Suggestions on snail control?

[OhMyGoshman]

Well, it happened, after researching snails for my 30 gal to buy one that WOULDN'T breed, today I woke up to find that my 10 gal is home to some snails that hitchhiked on one of my plants. Does anyone have any suggestions on a fish/invert that would eat the snails that would fit into my 10 gal and not bug my platy? I really don't want to be picking snails out of my tank for the rest of my life.

[korith]

Assassin snails (anaetome helena) will slowly pick off all the pest snails and eat them. The more easy alternative is to start putting a piece of lettuce or something in the middle of the tank overnight, in the morning it should be covered in snails, take it out, and repeat this for a week or so. That should get most of them, some will stay but it does keep the population in check.

What fish do you have in the tank currently?

[Northernguy]

Assassin snails will definitly take care of pest snails.They also eat pet snails! They will chow down on apple and nerite snails too.
They have a nice shell. I don't know how fast they breed though.

Lettuce works,use a net scoop it out or the snails will be flying off before you get it out of the water.

[korith]

Assassin snails will definitly take care of pest snails.They also eat pet snails! They will chow down on apple and nerite snails too.
They have a nice shell. I don't know how fast they breed though.

Lettuce works,use a net scoop it out or the snails will be flying off before you get it out of the water.

Assassins don't breed unless they can feed often on other snails. So easy to keep their population in check. I've been trying to get them to breed quicker but mass feeding pest snails to them. Sadly I've even resorted to a 10g with just pest snails in it and mass producing them for food for the assassins hehe.

[OhMyGoshman]

Assassin snails (anaetome helena) will slowly pick off all the pest snails and eat them. The more easy alternative is to start putting a piece of lettuce or something in the middle of the tank overnight, in the morning it should be covered in snails, take it out, and repeat this for a week or so. That should get most of them, some will stay but it does keep the population in check.

What fish do you have in the tank currently?

The only thing currently in the tank are 3 Platy, and those could easily be moved to my 30g to put something else in the 10g

[korith]

Borrow a dwarf puffer maybe and let it lose for a few days?:p

[OhMyGoshman]

Borrow a dwarf puffer maybe and let it lose for a few days?:p

Someone actually recommended I just move the platy and get dwarf puffers, those guys seem pretty cool, might have to do that.

[Sarkazmo]

Just be aware that puffers can be REALLY nasty little guys. They're very neat but they will eat just about anything and it's not nice. They tend to take fish apart a bite at a time. I don't know about Dwarf Puffers specifically but that's pretty much most puffers. Puffers need to be kept in a species aquarium. I'm not sure if they require brackish, someone who knows more about them than myself will have to answer that.

Badis Badis and is fairly well behaved and is a snail eater. You can use/make snail traps. Assassin Snails as mentioned above will pretty much clean out the tank of other snails over a little time. Once they run out of food they'll eat detritus. They also don't over populate.

Sark

[annageckos]

Don't over feed and you shouldn't have any problems with the snails. They will only reproduce to what the food supply can support. If you do start to see a bunch, cut back feeding.

[Arrynyo2008]

im glad i found this thread because im having the same issues with my tank and snails as well. ill try the lettuce tonight and see what happens....any idea as to what kind of lettuce i should use?

[korith]

im glad i found this thread because im having the same issues with my tank and snails as well. ill try the lettuce tonight and see what happens....any idea as to what kind of lettuce i should use?

I just said lettuce since you can lay it down flat and more room for the snails to sit on it. Any type of green veggie will work. Just wash it first to make sure there isn't any salad dressing or oil on it. When you pick it up to take it out, you may want to slide a fish net underneath it, in case any snails fall off it. Also alternatively you could crush the snails and leave them in the tank, some fish will eat it.

[Lady Hobbs]

I started baiting mine again last night with cucumber slices held down with a fork. I must have pulled out 50 snails this morning and the baiting will continue for a week. (again)

[Irish2539]

Assassin snails will definitly take care of pest snails.They also eat pet snails! They will chow down on apple and nerite snails too.
They have a nice shell. I don't know how fast they breed though.

I keep my assasin snails with nerite and apple snails, No problems... I started off with two assasin snails within a year i had 30,, they just need a constant supply of MTS.

[Arrynyo2008]

yea i dropped a piece of fresh cleaned lettuce in there now i just wait.....these little buggers are very good at poppin babies....anybody know where i can get some info on these guys? im trying to figure out what kind they are and i can post pics if needed