SNAIL INFESTATION.....HELP!!!!

izabeau

izabeau

Medium Fish
#1
Mar 24, 2003
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#1
I need HELP!!! It started with 1 little tiny brown snail, smaller than one of my gravel rocks....now in my 5 gallon alone, I stucked out between 60-70 today when I was vaccumming. I have nothing against snails, I do like them I have a golden inca myself, but I DO NOT want this many!!!! How do I get rid of them quickly, and humanely. My lfs won't take them, I don't have any fish that will eat them and I don't have anyone to give them away too. What should I do??? All the ones I could get are in a bucket at the moment...can I just put salt in or would that be cruel and would it work???

Anybody...???
 

M

Mushroomman

MFT Staff
#2
Jan 16, 2004
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#2
put a piece of lettuce on a plate, leave it overnight, then remove with snails, or just pick them out by hand as you see them. chemicals might not be that safe, if it can kill snails, it can kill fish. salt wouldnt work, theres some snails kept in brackish tanks.
 

Lotus

Lotus

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#3
Aug 26, 2003
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#3
So you want to kill the ones in a bucket that has no fish in it?

If so, you can add some ammonia (8-10ppm), which will kill them. You can do this in any tank that HAS NO FISH. Of course in a cycled tank the ammonia will soon be taken care of by the bacteria and you can do a water change, check ammonia and nitrItes and add the fish back (after taking out the dead snails).

If they are in a bucket, I would just throw them in the trash (without the water). But then again, I am fairly heartless.

One thing to note is that if there is too much uneaten food in the tank, snails will multiply like crazy. Maybe feed a little less in the future :)
 

izabeau

izabeau

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#4
Mar 24, 2003
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Yes Lotus, I have about 60-70 snails in on of the buckets I use to clean my tanks, there is 1 silk plant that they are all over, no fish, just some tank debris, snails and the plant. Ordinarily I do not like to kill animals if I don't have to but I don't think I have a choice here, there are just too many of them.
I want to kill the snails in the bucket only, I can always hand pick other ones out later on as I go, but I would like to eradicate the "mother load" 1st. I heard squishing them is not a good idea, and I don't like that suggestion anyways.

Could I just pour pure ammonia in the bucket?? Would that kill them?? I don't wannt just pour them in the trash, although I live in Toronto, and it's minus 16 right now temp. wise so I think they would probably freeze to death pretty fast.
 

izabeau

izabeau

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Mar 24, 2003
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Sprite & Bevans, I would love to divy them up between you and send them out, you can have 'em but I don't know who well they would do on the trip from Toronto, Ontario to you guys....what do you think??? If you really wan'em you can have em.
 

S

Sprite42

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#8
Jan 12, 2004
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I just noticed that you are in Canada. I don't think this should be a problem, though. I have had snails shipped to me from upper Illinois in early January. They were shipped without a heat pack and in a styrofoam box with styrofoam peanuts. They were in a plastic ziploc bag with a very wet paper towel. I received 2 gold mystery snails and numerous malaysian trumpet snails. They were shipped over night. You might want to check with your local post and see what overnight shipping to the US is. Let me know. If it isn't just outrageous, we are in business.

BTW, do you know what kind of snails you have? Are they pond snails by chance? We can't get them here as they are considered pests, imagine that. LOL
 

izabeau

izabeau

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#10
Mar 24, 2003
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Honestly Donna, I don't know what kind they are, all I know is they are soooo small, smaller than a baby's baby fingernail and brown. I'll check my post office and see what the shipping is like, I'll let you know...you can have um, cuz I gots toooo many!!! I'm up to 80 something now! Pests, what do you mean pests??? You mean they are banned from Arkansas?

Talk to you soon!
Iz
 

S

Sprite42

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#11
Jan 12, 2004
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#11
No, pond snails are not banned. Most pet stores, that carry plants or snails have them. They just won't sell them to you because the are considered pests. Sometimes you accidently get one with a plant purchase or the like.

All the plants I have bought never had any snails. They aren't illegal to ship or anything. Pet stores around here just won't sell them. I asked several.

Thanks, Iz!

Talk to you soon
 

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