Snail Explosion!!!

[soul-hugger]

Hello...

I have returned from vacation for a week to find all my loaches and fish alive and well...but now I have so many snails I don't know what to do. In this tank, I have pangios but no other loaches. I'm thinking this happened because of the lack of light while I was away, since I left the lights off. What would be the best way to combat this problem??? Any answers or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank-you!

soul-hugger

[janma]

Picking and crushing combined with Assassin snails will do it.

[soul-hugger]

Thank-you...that is very interesting. I have heard of assassin snails, but didn't realize the target of their assassinations was other snails. Perhaps I will give this a try before resorting to more drastic measures. I was hoping someone would recommend a natural cure to this problem, because I would hate to have to use chemicals, and although I can pick up the largest ones with my fingers, this surely won't solve the problem entirely.
I have had snails from the time before I even had fish. They came in on some plants I bought, and the aquarium cycled for about a month with only snails and plants. I also had weather loaches in this tank for the first months, until I moved them to my larger tank when I set it up. I think they may have been eating some of the smaller snails, but my pangio kuhlis don't seem to eat them, unless they are eating the very small babies. About a month and a half ago, I also removed two of the largest snails to put in the bigger aquarium, because I was told they would eat the harmless but ugly mould on my new mopani driftwood. Although I occaisionally see their eggs, the population has never seemed to increase beyond these original two. It was only after I removed these two largest snails from the 20 gallon that I began to see at least two or three other types of snails emerge in larger numbers. I'm now wondering if these were somehow responsible for the populations staying in check.
I have always somewhat enjoyed the snails, and have even encouraged their presence by leaving their eggs alone when I saw them on plant leaves or inside the internal filter. It now seems that all these factors combined have given them all the encouragement they need to take over! I'm not sure if I'll ever look at snails the same way again!

[janma]

The Assassin snails may be the best natural way to go and they are extremely good. Whats left for you to do is picking or vaccuming the empty shells of other snails. They also look good. You should check this thread out:
http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=12094

[starsplitter7]

I remove the snails to my tanks with snail eating loaches. Put in a piece of cucumber at night, and lift them out in the morning. I like snails. They keep the tank clean, turn sand (MTS) and are natural. If you overfeed your tank you get extra snails. I know you were out of town, but the way to have them go away is to reduce the food in the tank.

[Dirk_H.]

You feed to much feed.

Please don't buy Tetradontidae or loaches for your fight against the snails.
Remember, what do you feed esp. the Tetradontidae, if all snails gone?! This fishes needs snails for their "tooth".

Lay a part of cucumber in your tank after the light is out. You could affix it with on a little stone. After a short time, the cucumber is full with the snails. "Catch" the cucumber with a landing net, further the snails "jump" from the cucumber, during you put the cucumber out of the tank.

Another facility is, you lay fedding tablets on saucer. It's the same: the snails will "run" to the feeding tablets and you could pick them up.

Greetz
Dirk

[shari2]

What kind of snails are they?

The cucumber trick works great (at least on MTS) but you will still have a snail population, you won't get them all.

the easiest way to control snail population is with less food supply. feed less, vacuum up the leftovers, and use the cucumber method. I stick a steel butterknife through the cuc, leave it overnight, grab a net and as I lift the knife (with the cuc on it) stuff the net beneath to catch the falling snails. they drop as soon as the cuc moves.

take a few to another tank with snail eating loaches. they will love you for it.

[soul-hugger]

Thanks again for the great information!!

I will certainly try some of these tricks! I read once about the cucumber trick, but had forgotten about it. This sounds like a very good idea. I would certainly not use tetradontidae, as they would not get along with my other fish. My 10-year-old daughter is interested in them for the aquarium she will be getting for Christmas, so I have researched them quite a bit. I am aware that they need specialised conditions to thrive, and should be in species only. On the other hand, I have wanted clown loaches for awhile, but if I was to do this, I would first have to move the other fish so the 20 gallon woud be their quarantine. After this time I would trade spots, moving the smaller fish back to the 20, and the clown loaches into the 55. That would be the only way I would be able to do it. The asassin snails, I will definitely try. They sound like a great idea. Normally I do a lot of maintenance, so vaccuuming the empty shells would not be a problem. While I was gone on vacation my friend came to feed them, and she emptied all the food bags I had left out! I think next time I will only leave enough food for one or two feedings while I am gone. It seems with the lack of light and maintenance it may have been better not to feed them at all. I wish I did know what kind of snails they are, but I did not buy them, so I'm not sure. ome are black and ome a lighter brown, and I am seeing two or three different shell shapes. Putting some in with my weather loaches is a great idea too. This I will definitely do! Thanks again!

soul-hugger

[starsplitter7]

Here's a good website for common aquarium snails. I bet you have a mix of pond snails, ramshorn and Malaysian Trumpet snails. Those are the common hitch hikers.

I have some pretty Ramsborns that are bright red.

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/snail2.htm#rams

If you decide on Assassin snails, make sure you are positive you do not want any other snails. They are indiscriminate and will eat pet snails too. They also reproduce. So you are exchanging one snail for another.

[janma]

I tried the cucumber trick, reduced feeding, crushing, picking and other tricks (no poisons) but the thing that worked was the Assassin snail.

When you need things to be done, hire an assassin. Sad but true...

[soul-hugger]

After having had this snail explosion, I got to wondering a couple of things. I did not leave out any more food than what I would normally use , but with the lights dimmed, would the fish and loaches reduce their metabolisms and be in a different mode? Maybe this is silly because I know fish don't really hibernate, and that many of them are noctournal, but would changes in their environment like this trigger a change? Cause them to eat less food than normal? Move around less? Perhaps if you don't have automatic lights, it would be best if you did not feed them at all on a short vacation? I also wondered how loaches eat snails. Do they crunch them, shell and all, or do they suck them out? I'm wondering with weather loaches, how big a snail has to be before they can no longer eat them. The two snials in with them are about 3/4" round, and although both my larger dojos certainly investigated them, I have assumed they are too large to be eaten. Thanks again!

Merry Christmas All!
soul-hugger

[starsplitter7]

Many loaches are more active with the lights out. I don't turn on my lights at all (unless I want to see my fish) in the summer to reduce heat.

Sometimes Dojos don't know how to open snails. As soon as they figure it out, they usually do a good job. Everyone seems to like escargot.

[Dirk_H.]

Hello,

I got also a assassin snail. I forgot to write. During a short time my tank (~40l) was "clean".

The Tetradontidae need snails or shrimps for their tooth, like i wrote. They grow the whole life. The other thing is, Tetradontidae are sometimes "bad guys": they bit out parts of the fins from the other fishes or are really predators, f.i. Tetradon miurus!

Greetz
Dirk

[soul-hugger]

I decided to go with the assassin snails and brought three of them home today. I was surprised at how small they are, but they are actually quite a good-looking snail. Before I unleashed them into the tank, I moved some of the smaller ones into my larger tank with the large loaches. Starsplitter, I think you are right about the dojos not quite knowing what to do. This is exactly what it looked like when I noticed them investigating the larger snails. It was like "I caught it, but now what do I do with it??"! I got looking at a tape measure today and realized in some shock that my largest dojo is at least 7 inches long if not longer. The other is slightly smaller, and my third is still just a baby. Perhaps with a few more snails around, they will figure it out though...escargot would be a pretty good motivation! Just too bad I couldn't put a little salt and garlic butter on it for them.... Dirk, do you keep Tetradontidae?? I saw some dwarf puffers today at the LFS and they were pretty cute, but came with the telltale "red dot" saying they could be agressive. What would you feed them if there were no snails? Would you have to buy snails to feed them? I would never put any of them in my community tanks, but my daughter is interested in them for her new aquarium. I told her it would have to be species only if she gets them, or maybe they could be with an oto cat but that's about it. I have definitely heard they will take chunks out of other fish, and that makes me wary to let her have them. I think they may be more of a specialist's fish. I feel leery of using fish to take care of this problem. I would have to want them for other reasons too, and then there's quarantine, which make it almost impossible to be a quick fix, in the meantime my tank would be overrun by snails! I have cut down on feeding, and we'll see how the assassins work!

soul-hugger

[Dirk_H.]

Hello,

no, I don't keept dwarf puffers, but a good friend of me (this animal). He said, the fish swim like a zeppelin and he get right. He got also a little problem with snails, but now no more. But puffers need "special food". So he get in a sepperate tank snails and shrimps ("Red Cherry" from me for this fish). He feed him with this shrimps and the puffer is very lovely to see when he swim and interesting to see when he feed. He sneak to the alive snail, look at her and "bang".

Please note: puffers could be bad guys, not must be bad guys, like spatsmurfes. If they get enough feed, you get less problems.

Maybe you could a seperate tank only for the snails for the puffer? And suddenly your daughter get two tanks one for the puffer and one for snails and shrimps - a wounder, hallelujah.
Maybe you get a plot and in the summer or over the year you could breed snails in a little vat (here in germany some guys get vats for bricklayer and get paradise fish, or other fishes in it [I kept this one]) or you get a little pond? There are some facilities how you could breed snails for the puffer.


I don't know, if you could buy/or you "get" this snails. They are good, when the puffer is tiny.
But you/your fish need "hardware food".

Greetz
Dirk