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Snails! Hundreds of them.. HELPPPP

2K views 26 replies 14 participants last post by  ollief9 
#1 ·
Okay maybe not hundreds but A LOT! I took 10 out of the tank today and I still see them.

They hitched a ride on some plants I got and didn't quarantine. I noticed snail eggs on a plant and got most of what I could see off. But now I have SO MANY SNAILS! Some are small others are big but they all piss me off. They look so gross on the glass. It's only a 10 gallon tank too.

I don't want to use any chemical to kill them and I can't find assassin snails anywhere. Is there any other way to get rid of them other than to take them out? They multiply by the thousands it seems so it would be near impossible to take them all out. Are there fish that will eat them that I can put in a 10 gallon with Platies and Panda Cories?
 
#2 ·
If they are small a goldfish could take care of it. My mom's tank had TONS of little snails until she bought her two red caps, and within' 24 hours they were all gone. I don't know about them getting along or not with your other fish, but that's just my experience. :)
 
#12 ·
Two fancy goldfish need a minimum of 30, preferably 55 gallons. This is a 10 gallon tank and no goldfish would fit (=

I have another suggestion! You could try.... a Betta! 90% of them kill/eat snails :lol: Mine beatup a mystery snail and ate away a pond snail problem. (Assuming you have enough room in that tank)
 
#3 ·
Here is a method I have heard of but never tried myself - seems like it should work, though.

Shove a piece of lettuce in a small neck bottle (too small for your fish to get in) after lights out. In the morning there should be a BUNCH of snails in the bottle on the lettuce - throw them out & repeat the next night.

Like I said, I have never done this, but I would think it's worth a try. Good luck! :)
 
#4 ·
You could also get an assassin snail. They take care of all other snails and don't reproduce easily I believe.
 
#5 ·
Oooooh the lettuce I will try it next time we have lettuce. I don't mnd a few to help keep things clean but when I have mores snails than fish it's a bit much
 
#8 ·
I am having the same problem with snails. They're so oogly too... I like the bigger snails though. Maybe I will try an assasin. What I did, too, during a water change in one of my tanks I took out all the decorations and I hand cleaned them all free of snails into the bucket water. That helped reduce the # a lot and that particular tank is almost snail free (atm). It's not a very FUN job doing that though.
 
#13 ·
I dont know if this was resolved, but if you can remove the plants, put them into QT along with your fish, you can use medicines to kill them..

I had a bunch in my tank, chilling in the gravel, being nasty..

So I removed the plants, cleaned them off and inspected for eggs (egh!) and put them into QT with my fish, while I used 4x the recommended dose of an ich medicine with formalin and malachite green (copper based meds, which kills snails...and can kill plants), which killed the snails, their eggs, and probably everything else :p

After like a week, I did a huge change,added in new, unconditioned water (haha! TAKE THAT! CHLORINE RAH!), waited a few days, then did another big change until I felt comfy the plants would be okay, added them and the fish back. All the while I was checking the plants and killing the snails and eggs. No snails since :p
 
#15 ·
Although it seems like a really great idea, I think the strong dose of ick meds would kill the beneficial bacteria in my tank and destroy the cycle. It took a long time for it to cycle and I don't want to have to do it all over again!
 
#14 ·
I could put a Betta in there, but I honestly would rather not risk it. I have a pretty aggressive Platy and the filter causes a strong current in the tank. On the other hand, could I feed the snails to the Bettas?

Anyone know if a dwarf Gourami would eat snails? I have been considering getting one for a while.
 
#17 ·
My dwarf gourami eats the little snails but once they get bigger he won't.. so u could try it but just be aware that if u have a powder blue dwarf gourami, they can be a bit aggressive as well.
 
#18 ·
When I used to have live plants in a tetra aquarium I had a snail problem also, I bought a pearl catfish who cleared them up really fast. They're also pretty :)

careful if you have small tetras like neons, I noticed one went missing each night O.O
 
#19 ·
I pick them out by hand and squish the gross looking egg nest during water changes..even then I always have a few in my 10 gallon..I have just gotten used to them..:lol:
Mine didnt seem to care to much for lettuce unfortunately...It is really odd how so many of them can pop up in as little as a few days..:lol::shock:
 
#20 ·
I think I'm going to get a dwarf golden sunshine gourami.. my LFS has them on sale now too! SWEET! I tried the lettuce thing this morning, it's still in the tank and I only seen one snail on it. I picked a couple more off the glass too.

I asked this question in another forum and a bunch of people said the snails do an excellent clean up job and to not do anything to kill them all. As long as they are bladder snails or some other kind(s) I was told it wasn't a big deal. I think what I'm dealing with is bladder snails so I can relax and just pick them out when I see too many.
 
#21 ·
but they're oogly... I went and bought 4 big snails from my pet store last night. They are not the assassin snails that I was looking for (I don't think) but I am hopeful they might help. ...Shortly after putting one in, though, I saw one of the smaller annoying snails hitching a ride on the new bigger snail's back... thaaaaat was lovely...
On the plus side, Apache (who is solo in a 5 gallon) finds the new snail soooo interesting. He was putting his head IN the shell when the snail was hiding like "hellloooooo in theeerreee!" He looks like a puppy dog, cocking his head to the side to examine this weird creature. :p
 
#23 ·
I keep my bettas separate but in this thread I'm talking about my 10 gallon community tank.. I guess I should update my signature and specify what's in my tanks.
 
#24 ·
I want a snail infestation! I have every thing worms, bloodworms, springtails, but no snails! My betta and crayfish probably killed them all.
 
#26 · (Edited)
Hmm, I wonder if my betta is responsible for clearing out most of the snails in one of my tanks? The 10 gallon with the betta is ALMOST snail free (a few big guys hanging out) but the other 10 gallon without a betta is.. infested.... (guess my dwarf gourami is not eating as many as I hoped. :/)
 
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