Help? Help? Help?

[jifr]

Hello all!

I am new to the forum and am in desperate need of advise, suggestions and/or help!

I have a 75 gallon freshwater tank I love and it is being over run with nuisance snails. (I inadvertently brought one - just one - measly snail home in a batch of live plants for my crown tail betta before I set this tank up. After the Betta died - I moved the ONE snail into the big tank. LITTLE did I know that it would multiply a GAZILLION times all by itself! Grrrr!)

I've noticed a WHITE FUZZ all over my tank since the last water change (last sunday about 20%). I'e seen the fuzz before but it's usually not all over the place. Last time I noticed it, I vacuumed the tank and then scooped a bunch of gravel out.

Now, it's on EVERYTHING and everywhere. Egads!!!

Is this from the snails?

Any suggestions??

I'm seriously considering taking the complete tank down, getting rid of the gravel and starting fresh. Uuugh. I really don't want to have to do that but I don't know what else to do.

Help?


Thankies!

~jifr

[Abbeys_Mom]

Are you sure it's white? It could be brown algae. See this thread..
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=2327&highlight=brown+algae

[kimmers318]

There are many different ways to rid yourself of snails, chemicals, snail eaters, baiting and removing. With chemicals that claim to rid your tank of snails I have heard of little true success and I have to wonder what those chemicals may do to your tank. Snail eaters work great....although when you run out of snails you have to feed them something else. If you care to set up another tank with snail eaters then you will have a constant supply to pull from your 75 gal to feed the smaller tank. (This is what I do for my dwarfpuffers) Baiting and removing can take time, but will keep your numbers in check.
Before you try anything too drastic though make sure you are not overfeeding. Snails don't run to the surface to be fed, they have to rely on leftovers. If there aren't enough leftovers to keep them fed and healthy they cannot breed and will slowly disappear with maybe only a few being able to hang around.
The easiest and least drastic tactic to try first in my opinion is the bait and remove. Simply weigh a piece of cucumber, zucchini, or lettuce down so it sits on the bottom of the tank. If your fish also like the veg treat try to place it into a container only the snails can get into. By the next morning you will probably see loads of snails eating the veg and you just pick the veg up and remove it from your tank. I have even used shrimp pellets and algae wafers in small terra cotta pots, then I just pick the pot up. I usually catch over 30 in one night stuck on, in and around the pot or veg piece to drop into my puffer tank.
One suggestion of what is supposed to be a good snail eater, and good community fish is the botia striata or striped loach. If you can add a group of these you would probably find them quite interesting also.

[jeffs99dime]

here's a good site on snails and remedies-- http://www.applesnail.net/content/snails_various.php

[Neithan]

I just have to advertise the "shrimp" I added to my bigger tank. It's a Machrobrachium species, not quite sure which one though. The largest specimen I've spotted in the tank was roughly 10 cm / 4 inches long, so they grow quite big. There are obviously smaller ones around, but as I have yet to determine the exact species of this one, I have no idea how big it will get..

Anyway, to the point of my rambling. The tank was absolutely infested with snails, mainly Gyraulus sp. and either Physa fontinalis or Lymnaea peregra, all of which ate my plants to shreds. After introducing the above mentioned shrimp, it took a month or so and all but the Malaysian trumpet snails (Melanoides tuberculata), which I use for aerating the sand substrate, were gone.

You can find more info about it here (granted I don't know if it's this exact species I have, but it looks a lot like it): http://www.petshrimp.com/redclawmacro.html

[jifr]

Thank you for your feedback!

This is definitely a WHITE fuzz. I think it might be snail eggs or ort or something.

When I had the time - I used to stand at the tank and fish out all the snails I could see with a net. VERY time consuming and not really effective.

I already have a clown loach and I had 1 goldfish in there - but had to take the goldfish out and put him in the smaller tank because the tiger barbs starting eating his gorgeous tail. Grrr on them.

Anyway, I really like the baiting idea. I'll give that a try and let all know how it goes.

Thank you again for your suggestions!

Jifr.

[kimmers318]

Unfortunately for you it sounds like your clown loach doesn't like snails. Although listed as snail eaters I have only had 2 that ever actually ate them. Good luck with the baiting....if nothing else it is a way to keep the numbers down...that along with removing any snail egg sacks and not over feeding should keep them at an acceptable level. As long as you don't have juveniles in there who need to be fed more often, when you start the baiting you might want to go a few days without feeding which will increase the chances the snails will want the vegs and hopefully head towards less reproduction.