snail explosion in my tank

3972 Views 12 Replies 11 Participants Last post by HBdirtbag, Jan 19, 2017

norm53

Discussion Starter · Jan 13, 2017

I am sure this subject has been broached before but I cannot find a thread for it. Probably not looking in the right spot?
Anyway I have a 29 gallon planted tank and I currently am dealing with a snail explosion and not sure how to get rid of them. They are wreaking havoc on my Java Fern.
I also have nerite snails and amano shrimp in the tank which I want to keep.
I can kill some of the larger snails, the fish love them. But there are just too many of them for this to be effective. Plus I don’t want to kill too many at once and pollute the tank.
Next thought is some sort of snail eater. Thought about Clown Loaches but the tank is too small for them to be permanent. Trying to catch them later would end in destruction of my tank. And they would eventually kill my shrimp and nerite snails.
Also thought of assassin snails, but again I’m afraid they would kill my nerite snails eventually, not sure thought. And eventually getting them out of the tank would be problematic.
I have read that a Betta will eat small snails and their eggs. Does anybody have any experience with this? IF so a betta might be the answer, it could eat the small snails and I could kill the large ones until the tank is snail free, except the nerites of course. And a Betta would go ok with my other fish, mostly tetras and cherry barbs.
Does anybody have any other suggestions?

:fish:

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Econde

· #2 · Jan 13, 2017

Well I have 2 assassins and a betta in my 10 gallon tank. Assassins are doing a decent job of getting rid of some, but not all of the snails. I have witness my betta "eat" or maybe "attack" a snail egg cluster once.

I manually remove the smaller ones. Others suggest to put a piece of lettuce or cucumber at the bottom of your tank overnight. Should be riddled with snails and makes for easy removal.

I'm sure others will suggest other ideas. Good luck to you!

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Altheora

· #3 · Jan 13, 2017

Google DYI snail traps. <3 It's the same idea as the lettuce, but it makes it easier to remove.

Good luck!

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longgonedaddy

· #4 · Jan 13, 2017

The trap and lettuce ideas will work, but like algae, there is a root cause for the explosion. Usually that answer is overfeeding. Snails will not normally reproduce beyond the limits of their food supply. Have you increased feedings recently?

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klibs

· #5 · Jan 13, 2017

longgonedaddy said:
The trap and lettuce ideas will work, but like algae, there is a root cause for the explosion. Usually that answer is overfeeding. Snails will not normally reproduce beyond the limits of their food supply. Have you increased feedings recently?

+1 you are probably overfeeding

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norm53

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 13, 2017

First off I want to thank everyone for their suggestions.
I don't think the problem comes from overfeeding, I have been feeding the same for a number of years.
Plus the snails are feeding on my Java Furn, It is starting to look like Madagascar Lace.
A friend gave me some guppy grass and I think the snails came on that and I wasn't diligent enough to get the snails out early and they took over.
I am going to try the lettuce/cucumber bate idea.
The DY trap is a good idea, however my tank is so heavily planted that there would be no place for the trap to set other than on top of the plants.
Thanks
Again
:fish:

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longgonedaddy

· #7 · Jan 13, 2017

norm53 said:
First off I want to thank everyone for their suggestions.
I don't think the problem comes from overfeeding, I have been feeding the same for a number of years.
Plus the snails are feeding on my Java Furn, It is starting to look like Madagascar Lace.
A friend gave me some guppy grass and I think the snails came on that and I wasn't diligent enough to get the snails out early and they took over.
I am going to try the lettuce/cucumber bate idea.
The DY trap is a good idea, however my tank is so heavily planted that there would be no place for the trap to set other than on top of the plants.
Thanks
Again
:fish:

So, this is interesting. Perhaps the Java fern is failing for whatever reason. What kind of snails do you have? Most generally don't eat healthy plants, but do make a meal on decaying plants. That would give the snails the extra food.

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natemcnutty

· #8 · Jan 13, 2017

I agree that you've probably been overfeeding but probably didn't know it since it broke down and was cleaned up by biological filters previously. Also agree that most snails rarely eat healthy plants, not because they can't but because it takes more effort to eat/digest when they could start off with something better

How long have the snails been in there, and do you have any hardscape (especially driftwood)?

I still remember the first time I ever got snails. The tank had been running for a couple of years with a lot of driftwood. They came in, population boom, cleaned up all the softened wood and other algae, and started dying off a couple of months later. A few are still hanging around, but there's probably 5% of what I had initially. I've just learned to embrace them at this point...

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

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Opare

· #9 · Jan 14, 2017

Depending on your stock list you could also get smaller members of the Botia genus. But I agree with the others trying to tackle the cause will be better.

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C10H12N2O

· #10 · Jan 14, 2017

Use it as an excuse to set up another tank with dwarf puffers in it - they'll happily munch down your snails and they're cute as heck.

More practically, all the other suggestions here are spot on and will help cut down the population.

(Think about the dwarf puffers - I had a snail plague in my tank a few months ago and got annoyed everytime I looked at my snail-covered tank. Very therapeutic to remove the snails and feed them to the puffers lol)

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Bill Williams

· #11 · Jan 14, 2017

Put some Puffers in there

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bereninga

· #12 · Jan 14, 2017

Could you rehome the nerites and get asssassins temporarily?

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HBdirtbag

· #13 · Jan 19, 2017

i've got the same thing going on once I tore down a tank (had some BKK's that got demolished over some water issues. I spent a month completely overdosing the tank with excel hoping it'd wipe them out with no luck. Even tried an algaefix experiment, nothing killed them. Cucumbers, lettuce wouldn't attract them

I've got shrimp in it again and some assasins on the way.

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