too many snails in my aquarium!! help?
by Aquaboy on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 | 4 Comments
http://www.planetinverts.com/malaysian_trumpet_snail2.jpg
I’ve only had my freshwater tropical aquarium for 9 months, when I first set it up, I only had one, now I have so many, most of the time when I look at the gravel, there’s a layer of snails all over it, it’s ridiculous.
Those links are what they look like. Is there a way that I can get rid of them without killing them? I can’t bring myself to kill them. I have an apple snail so I cant get one of those fish that eat the snails because it will attack my apple snails too..
.. what if i collected them all out of the tank and put them in the local lake, would they survive?
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snails multiply so fast. the only way to stop them from taking over your aquarium is to get rid of them. they might possibly live in the local lake but i am sure there is some form of an ordinance that makes it illegal to dump them there if you are caught.
good luck
My best suggestion would be to get a small family of clown loaches. They LOVE the little snail guys and will rid your tank of them 100%. I know this because I have 4 Clown Loaches and I collect all the snails from another tank by putting out a piece of lettuce in the tank. A bunch of snails will hop on, then transfer the lettuce to the loach tank and they would be so happy to eat them all up. The loach however does not have a big enough mouth to eat your apple snails, so you can rest assured they will be safe. Clown loaches are specially equipped to deal with your snail problem. Using the lettuce might help if you wanna just get them out a dozen or so at a time, then release to local pond.
You can put a slice of cucumber under a saucer on the bottom of your aquarium overnight, and the next day there should be a huge number of snails on it. You can keep doing this until they’re gone, and wipe down your glass and decor really well to remove egg sacs–these are invisible little slimy sacs.
I agree with the guy above, releasing them into the wild is probably illegal, even if they are native snails, because they have been exposed to exotics and could carry diseases that would then be introduced into the natural habitat. I know it seems bad to kill them, but it’s better in the long run, trust me.
At some point the snails have to die – otherwise the whole world will be over run with snails in a couple of years.
DONT let them go in local waterways – then you have the same problem in your local lake as you do in your tank.
This is what happens. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_mud_snail
That snail is very small and ‘harmless’. They live naturally in the local rivers here and cause no harm as they are part of the natural ecosystem. But when they get loose in someone elses river they cause havoc.
You can build a snail trap a plastic box, cut a hole in it, put in a rock to make it sink and bait it with some veges.
Clown loaches and puffer fish LOVE snails, but they proabably are not suitable for your tank. maybe you can give the snails to someone that has them. OK the snails still end up dead, but you dont have to kill them, and you will have made someones clown loaches very happy.
Ian