ridding a soft water tank of snails

[jklntx]

I have a 135 discus tank that I found last night infested with the little cone shaped snails..I mean the driftwood was coated. I have a few zebra loaches that I thought would do the trick...I know now their girth is from bloodworms and not snails...any way are clown locahes  (other than hand picking them or chemicals the latter a no - no) the best way to go?

[armthehomeless]

Re: ridding a soft water tank of snails

Let me start off by saying this: You'll never fully get rid of them. Clown loaches will help keep them in check... provided you don't fill them up on bloodworms! The zebra loaches should help too... A loach will prefer food that the don't have to struggle for (bloodworms) as opposed to one the have to hunt (snails).

[Zulaab]

Re: ridding a soft water tank of snails

I have yoyo loaches....  I cannot find a snail in my tanks anymore -- they devastated them all.

[fshfrk]

Re: ridding a soft water tank of snails

i made a little scoop and slowly removed all my substrate. when i did water changes over a couple of months. it's still sitting in 3-5 gal buckets on back porch. i don't like the way the tank looks, but i'm so happy to kick the mts where it hurts. still have a few. plan on getting the ones in the tank with the python on the next wc. tonite when i did a water change i pre disolved 2 hand fulls of salt in a water pitcher and dumped it in the sump just to torture them! when i clean my pre filters on over flow box i always put a pc of filter material in the wet dry to catch them.so they don't get in sump. then i stir up the box to get them to flow down to sump. rinse the filter material and reuse next time. i also have a drain in my sump for a continuios water change' i don't use to much. but when i do a water change i can see them little floating !@#$% get flushed down the drain outside. very rewarding! with a planted tank i don't think salt is a option? when i put the crushed coral back in the tank i will boil it for a couple hours. i do not trust bleach with these  tough little !@#$%. good luck. it's a war!

[Mzungu]

Re: ridding a soft water tank of snails

Personally, I don't mind MTS at all. Just saying. Are they creating a problem in the tank, or do you just not like them?

[finfan]

Re: ridding a soft water tank of snails

get one of the dwarf puffers also :)

i have heard about putting food in a container with holes big enough for the snails overnight and just take the container our every morning gradually collecting most of them

[nacra99]

Re: ridding a soft water tank of snails

Put a piece of cabbage on a dish and place it overnight on the bottom of the tank.
They'll be covered with snails in the morning and you can just pull it out of the tank.

It'll help reduce their numbers.

[geoff_tropheus]

Re: ridding a soft water tank of snails

I hate MTS because they plug up filters, and in my opinon look unsightly in the tank.

To kill them use Had-A-Snail for two days in a row, and waterchange between each dose.

Then use coppersafe in the tank for a whole month.

Then..if any sign of those things show up again....rinse and repeat.

[Mzungu]

Re: ridding a soft water tank of snails

Just be sure not to add copper to any tank that houses or will house any other inverts...

[MJY6087]

Re: ridding a soft water tank of snails

get one of the dwarf puffers also :)

i have heard about putting food in a container with holes big enough for the snails overnight and just take the container our every morning gradually collecting most of them

DPs shouldnt be fed MTS because they are not an open trap snail or something of that nature.....feed them  ramshorns and pond snails instead

[armthehomeless]

Re: ridding a soft water tank of snails

The shells of Malaysian Trumpet Snails are much harder than that of other snails, causing most puffers to not want to even mess with them. Regardless, I've seen the addition of DPs send most of the MTS into the substrate.

[geoff_tropheus]

Re: ridding a soft water tank of snails

ooopps...sorry about the copper thing.  I failed to realize planted tank might have other inverts in there your wanting to keep.

My bad...