Kuhlis?

[Demi ^_^]

I have a 85L/22g long tank, that is FULL to the brim with Malaysion Trumpet Snails.

Would a few Kuhlis do the trick? Or atleast eat the little ones?

I have no fish in there ATM
<sighs> Yes I am still going off my rocket about these snails :11:

[korith]

I have no fish in there ATM
<sighs> Yes I am still going off my rocket about these snails :11:


No idea on kuhlis, but I share your pain. I bought plants a few months ago, made the mistake of not washing/cleaning them properly and they brought a bunch of snails into the tank. Seems like an endless task of removing them from the tank. I'm on vacation now and won't be able to clean the tank till end of 3 weeks, I'm dreading it. The tank is gonna need a massive snail cleaning, those little buggers breed so quickly. Thinking about getting some assassin snails from sounguru once the weather warms up a bit.

[NickFish]

They should help a little, but they certainly won't take care of all of them.

Just squishing every one you see, everytime you walk by the tank seems to be the best remedy, and one that is consistantly proven to be effective :)

[Demi ^_^]

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^^^

A few I hand-picked from the tank today.... Not even the tiniest dent in the population obviously LOL

I am thinking 5 Kuhlis would be a good thing, is a 22g long ok for that? Its a nice long tank and the Kuhlis would have heaps of room!

[cer]

Yep that would work. If you want get some young clowns and when they get bigger put them in a bigger tank. They will eat every last one of them!

[mac]

Hi,

IMO I would not stick the Loaches in your 22 gallon tank, with the other fish you are planning to stock in it.

Unless you drop the Corys.

What I would do is just place lettus in the tank wait till the piece of lettus is full of snails then remove it.

Other wise I would smash any snails you see on the glass. That after some time will help kill the sails of.

mac

[Demi ^_^]

@ Mac, I have tried cucumber and lettuce - I only get about 2-4 MTS every time and that takes awhile. I may just not get the Corys and get the Kuhlis - I have a couple in my 42g/160L and I adore them very much.

I'll have to get my nose in some fish books and hunt the net low n high to find some more ideas and information ;) I thought of Kuhlis because I have read several websites that say, Kuhlis eat the baby ones, which will cut the population in half.

Everyday, me and my mum are picking them out of the tank - but theirs no dent in the population from it.

[korith]

Could you put the corys or kuhlis in the snail infested tank temporarily to deal with the snail problem then remove them afterwards?

[Demi ^_^]

I don't want any temporary fish - the Sharks in the 42g were temporary fish, what happened? Now dad doesn't want to take them back until they6 get even more bigger! <sobs> its too hard to have temporary fish in my family - someone starts to love them and doesn't want to let them go!

[wolf_eyes]

I'm not sure what it will do with trumpets, but I had a few pond snails in my tank. I took a gravel vac to em and the suction was so strong that it sucked them out of their shells. Mine had a small guard on it so that the gravel doesn't go through the tubing.

[Demi ^_^]

My LFS has suggested bleaching the whole tank - is this bad? I don't really want to do it..

[korith]

My LFS has suggested bleaching the whole tank - is this bad? I don't really want to do it..

You would have to remove your fish from the tank, and plants. Would kill the bacteria in your tank too I think. Not really any different than taking your tank completely apart and cleaning it with bleach.

Have you tried one of those products like Snail away? The only consequence of that would be you wouldn't be able to have any inverts in the tank afterward.

[mac]

My LFS has suggested bleaching the whole tank - is this bad? I don't really want to do it..

IMO I would not bleach the tank. I would vacuum them out like Wolf has suggested. I have done that as well and it works okay. Providing you have a nice diameter hose and a something to stop the sand or gravel from being sucked up.

Just a thought I know that a lot of people have had great success using Dwarf Checker Board Loaches. They are quite expensive but they are great.

mac

[Adrian]

Demi, do you have other inverts, ie shrimp, clams? Is it a planted tank? If the answer is no to both those questions, use a product called copper safe. It will get rid of every single snail in the tank.

[mac]

Hi,
IMO and IME I would just remove the snails with either vacuum or fish. Either way may take some time, but both work with out hurting the environment of the fish tank.

mac

[shinio]

Hi!

Personally, I think bleaching would be the last resort to your snail problem. So, if possible, avoid doing so. Cleaning a bleached tank would be quite a task and it will definitely put you at a disadvantage for your tank competition. I don't think you'd want that. :hmm3grin2orange:

I've read about this method that would work rather well with snails, though it was actually meant to help those who are facing an uncontrollable snail population in a tank with fish. This method is rather similar to using lettuce or zucchini; it uses a bait too.

Get a plastic bottle of any kind that can be easily cut. A soda bottle would do fine since it's cheap and yet very convenient to cut. Cut the soda bottle in any proportions; the main things that you want is the closed, wider end and the narrower top (with the cap opening). If you think that your tank has a lot of snails, you can leave the middle region intact. However, I think removing the middle region of the bottle,which is whereby most of the drink labels are pasted at, would be better since the snails will mostly be found at the bottom, so having so much height won't help much. So, just invert the top part and stick it into the end. You should have a set-up looking like a funnel in a container. If you like, secure the two parts together. For this, I would punch holes along the sides that are touching, and thread a string through it and tie a dead knot; beats using silicon and permanently sealing it, you can use the top as a funnel for other fishy purposes. Once done, you just need to throw in fish food into the set-up and place it into your substrate. For better results, use sinking pellets or make the fish food sink first before inserting the set-up into the substrate. Just lightly place the set-up in; you want to leave some space for the snails to dig under the set-up and enter it. Leave the set-up there for an hour or so, longer if the snails are not as responsive, before taking it out and removing all the snails in there, afterwhich, reuse the fish food (if there's any left) and repeat. After a few days, you should be snail-free.

Oh, another advice: try to cover your tank in a dark material and just leave a small window for you to observe the set-up. MTS (Malaysian Trumpet Snail) are nocturnal and if in a dark environment, will be more active, so you might be done in an even shorter time if you provide them with a dark environment. Just another tip, make sure your window isn't directly in front of your set-up -- the light pouring in might deter the MTS from entering your set-up. You may also want to make a few more smaller versions (use the 500ml bottles) and lure more MTS with each "round".

Don't use any chemicals that might/will kill the snails. It might cause a ammonia spike with such a huge population and throw your tank into a recycle. Even if it doesn't, you'll still have to remove the dead snails and their shells which would mean having to comb through the whole substrate.

Hopefully, this snail thing would be over soon. I would keep those snails if I was you; I've been trying to get MTS to aerate the substrate that's under my plants.

Hear from you soon,
shinio :ezpi_wink1:

[cer]

Oh wait yes a school of 6-8 kuhlis would get rid of the snails. Also when they are gone they are great fish!