Trumpet Snails

**~Col~** · 05-27-2012, 06:12 AM

Hi Everyone

I just read Lady Hobbs' current thread about her trumpet snail problem and wanted to ask basically the same question from a different angle.

I have a yoyo in the tank (it was one of a school that killed all it's mates). It DOES NOT eat the trumpet snails. Assassin snails are illegal in Australia so I can't get one of those...

I did a huge water change this week on this tank, thorough gravel siphon and also gave the filter a bit of a clean. I washed hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of trumpet snails down the sink when I rinsed the filter.

Just now I was walking past the tank and the glass is covered and the gravel looks like its moving....IT'S ALIVE!!

Not the best photos but you get the idea...excuse the blue clown puke...

So I'm guessing I only have two options.

1 - strip down the tank, soak everything in condies crystals (Potassium Permanganate) and re set up the tank.

Pros: snails gone
Cons: recycling the tank with fish in it (nowhere else to put them, would have to soak the filter as well)
It's a Fluval U4 which uses cartridges so I can't exactly steal media from another tank to put in there to cycle it I guess...

2 - buy a commercially sold snail killer for fish tanks & ponds. I saw some at the LFS the other day but didn't really take much notice of it.

Pros: ???
Cons: do these even work??

I feed once a day and the fish scoff it down in less than a minute. I can't even work out where they came from. There was nothing new added to the tank, no food laying around and it had been running for a good 6 months before they appeared in the 100's.

What are my other options??

**f1shg33kz** · 05-27-2012, 06:22 AM

Do you have any other inverts in the tank? If not, coppersafe would probably kill them off.

Are you over feeding? Over feeding helps maintain a large population of snails. If there isn't enough food for all of them to eat, the population will go down. Personally I like MTS :)

**~Col~** · 05-27-2012, 06:57 AM

No other inverts. Just the angels, yoyo and corys.

Definitely not overfeeding. That's why I can't work out why they are multiplying. It doesn't make sense!!

I don't mind having a few snails here and there but the tank is basically overrun by them and it's driving me nuts!!

**~Col~** · 05-27-2012, 07:20 AM

Just thought I'd add...

I've just tried making my own version of the Sera Snail trap. I used a small Tupperware container, punched holes in the lid, varying sizes, put a rock in the bottom to hold it down and then put in some shrimp pellets and algae wafers.

I made sure the holes were too small for any of the fish to try to swim into.

We'll see if it works.

**Lady Hobbs** · 05-27-2012, 07:41 AM

I tore a tank down a couple years ago and soaked the gravel in HOT water. That killed the snails well enough. I then put the substrate thru a collandar to remove as many dead snails as I could. Hundreds of dead snails left in the tank will give you an ammonia spike. With you having gravel, that won't work for you, tho. I have plant substrate that is smaller.

I have also thought of trying the Had-a-Snail but haven't gotten that desperate yet. I'm disappointed to hear the yoyo aren't eating them but I wonder if they just aren't eating them due to how many you have?

I drop in an algae pellet and within minutes all the snails find their way to it and I suck them up with the gravel vac. Funny thing, you don't see any for several days and then here they come to have hundreds more on the side of the tank. I hate them!

But you can work your tail off to get rid of them and all it takes in a couple in the filter and there you go again.

**~Col~** · 05-27-2012, 07:49 AM

Originally Posted by Lady Hobbs

I'm disappointed to hear the yoyo aren't eating them but I wonder if they just aren't eating them due to how many you have?

That's quite possible LH's. I did try to add some more yoyo's again, but this one is so aggressive that it just kills them off. It doesn't bother the corys though.

My little box seems to be attracting some. Fingers crossed it helps!!

**Lady Hobbs** · 05-27-2012, 07:49 AM

Holy Smoley........now I see them in your photo and don't know how I missed them first time. Man. You have a worse problem than I do. My big ones are about gone, it's the tiny babies I keep killing.

I believe if I was you I'd suck that gravel out of there and replace it with new. 1 yoyo can not keep up with that herd. LOL

**~Col~** · 05-27-2012, 08:25 AM

What gets me is that there have been none visible at all since I did the clean and water change on Wednesday. And now today... it's an invasion!!

There are a few in the trap now. Will see how many I have caught by the morning. If it's not working I'm going to have to strip down the tank.

I just really don't want to put my fish through the stress of a cycle. :( And I have no idea how to get them out of the gravel...can't really afford to buy a whole new lot. Will have to think about my options there.