Snail control

I have a 33L tank and it is moderately planted at this time. My goal is for it to become a heavily planted tank as I have my plants in place. It is only two months old now and I am allowing the plants to grow.

Anyhow, I have had a snail breakout and am needing a fish or fishes to take care of them for me. I am thinking a type of loach. Clowns would be way to big and others that might be a good fit are dwarfs or checkerboards.

My delima is that most loaches are sociable and need multiple friends to live happily. With my 33L I am afraid I might not have enough room...bioload room...to house 3 to 5 loaches, even dwarfs. Currently I have 5 albino cories, 3 otos, two mollies, and one dwarf gourami. My plan is to have more than 33 total inches of fish in this tank once I get it where it needs to be plant wise.

Do any of you recommend what I should do? Any loaches or other type snail eaters you suggest that will do well in a community tank?

i know its like fighting fire with fire

but get some assasin snails, they eat other snails

the Anentome Helena (assassin snail) is said to eat all other snails of all sizes:-& and it can't breed unless it mates. So if you get one of those, it will do the job.

Anentome helena - The Free Freshwater and Saltwater Aquarium Encyclopedia Anyone Can Edit - The Aquarium Wiki

as for the tank most people will agree it is suitable for shrimp or one betta fish only.

and even if they breed, once your done with them your lfs will actualy want them? and will pay you, and from my experince they dont breed out of control like the snails that come with plants

hi,
one verry simple solution is a few thik slices of cucumber (dont know if the writing is ok) on the bottem of your tank (in the evening) the next day simply remove the slices packed with snail.

I only have 21 inches worth of fish in a 33. That 21 is their full grown size which they are not quite at.

yeh but you said 33 liters?

or did you mean 33 gallons long?

33 gallons. I guess I threw some of you off with my earlier discription. When I typed 33L I was referring to a 33 gallon tank that is long instead of tall. It is more shallow than deep. Sorry.

puffer is another good idea, try pea puffer :rock:

Nothing like fresh lettuce to get rid of snails.

Put in a piece of lettuce at the bottom before turning off the lights then carefully remove it in the morning, there will be lots of snails on the bottom of the lettuce. You might need to repeat this for 2-3 days to get rid of them all though.

It worked for me on multiple occasion!

Most snail eating fish can get very large or aggressive to other fish. Anti-snail chemicals are a last resort like a nuclear weapon as they could also kill your fish & upset your tank's equilibrium.


----------------------
[FONT=&quot]Vivariums[/FONT]

you can use assasin snail I have a pair and they do good job without disturbing other inmates

Assasin snails will prey on other snails, however this is only after all the snail eggs are depleted first.

Prevention is the best cure.
Anti crustacean chemicals contain high levels of copper - which in itself is not too detrimental for plant health, but it is deadly to some fish. The copper also does not kill the crustaceans - instead it basically induces a coma from which they will return. You still need to remove all the snails from your tank.
To prevent snails, you could when you get any plants, wash them in a strong mix of water and potassium permangantate. This is toxic to snails and kills them. They retract into their shells, and fall off the leaves! The only thinkg left is the snail eggs - some become infertile - others - well they remain. Wash the plants finally in water then add them to your tank.
If you then have a family of assassins - they will remove ALL eggs for you... eventually - you end up with little or no snails!

i got 2 killer snails on my 58L tank,they did a good job, but i have a bad experience with botia modesta, they kill and eat 30 of my cardinals, found the dead body on their hiding places

I have a tank full of rosy barbs which destroyed a population of common snails. they didnt quite get the matured mts snails though as they bury into the gravel, so i picked those ones out.

Perhaps the real issue is that you're overfeeding the tank... I have MTS snails in both my tanks and have never had a population explosion (and one of the tanks houses Goldfish!). Snail populations only explode where there is an overabundance of food for them to eat. Especially with the main fish you have being known to graze on algae and left-overs, you can feed them less. Mollies and Gouramies are known to eat baby snails, too, but only if they feel the need to go browsing for snacks. If you want to open up more bio-load space, get rid of the albino Cories (which ruin the harmony of a planted tank anyway) and replace them with a puffer or something like that...

But, I still think your better solution is to cut feeding down to once a day -- and don't feed with tablets/wafers. You'll see the snail population dwindle on its own. MTS's and Ramshorns are harmless to plants anyway. Granted, if you have snails harmful to plants, I'd go with the bait and remove method mentioned. Assassin snails are great, but I don't like their indiscriminate killing methods -- they'll kill any snail they find and that's not ideal either.

Hope the above is helpful.