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What can I drop inside a tank to kill all invertebrates?

11K views 62 replies 34 participants last post by  sayurasem 
#1 ·
Hello.

I have a small tank that has some scuds, cherries and snails. It's pretty much been in my loft forever and things are breeding out of control. I would like to turn this tank into an all moss tank so I need everything out of there 100%. Obviously, netting things out is a giant waste of time and you can never get everything 100%.

Can I just drop something in the tank that would kill all shrimp/snails except plants and fish? I'll have all day to waste on this so maybe there is something I can pick up from a store? I did see some liquid medicine that gets rid of snails but not sure whether that is fish/plant safe.

Thanks for your help.
 
#3 ·
Yeah I thought about dropping a small copper pipe but not sure if that would permanently damage some of my fish. I need a 100% sure way that gets it done within a few minutes or hours.

Unfortunately I've made up my mind to just get rid of the shrimp instead of catching them. Much easier and less time consuming. :bounce:
 
#5 ·
Please see my post above (we posted at the same time :))

I have some nice moss carpet that is tied down and I do not want to pull it all out and start over. I also have some nice endlers so breaking down the tank definitely is not an option since I do not have anywhere to put them while I cycle all over again.
 
#6 ·
I imagine putting in anything that will instantly kill all inverts wouldn't be too good for your endlers either, especially if you have any babies in there. Aren't there shrimp traps out there that people use?
 
#19 ·
I'd try to trap as many of the snails and shrimp as possible before killing them off. The ammonia spike from them decaying, if there are as many as you are saying, would cause issues for the Endlers.
The Endlers should take care of the scuds and baby shrimp.
I could swing by on my way from Philly later in the week and net/trap most of the shrimp and haul them away for you ;D
I used a few pennies in a 2 gallon bucket to rid plants of the snails I couldn't find before transferring them to my tank. Wasn't a couple hour deal, but it worked. I don't see the pipe being an issue. Soak it in hot vinegar to clean it, then give it a cold water rinse and you should be fine.

But if you plan mass genocide, I would seriously consider placing the Endlers in another container and doing water changes daily or every other day. If you have filter media in the container (even with no circulation), every other day should be okay. Just keep it bare bottom and vac the bottom to minimize ammonia spikes. Small cheap plastic containers, paint mixing containers ($1-$2), will work temporarily. I would vacuum the tank as well as you can every couple of days to remove as many bodies and decaying matter as you can until everything stabilizes before putting the Endlers back in.

I will come over with a bucket and remove as many shrimp and snails as possible. I'm heading to Philly tomorrow and coming back sometime next week, my schedule is a little flexible.
 
#27 ·
Remove your filters/heaters first.. but this might be the smartest idea.. I've tazed myself.. not that bad.. prolly won't kill much... If you're grounded and feeling frisky, plug some severed wires into a grounded circuit breaker and put the + and - in either end of the tank. It should bubble and realease hydrogen and oxygen gas on either lead if I remember 7th grade science class correctly.

Don't tell game and parks.. electro-fishing is illegal.
 
#29 ·
Lol, it doesn't seem like anyone besides hedge and i have dealt with scuds before. These guys are like to cockroaches of the shrimp world. Netted and even scooped up all the gravel in a tank and still have nearly a hundred in the bare bottom tank two weeks later. I refused to do a tank teardown due to a CBS so near to term.

You all my be after the shrimp in the tank but you are playing with fire trying to net them in a scud infested tank. Adult scuds will outrun most fish so don't think that is a viable fall back plan. The only way fish could be effective is you place a betta, (plakats make proficient hunters due to their short fins) in a 2.5 gallon tank. Anything larger would give the fish a run for their money and give up. Various small cichlids may work but again the adults burrow quicker than anything so a sandy substrate would be an alternative. Just fair warning as so many people are so quick to jump on the idea of netting. Just the accidental two or three that hitchhike into you tank will provide over a hundred scuds in a few short weeks.
 
#30 ·
Good post.

To add:
Scuds will also eat certain types of mosses to the point that only little fiber twigs are left. They don't touch my fissidens nor Christmas moss but they will devour my Singapore moss.

Heck, even if I tore down this tank completely, I would probably have to buy everything brand new including gravel. Scuds are impossible to eliminate when shrimp/plants are present. The only way to get them out is to nuke the tank with something that kills inverts. I once had 10 adult swordtails in a 15 gallon tank with just ecocomplete and floating plants. Not other objects nor plants were on the bottom...just the ecocomplete. Guess what? I had to tear this tank down since the swordtails couldn't solve the scud problem. If a fish was chasing a scud, it would just bury itself in the substrate. I tore the tank down and threw out the gravel with the fish tank.

I am inclined to believe that scuds would survive a real nuclear blast. There would at least be a few survivors for sure.
 
#33 ·
No one mentioned this yet... CO2. I use this method to kill all the scuds.

Overdose your tank with co2 gas for 24 hour. Filter, heater and lights off. Lay a layer or two Saran Wrap on top of the water surface (maximizing co2 concentration in the water). Basically it.

This worked for me so far when I'm trying to transfer all my plants from an infested tank. This is also what I do to quarantine new plants from anywhere I bought. The best thing about this method is chemical free so plants won't be affected.
 
#34 ·
+1

i have done the exact same thing with a couple bottles of club soda. eliminated all of my scuds.

i used to culture them as live food, but got tired of their wily ways...

it also works great for snails.
 
#35 ·
I can lend you Bonnie and Clyde :thumbsup: this is my Golden Wonder Killifish pair. I wanted to clean out a couple of my shrimp tanks from being overrun with scuds/water fleas/planaria whatever.....took out the shrimp that I could see, and dropped Bonnie/Clyde in for what I thought would be a day or two.

Next am they were both at the front of the glass wanting snacks :) seems they ATE everything alive in the tank...and I mean everything, not a snail, planaria, aquatic creature of any kind lived after 24 hours, why I nicknamed them B/C.

I have since used them on more tanks to do the same and its amazing.

Sorry Im not close enough, but maybe someone else has a couple Killifish you could borrow for a day or so.
 
#36 ·
Thanks all. Bonnie and Clyde sound like a perfect too but they'll probably eat some of my endler babies too. haha.

I'll be heading out to Petco some time today and if I cannot find AlgaeFix then I will go the Co2 route with cyran wrap on top of the tank.....I have a decent amount of floaters and I'm afraid that one of these savages would just sit on top anchored to a floater getting free oxygen.
 
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