How do you kill all shrimp and snails?

That seems a tad cruel. Have you considered baiting/trapping them?

Pea puffer lol use algaefix since it contains copper it will wipe them out

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Axelrodi202 said:

That seems a tad cruel. Have you considered baiting/trapping them?

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agree

Chemical warfare may not fare well with future invertebrate inhabitants. Coppersafe and similar products remain in the tank via silicone, substrate, filter media and take a while to get back to invert safe levels. Do you have a way of transferring the stuff you want to keep in the meantime, and you can nuke the tank at 120 degrees for a day. Return the keepers after the fallout. That is, if non- lethal force doesn't work first.

I also like the pea puffer idea. Wonder if your LFS will rent you a squadron. Ask if you can buy them, fatten them up, and return them later.

If all else fails, this sounds like a stellar reason/opportunity to set up another tank for the Fire Reds

Another vote for non-chemical means. Get some fish that will eat both, then bring the back when the dirty work is done.

I'm not shying away from killing them, just like previous posts, any chemicals will remain and cause problems down the line.

Suffocate them.. transfer all fish to a temporary tote during treatment. Purchase pure carbonated water, you should be able to find it in 2 liters. Lower your water level and try to do like 50% soda water. Make sure it's the variety with no sugar can't remember which I think it's club soda though. There is club soda and tonic water... One is just carbonated water.

Either way, shouldn't take long. I'd say give it 20-30mins. Then throw. Bubbler in and start filling back up with the water/water change.

You wouldnt happen to have c02 would you? If you do you can drench the tank in c02 and essentially kill all living things (except plants). I like the earlier idea of "renting" fish from your lfs though if thats even possible.

eparreno said:

My tank is incredibly planted there is no way I could (or would dare) remove all plants. I like the CO2 and carbonated water idea, how much and how long would i need to gas them for? Also will this kill snails?

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Plants love ammonia. Shrimp and snails... Not so much.

natemcnutty said:

Plants love ammonia. Shrimp and snails... Not so much.

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Shrimp for sure, but I think it would take a tremendous amount to kill snails.

Adding my vote to a few points that have been made:

Any copper product will remain in your tank in trace amounts and poison future invertebrate inhabitants.

Killing your snails and shrimp seems a little cruel to me too, plus in the case of the snails you will likely have them reintroduced in short order. If they are there they're eating something that would otherwise grow out of control so you'd be opening that "can of worms" too.

For collecting the very last of the shrimp, there are lots of excellent traps that you can buy or make yourself. There really isn't a real need to kill your pets, they're just trying to be shrimp, they didn't sign up to be bred in your tank so you have some moral obligation to them IMO.

Copper is too risky in a tank you want another shrimp colony in. I'd personally try baiting and hope it works. Other than that no idea.
Most chemical treatments will either wipe out all your plants as well or contaminate the tank permanently. CO2 gassing might work, but that's about it.

Another consideration to gassing your victims is that you will have a substantial amount of decaying material in the tank if you are successful. You'll need to ride out the ammonia spike, etc. before it will be safe for other inhabitants and could threaten your fish occupants unless you can house them elsewhere on a longer-term basis.

I'd remove all the animals you want to save, crank the co2 up to max and leave it for a few hours. The plants will probably be fine.
Make sure to check ammonia afterwards for a while; bodies always rot after all.

try alka seltzer.