Tropical Fish Tanks...HELP SNAILS.....

[subaruforestermum]

Well I dont know how many of you (if any) have fish tanks...what I really need help with is ......(even if you dont have them, but know someone who does...please Im at my wits end)

I have 3 very well established 2ft fresh water fish tanks, with heaters etc....my only problem is that I am getting snails starting breeding in them, and there are now hundreds of them...arrrgggghhhhh

What I need to know is how do I get rid of them???? I have used the stuff you buy from the pet shop, and collect them out of the tanks, but they just keep coming back.....

Any help will be greatly appreciated......(at shops just keep telling me to rinse the plants I introduce, well thats all well and good if they arent already established in the tanks already).......

Dont want to empty the tanks completely as they have the right amount of bacteria etc......and the water condition is really healthy....

Thanks in advance if anyone can help......:fingerscrossed:

[KarniF00l]

To be honest i don't think you have a choice. Snails breed like rabbits so there will be tonnes and tonnes of eggs everywhere.

So it comes down to either dealing with the fact that you have tanks full of snails or you empty the tanks and start again washing everything thoroughly.

I hope you find some other way though, Goodluck :)

[subaruforestermum]

Damn KarniF00l.....looks like DP will be making that desicion then... we started off with only 1 snail, and they spread to all 3 tanks (when they were all together).....

[cwsmum]

I don't have any suggestions...but if you do work out how to get rid of them I'd love to know :yes:
My mum has a little tank with one lonely goldfish left in it...and heaps of snails...she emptied the tank and put the 4 fish back in and the next day there was only one left alive :confused: I know it's only a goldfish but my mum is kinda attached to the little guy.

What types of fish do you have? We are looking at filling our tank back up again soon. It's been empty for about 18mths since our last fish died.

[subaruforestermum]

At the moment we only have 2 Angels in one tank, Neons in another And Coloured widows in the 3rd tank.........

Oh and the bristle nose catfish......

We are looking to get some more, just trying to find the perfect fish..(Im very fussy when it comes to my fishies)...we had heaps more, but over time they have died....:crying:

With your mums tank, it could have been the water, usually water has to sit in the tank for a day or so to settle etc......or if she used any chemicals to clean it out....

Dont worry about being attached to fish, I was attached to a fighter we had, he was "fighty", a blue fighter and very interactive.....he would always come up to me.....

[Ryan&RileysMum]

there isnt any point emptying them i have emptied mine and left it for 3 months and the eggs still hatched
my grand father used to breed al sorts of fish and thats how i got into it i dont have a tank atm
but i used to breed sword tails guppies and mollies(the white pearls) i asked my mum and she said if you spend a few mins a day taking them out by hand
they soon disappear if not maybe tranfer your fish to another tank and give it a serious dose of the stuff from the pet shop leave it for a few day then empty the water out and put new water in
hope this helps

[cjb/jbvd]

if you get a few more species that eat the same kinds of algae as the snails (a couple more catfish should do the trick), then the food source will get pretty thin and the snails will die off.

there might even be something that eats snails, but you might want to check that.

[FOURtunate]

My DH is a Marine Biologist, and we run an online aqaurium store.

He suggests the only thing you can really do is empty the tanks, wash the plants, do a water change, and remove as many snails as possible.

This used to happen at Sydney Aquarium where he used to work, and this is what they had to do.

None of the products really work for a huge infestation like that. There are lots available, but none do the trick in the long term.

Bummer hey!

[nicoleE]

I would give the chemicals a go, just ensure they are safe to use with the fish in your tank. I wouldnt bother getting fish to eat the algae the snails are eating as for one, the snails will always have the filter to feed from and also the algae eating fish will be more likely to go for the fish food you put in the tank instead of munching on the algae too much! (same goes for fish people will tell you will eat the snails, plus the main ones Clown Loaches get way to big for your tanks)

I have kept tropical tanks for years, the last one was a custom 6' tank with external canister filter and it still got infested with snails! I just scrubbed the filter sides and medium (in some old tank water of course!) to get rid of the snails and eggs, this kept them under control somewhat... with a 6' tank it was a big too big to control with chemicals.
I have however used the chemicals years ago in smaller tanks and they worked a treat.


Good Luck!

[Mikeswifey]

Put a siamese fighter fish in there? I dont know if they can go in there but I had a siamese fighter for 3yrs named Shadowfax (after the white arabian horse in lord of the rings)...gosh he was just beautiful. He would let you pat him.

He killed all of my snails. Just gobbled them up. We had about 5 and next day - all snails gone.

But other than that I have no suggestions, all I can say is its one of my dreams to have a beautiful tropical tank, but DH wont let me because we have to many pets as it is.

[subaruforestermum]

Thanks ladies...

cjb/jbvd - the biggest tank infestation is in the tank with 4 catfish in them, so not sure if getting more would help??

Mikeswifey - we had a siamese in each tank (until the last one ppast away in March) and the snails where still there, we can no longer have a siamese in each tank as we now have the Angels.....not a good combination...lol

And I go snail collecting every second day.....

As for changing the water completely this can be harmful to my fish, cant it?? As it contains the correct about of good bacteria etc and is well established......

Oh, maybe I should just let them take over....lol

Thanks for all your suggestions and sharing your same experiences....lol, (sounds like Im talking about something really intense, and serious, not SNAILS.....:laughing: ) I really appreciate everyones imput.....

Will keep trying and see how it goes....

[KarniF00l]

You shouldn't have too many hassels if you do change over the water.. just use water from the tank and put it in a bucket and scoop the fish out. Even put the heater rods in there if you can. Wash the tanks, fill them, put the chemicals in but don't put the fish back in until the temp is perfect. You probably know all this LOL

We do that every 2-3 weeks sometimes longer.

Question - We have angel fish and neons aswell.. do your angels ever eat the neons ? Our neons seem to disappear on the odd occasion :rolleyes:

[Mrs Potts]

We've had snails too, and our aquarium (fish shop) advised the best way is plucking them out by hand. Might take some time, but you will get them all. This is what we did, and also what our neighbours did. That was a while ago and we haven't had anymore snails since.

KarniF001 - angels are notorious for eating anything! Not always, but often. It depends on the fish. But if you have angels, and you have fish missing you can bet the angels are the culprits. That's why I won't have them - just to be on the safe side.

[subaruforestermum]

You shouldn't have too many hassels if you do change over the water.. just use water from the tank and put it in a bucket and scoop the fish out. Even put the heater rods in there if you can. Wash the tanks, fill them, put the chemicals in but don't put the fish back in until the temp is perfect. You probably know all this LOL

We do that every 2-3 weeks sometimes longer.

Question - We have angel fish and neons aswell.. do your angels ever eat the neons ? Our neons seem to disappear on the odd occasion :rolleyes:

Yeah I do know it, but thanks anyway, you didnt know either way so thanks for being helpful.....

As for the Angels question...LMAO (sorry just an instant reaction, as have had the same problem, only was different fish eating the neons.)......yes they do eat them, angels are a very teritorial fish, and tend to feed on smaller fish, or fish with big fins etc.......I had a dwarf Gourami in with them as have read they are suitable to be in the same tank, and the angels attacked it, killed it then ate it........but left the other one alone...... If you dont have something in there already, you should put something in the tank for the neons to hide in.......

Goodluck

[KarniF00l]

KarniF001 - angels are notorious for eating anything! Not always, but often. It depends on the fish. But if you have angels, and you have fish missing you can bet the angels are the culprits. That's why I won't have them - just to be on the safe side.

Thanks. I knew that the angels are very territorial so we went down to the aquarium shop and the lady said that if you give the angels blood worms (which we had been doing from the start) they shouldn't eat the neons. Ermm... i think she was trying to sell us more blood worms :rolleyes: We're just waiting for the rest of the neons to 'disappear' and then just have the two angels and nothing else.

[Katie79]

We have also had the snail problem.It started from some weed we bought.
We are now very careful where we buy it from and leave it if it has snails.

I am surprised that your Angels dont eat them.
I think i was told that Gourmis eat the little snails.
We didnt try it though,so really i havent been much help! Sorry...

I hope you can fix the problem.The are a huge pain in the butt..:thumbsdown: