Aquatic snail help please!!

fraggle101

fraggle101

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Tony
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We have a tropical fish tank but arnt very knowledgeable in the area.. we have started to get these snails appearing! Firstly im not sure how they got in the tank, although iv an idea.. but how do we get rid of them!! lol..

Anyway, here are some Macro images of my problem..

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How big is your tropical tank?

The reason I ask is that a natural solution if yuo have the size and filtration capacity is a couple of yoyo or kuhli loaches......

Little snails often appear as a result of introducing new plants etc to the aquarium - harmless but a pain in the bum!



Above mentions Clown Loaches which can grow to about 8-9" - and are very sociable but need tank space!!!!

Loaches should be kept in pairs or groups.......... never alone.
 
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best way I know is put a saucer on the gravel and add a few stones on it then pop a flowerpot upside down on top leaving space so the snails can crawl under it, in the hole at the bottom of the flowerpot drop some bait like a bit of cooked prawn and each day lift out the flowerpot and remove the snails from inside it. A couple of weeks and they should be gone. Worked for me . ;)
 
They look like they could be Malaysian Trumpet Snails, in which case they are substrate scavengers and are not a problem. Many people introduce these snails to help keep the substrate clean. If they've suddenly had a population explosion it's probably a sign you've been overfeeding.
 
Thanks for the info guys, im going to my local fish shop tomorrow and run this all past him..

We dont have any REAL plants in the tank, just some plastic ones, the tank is a 30L Bio orb, they look really nasty! climbing up t he side of the tank! v managed to remove about 20 of these little critters so far today! iv left the foliage out for now so its much easier to see them and i can grab them when they appear! im hopeful that im going to get them all out over the next few days, but im guessing there will be a load of babies and eggs (Do they lay eggs?) to grow yet!!

Thanks again guys..

Btw, the pics were taken using a 105mm Nikon macro vr and an sb900 off camera with the standard diffuser on it.. a VERY rushed job..
 
These snails are livebearers, and even if your tank was large enough for a snail munching fish it's doubtful you'd find that they touched MTS - the shells are very hard. If you don't like 'em keep pulling them out, and cut down on the amount your feeding the tank to discourage them multiplying too fast. Please don't try any chemical fixes to poison them.

Personally I've always tried to maintain a decent population of these snails in my planted FW tanks as I think they do a very useful job of scavenging and they don't add to the bioload.

As to bioorbs.. well.. I haven't a good word to say about them..
 
Oops! lol.. its out first Tropical tank.. we thought it looked quite nice, and it does really.. just need to OUT the snails!! lol..

Thanks for the good advice.. (y)
 
Lynton said:
Above mentions Clown Loaches which can grow to about 8-9" - and are very sociable but need tank space!!!! Loaches should be kept in pairs or groups.......... never alone.
Click to expand...

sorry to say I think the idea CLs always grow massive is not true

I agree they WILL - but it take years - my 4 are still about 3" after 3 years

MTS are indeed gravel burrowers - live with it !!

I have Assassin Snails which keep the bladder snails in check - dont thing they attack MTS though
 
John,

Pretty much correct in that any fish will not always grow to its maximum potential size given the limits of the tank - however a lot of newbies to the world of tropical fish go for clowns as they are pretty, "clicky" and quite friendly inquisitive fishies, without knowing their appetite for fresh plants and their ability to outgrow tanks!

However as a great snail muncher and given their gregarious personality I would not recommend them for any tank under about 250 Litres given they are much happier when in groups of 4 or 5 plus, (which does load the strain on filters / bioload........) as oppossed to Yoyo's or Kuhli's.... who are happy with one tankmate...............

We have a large Juwel (300l) running the internal filter + 2 x tetratec 700's........ so thats about 2000l an hour being filtered.........



Hmm Biorb 30L - scrub my idea of any loach for that...........pick em out and entice them into something using the cooked prawn method above.........

What are you stocking the bi-orb with??????

And yes, overfeeding does encourage explosions in the snail population!
 
Alastair said:
They look like they could be Malaysian Trumpet Snails,
Click to expand...

Agree with that, they are MTS.
Personally I'm opposed to introducing any fish just to deal with a snail problem. By all means if it's a species that you want and you're able to accomodate its needs then treat the snail eating as a bonus - but I would prefer to address the root cause of the snail outbreak rather than introduce new fish simply to deal with it.
As others have said, in a 30l BiOrb any snail munchers are out of the question anyway.

My preferred method of disposal is to attach a lettuce leaf to the inside of the tank using an algae magnet or bit of string. The snails will gather on it overnight and in the morning you can just pluck out the leaf complete with snails and dispose of it.
Keeping feeding at a lower level will also help prevent snail populations getting out of control in the first place.
 
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