Trumpet Snail Control

[Bruckm]

Anything that will control/eliminate trumpet snails? I was attempting to get pictures of my nocturnal bottom dwellers and discovered more than I imagined. These were taken about 1 hour after the lights went out; lights out in the room as well.

There are 2 pepper loaches
7 black kuhli loaches and 4 clown loaches in there already, so...The regular/pond snail population is kept under control by my crew, but apparently not these.

 

[go_dawgs]

here is a good site that has a list of snail eating fish. http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/4742/snail_faq.html

 

[Lotus]

What I do with them is:

1. Feed a lot less, it really helps
2. When they climb on the glass at night I net them out.

 

[Bruckm]

yeah, but this is inundation point. I had no idea there were that many.

 

[Lotus]

The inundation point is when I start using the net. If you slide the net up the side of the tank, you can "harvest" a whole bunch at a time. They're most active at night, as you found out. I have a big pot of dead snails right now... pretty gross.

I definitely know I have been overfeeding when I get too many.

Most fish don't eat them in large enough numbers to really get the population down. They have very hard shells, and it's too much work for most fish. Even my loaches would rather eat other snails. I have heard of some people's loaches getting rid of them, but mine only barely seem to control the population.

In some of our tanks we have fluctuating fish loads, due to moving fish around for breeding. Sometimes I forget how few fish I have in a particular tank.

 

[echoofformless]

Wow! Dat's awhollatta snails!

I'll take a few if you want to mail them out They're great for planted tanks.

Cucumber method perhaps?

And definately hold back on the feeding. Overfeeding is probably the biggest, yet least talked about issue in all of aquaria.

 

[Orion]

By watching the amount of food you put into the tank is the best way to keep just about any snail population under control.