
39
Guelph, ON
#12
Hmm...in the tank I have gouramis (fins not very long) and diamond tetras..they kind of have long fins. Other than that I have a rather large bristlenose pleco and two cories (but will be moving them shortly).
 

TheFighterFish

TheFighterFish

Large Fish
#13
Feb 10, 2006
854
2
0
Bay Area, CA
#13
Jennifer said:
(FighterFish I hope you don't mind me tagging on to your thread!)
Click to expand...
No problem. Its what this forum is for.

Pure: I guess 30 snails are not problem for you but I only have 2 tanks. How many tanks do you have again?:D However many, 300 snails is equivalent to that many.:D

Bleaching...not an option.
Loaches...5 G is too small.
Strip down of tank...some snails will remain (still considering)
the old lettuce and cucumber trick...temporary relief

I'll be doing something soon!
 

VirgoWolf

VirgoWolf

Superstar Fish
#14
Feb 16, 2006
1,933
4
0
Michigan
#14
You know what I find works better than lettuce and veggies? Weekend feeder blocks! I got a few packs with a tank I got recently and I was using the snails to dispose of it because I can forget to feed them some times, they're in the back room and we don't go back there much except to feed them, so they miss a day here and there. The next 3 days, all you saw was a tower of snails in the middle of the tank! LOL It was halarious to see so many stuck together and you coulden't even tell the feeder block was under them.

In my 7gal, I have a single giant columbian cleaning up the pondsnail eggs and eating the newly hatched babies. Unfortunately he has no intrest in the red ramshorns what-so-ever.
 

TheFighterFish

TheFighterFish

Large Fish
#17
Feb 10, 2006
854
2
0
Bay Area, CA
#17
I did it

Strip down and restarted my 5 G today. Here it is, my JEBO R311.



While I was cleaning the tank, I put my fry in a pickle jar. Don't worry, all the chemicals used to preserve the pickles no longer were there. I let them have a little time in the sun while I cleaned the tank.



I checked the filter just in case. I found a few snails and quickly took them out. Now I just hope there aren't any eggs laying around...
 

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